#331 The East Side Elevateds: Life Under the Tracks

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2020

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During the Gilded Age, New York City had one form of rapid transit -- the elevated railroad. The city's population had massively grown by the 1870s thanks to large waves of immigration from Ireland and Germany. Yet its transportation options -- mostly horse-drawn streetcars -- were slow and cumbersome. As a result, people rarely lived far from where they worked. And in the case of most working class New Yorkers, that meant staying in overcrowded neighborhoods like the Lower East Side. In the 1870s, New York hoped to alleviate the population pressure by constructing four elevated railroad lines -- along 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th Avenues -- in the hopes that people would begin inhabiting Upper Manhattan and the newly acquired portion of Westchester County known as the Annexed District (today's South Bronx). In this show, we focus on the two eastern-most lines and their effects on the city's growth. Take a ride with us -- through Lower Manhattan, the Lower East Side, Midtown Manhattan, Yorkville, East Harlem and Mott Haven! FEATURING an interview with elevated expert and tour guide Michael Morgenthal. This episode is brought to you by the Historic Districts Council. Funding for this episode is provided by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Benjamin Kallos. boweryboyshistory.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by the Historic Districts Council, the city-wide advocate for New York's historic buildings and neighborhoods.
0:08.5	For 50 years, HDC has been the only city-wide organization which works directly with individual New Yorkers and community groups to preserve and protect New York's rich architectural and historical heritage,
0:22.5	working with communities to landmark and protect significant neighborhoods and buildings, and helping already designated historic communities to understand and uphold the New York City landmarks law.
0:35.5	For more information, visit hdc.org or call 212-614-9107.
0:44.5	Funding for this episode is provided by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Benjamin Kaelos.
0:56.5	Episode 331. The East Side Elevateds. Life under the tracks.
1:03.5	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
1:05.5	Hey!
1:06.5	Support for the Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners. Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
1:17.5	Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
1:22.5	And this is Tom Myers.
1:24.5	Welcome back, Tom. It's good to hear your voice.
1:26.5	It's great to be here, Greg. Happy partial reopening.
1:30.5	Yeah, Phase One. We're in the midst of Phase One here.
1:34.5	And feels good.
1:35.5	Yes, it feels great. And as the city finally starts to open back up, we're going to do something virtually at least that we haven't been able to do in many months.
1:46.5	And that is to hop aboard a crowded train.
1:51.5	Yes. And in our case today, specifically a crowded elevated train with masks, of course.
1:58.5	Today we'll be spending a good chunk of time in the 1870s and 1880s when the city was growing and changing at record speed.
2:07.5	And New Yorkers were clamoring for a way to move about at record speed.
2:12.5	Right. And it's easy to forget today because most of these have been completely erased from the streetscape, at least in Manhattan.
2:20.5	But the elevated railroads were the city's very first form of actual rapid transportation.
	...

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