It makes me marvel at what this country was able to do back then. I rather have the train running than gettin stuck in a traffic jam any day.

just the perfect song to go with the Bronx #8 line.So sad when only the pillars were left in 74.Every time the bx 12 bus goes past Fordam Rd I remember the train I rode with my Dad

Used to walk across the Bronx from Washington Heights with my Dad when he went to get his taxes done. I loved seeing the old Lo V cars running on the 8 line. Thank God the transit museum saved some of them.

I have pleasant memories of riding the 3rd Ave El with my parents back in the early 70s. I remember riding from 3rd Ave & 149th st to Gun Hill Rd and then transferring over to the #2 train. By that time the 3rd Ave El trains were composed of IRT R12 cars painted in the gray and blue scheme show here. Was saddening when the line closed in 73.

If you ever spent any time at the corner of White Plains Road and Gun Hill Road before the El was torn down you remember that super-loud screech when the El made the 90 degree turn to meet the #2 line as it's last stop. If you watch the Godfather, the shooting in the restaurant scene was filmed in a restaurant at that corner and he waits for the screech to pull the trigger. I am not sure if that was the real screech or added in post-production but it sure inspired the idea.

It was the last surviving EL after 1955 when it was discontinued south of 149th street into Manhattan. It was the only living elevated at that time until service was discontinued on April 29, 1973. There were four Elevated lines in Manhattan, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 9th Avenue Lines.

I hate it when people only consider Manhattan to be NYC. There are 4 other boroughs that are just as much a part of NYC if not more.

What a great song. All their recordings sound great. They used the greatest studio musicians in the world.

OMG how magical a place NY was........, like a movie with its melancholy grandiose scenery and down-to-earth residents and artists -- before being destroyed with all the wonderful streets/buildings vanished, and being turned into a corporate hellhole full of snobby bougey unfriendly uncreative business types, with no night-life anymore......

I remember when I was really young, we were on Webster Ave and they were tearing down the El. Wish I would have had a chance to ride it.

It was the last Living El in Manhattan, of all the original Manhattan lines built in the late 1870s.

Meanwhile this video tribute is beautiful to the Third Avenue I really as a viewer appreciate it. 👋👋👋👋👋👋

I wouldn't necessarily call it the only living El - the Broadway El (1), Jerome Av El (4), White Plains Rd El (2/5) and Pelham El (6) still exist. The 1 train is also the only line that has elevated stations in Manhattan.

My college, Cooper Union, is at 3:33, when the Third Ave el still ran by it. The picture is probably around 1955 judging from the bus. I started there in 1969, too late to see it. My first girl friend, who lived in California, used to call me "the only living boy in New York". Watching this made me sad.

Just watched this video again after two years. It simply brings tears memories so memories that adds to the vibe. Thank you I saved this piece of memorabilia.

I love that song.

This portion of the old grand 3rd Avenue Line was removed because of alleged low ridership (bull), as was the original Manhattan portion. As a result patrons residing throughout the center of the Bronx are forced to cram into bus after crowded bus and endure horrendous rush hour traffic just to make it to 149 St & Third Avenue to catch the 2/5 subways down below into Manhattan. How in the hell is this called progress? I've taken that trip often enough and to BLOWS! The 149 St Third Avenue 2/5 station can barely accommodate any more pedestrian traffic during rush hours! Not to mention the severely crowded trains pulling in that simply cannot hold any more riders into Manhattan! This was a bad bad call by way of city planning. A stunt started early on by Mayor LaGuardia and the GMC conspiracy. The new 2nd Avenue subway should be amended to include service into the Bronx through this old route and provide the citizens of the middle Bronx accessible inter borough rapid transit once again!

Thank you so much its sound it views seem to bring the idea right in place.

This 8 Thrid Avenue Elevated line shouldn't never been taking down in the first place.

The 3rd & 2nd Avenue El Branches also road over the White Plains Road Line, due to the Cutoff at Bergen Avenue. The 6th & 9th Avenue El Lines also ran on what is now the 4 Train from 167th Street to Burnside Avenue & in Rush Hours up to Woodlawn. So only the branches remain, not the trunk lines.

My grandmother lived on Parkside Place, just south of Gun Hill Road. We could look down on to the ell from her porch, and it is one of my favorite memories of her house.

They should never have torn down the 3rd-Avenue El until they had replaced it with a subway. Even today, east-side subway service in Manhattan is substandard because the 2nd-Avenue subway was never completed. The buses running on 3rd in the Bronx are a poor substitute.

I road the Third Avenue El ack in 40s ad 50s when they still heated the waiting rooms with coal stoves.

Just remember, the IRT 4 from 167th north used to be part of 9th Av El extension. Same with IRT 2/5 north of 149th St to 180th is extension of 2nd Av El, IRT 2 north of Gun Hill Road still an active track that once had 3rd Av El service until the 50s, and the Corona IRT 7 train east of Queensboro Plaza also part of 2nd Av El. Looking at these lines today you get some idea of what the Els in Manhattan would've looked like had they been upgraded and maintained. It would've been far cheaper to refurbish the els than building more subways, especially now with all the damn flooding. A new elevated system is inevitable in NYC.

very nice montage

Never had the chance to ride on this historical elevated line! Have been under it @ Claremont Pkwy/3rd Ave, watching Lo-V trains groan & rose past overhead. Must've been summer 1961,guessing. Great video!

There are still numerous elevated lines in NYC in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

I just subscribed....you have great taste, including in music. Thanks for this!!!!!

I remember the 3rd Ave El. Why did they knock it down? I love the El lines. Thank God we still have plenty of El lines in NYC, unlike other cities where they knocked most of them down.

Memories of The Hub at 149th Street and 3rd Ave

It is very sad that they tore down this elevated line. It would have been more sensible to continue the elevated line and have it connect with the existing underground IRT subway lines. I think those parts of the Bronx around 3rd Avenue were subjected to a significant disservice when they took down this elevated line. I'm sure having an extra line would alleviate the mass traffic and give more options for people in the Bronx when commuting to and from Manhattan. This is a great montage of photos!

I use to live blocks away in the 80s and 90s...and when I was younger an old timer told me that the train use to run through 3rd ave and I never believed him because there were no remenance left. Now I see these pictures and wow ..

Lots of kids from my High School rode those trains to school every day!!! Fortunately, we all graduated the year before they tore it down!!! I remember riding one day during my senior year around 3:00 PM after school and the old train was empty. My two friends walked up to the front of train and I stayed in the back of the train. Once I was alone in the train I felted "spooked". Lol!!!!

Brooklyn and Queens still have Elevated lines.

I was once told that it is not an actual elevated unless it remains above ground for the entire line.

It was a mistake to teardown the 3rd Ave El at least the Bronx section because it left a big service gap between the D and the 5. The same with the Manhattan part. They should've kept it up and running until the Second Ave subway was built. It was a mistake to tear down the 9th Ave El in Manhattan for simular reasons.

The parts that make me sick to my eyes & stomach seeing this line being torn down. I witnessed this back then. The same structure the 2 & 5 train run at was once part of the right turn at Westchester Avenue & 150th Street Second Avenue El line split up after 149 Street 3RD Avenue. Hearns Department store was at right on the north side back then. Not knowing this I was unaware that there was a 143RD Street El station Yes there was a transfer at Alexander Avenue 138th Street to the Pelham Bay Line (6) train I only knew of The Pelham Bay lines East 143RD STREET subway tunnel station. As I type this It's 50 years when the 8 Train was stopped for service altogether. What I fell in love with was the arch structures passed Bedford Park Blvd going north. I caught something interesting with the GMC BUS in MTA blue. They were Manhattan's Culture loop and these Buses were all over the Bronx that Bus later became the Bronx 55 route that replaced the number 8. It failed & It to in later years was demised just as it's NYCTA EL colleague it replaced. Third Avenue after the el has faults it's inconvenient, inefficient, slower buses, it's too far to get from The Jerome Avenue (Woodlawn) & Grand Concourse B & D trains. It was meant to be there an El line not empty. It's now hot as hell after Gun Hill Road and the South Bronx. I wish the line was built back up. This was all MAYOR LaGuardia's doings to all the Els & trolleys. Up to the time of Mayor Abraham Beame in the mid 1970's killed the remaining structure untorn down portion of the el 8 passed 163rd Street. The Gun Hill Road section was more later built in the 1920's with the Upper level of the later 2 & 5 trains coming afterwards. This was around the time when the IND was building the highest structure in Brooklyn at CARROLL GARDENS. ( F & G trains ) Third Avenue EL deserved better. It was later adopted into the IRT & It was part of a 999 year lease, Unfortunately the IRT went bankrupt in the 1940's. All the teardowns was illegal back in the 1940's - 1970's The original last stop in the Bronx Third Avenue Line was 180th Street. The yard was & is now a CON EDISON electric yard & plant. 183RD STREET , FORDHAM ROAD , BEDFORD PARK, BLVD, WILLIAMSBRIDGE , GUN HILL ROAD, would you believe that it went to 238th Street or try 241st Street? That was the baby for the Third Avenue at the time it was extended uptown & it's long journey to SOUTH FERRY MANHATTAN on that original Charles T Harvey Structure. Shame this line & Jerome Avenue 9th Avenue was ruined & later discontinued & destroyed. I miss you Third Avenue El 8 or SHUTTLE trains. 🥺😭 Very good video.🎥👍

What wonderful memories!!

225th Street was our home station till we moved in 1978. We rode the third ave el to Fordham Rd.

I miss operating trains when I operated from 1999-2006 before promotion supervisor

New York was like five separate cities. If you lived in the Bronx, then Brooklyn was an entirely different world. Even the stock was unique. Gate cars in Brooklyn and "Q" cars on 3rd Ave. BMT had a potpourri of cars...couldn't keep up to it! Amazing and thanks for the videos....

The section of Alabama Ave station is original. It dates back to 1885. It's the oldest section of the nyc subway

Beautiful

The school building on the right at 173rd St while going north on 3rd Ave in the Bronx is mistakenly cited as PS 2. It is in fact the Annex of PS 4 which is behind the annex on Fulton Ave. The Annex originally housed grades 7 & 8 before the system was changed to include Jr. High School. Unique - I believe - was an indoor swimming pool on the first floor. After grades 7 & 8 were put together with grade 9 in Jr High schools, the 5th and 6th grade children used the pool to learn to swim. Boys and girls had separate days. Girls wore tank suits and caps while the boys swam naked (because the lint from swim trunks would stuff up the filters!!!???) I attended that school between 1949 and 1956, from Kindergarten to 6th grade.

Magnífico

actually many nyc subways turn into el trains outside of Manhattan still. the 1 train is an el at 125th street and north of 191st street, the deepest station on mta nyc transit

So im guessing you've never been to any other borrough. We still have many "El's"

The last EL train is the Woodlawn #4 train. goes through Jerome ave in the Bronx.

Watching from my grandparents 7th floor Gun Hill apartment I used to say the circus was in town.

Excellent

Nice idea....

the 7 train is an el from Flushing to Queensboro plaza.

Manda mis história desse lugar gostei

also Broadway,Jamaca line, The Myrtle ave line

is that astor place / the cooper union building at 3:36?

I was raised in Flushing, Queens and was only 7 in 1974, and so I don't remember the 3rd Ave line. Cool pics, though.

So which line is this?

Very iconic

In the video @3:47-3:48 what are the street or avenue being pictured ?

NOT A CLUE!!!! All. 4 lines to Coney Island not only run above ground for must of their run in Brooklyn, the Coney Island/Stillwell Ave where they end in Coney Island is TOTALLY above ground. The 7 train runs above ground for most of its run in Queens, the L train runs both above and underground once it leaves Manhattan. The J STARTS undergrounds and in Manhattan and ENDS underground in Queens. The Smith/9st Station, F/G is the HIGHEST above ground station in the world. A vertical lift bridge actually runs UNDERNEATH it. The A train runs above ground on a major part of it's run to the Rockaways once it leaves the Broadway Junction Station in Brooklyn where it crosses both the above ground J line with L above the J. I have never lived in the Bronx, but I can guarantee that major sections are above ground once they leave Manhattan. On more thing, my father WORKED at the NYCTA Subway Shops in Coney Island and retired in 1974. I tend to pay ALLOT more attention to problems then most people and let them know. It's better to catch a problem and deal it BEFORE it shuts down a running train.

I wonder why they tore it down?

This garbage all started when then Mayor Laguardia was a hater of early New York transportation! He didn't like the trolleys or the els in Manhattan & the City! Take note under in another photo not shown in this video Third Avenue els street level in later years no trolleys in the cobblestone streets but a Red & beige tan early transit Bus. 🤔 The scrappers 🔦 torch he (LaGuardia) held to the Sixth Avenue lines structure right near RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL! Next to the Third Avenue & Second Avenue my West side favorite was the 9th Avenue line heading to the Polo Grounds extended after 1916 & 1917 to the Jerome Avenue line. That sure didn't last! What a destructive city we have! I love all these old time pictures, films & 🎥 videos! I still can see that lower structure between 167th Street & curve to where the replacement Yankee Stadium cuts it off! Remains of the upper wooden ex trackage, lower sector & Street level girders of The Third Avenue Shuttle or Number 8 came in & out of GUN HILL ROAD Station. Those low V's & Originally the Flushing Line Worlds Fair cars were scrapped & treated very dirty is heartbreaking & sad.💔😢😭

Amo história

Very nice but would have been better if there was a longer delay in changing the photos. They changed so fast you could barely see any of the details in the photos.

Boy oh boy , the rockaways, thr culver line, thr flushing line irt in Manhattan and bronx. They all exsist today. This video need to be retitled .

Once it was popular that it in the past. Hope for the present and now is only just memories to the future. Today, right now that a dislocation data, what you see, but now it's already destroyed and gone, but however, everyone you can find some pictures and image that are on some buildings are still standing and stronger today and here and now it's 2024. To see over Before & After. And they're still standing For the past, it was built the buildings to the present data of the State's stronger and low lasting and in the future is still standing. There of still around today, very this day

I wish I could ride the 3rd ave el everytime I pass gunhill road station I just wish it wasn't taken dowb

Manda mais histórias sobre essa estação de trem

The title is mistaken. There are many elevated trains in New York. Sadness about the disappearing els is ridiculous. They darken the streets below, take up too much space and make lots and lots of noise.

That's Hackensack @ 3:58.

I remember 3rd Ave el...it had nice old trains from 1939 worlds fair!

2:23 what station is this?

Didn't King Kong take down one of the Manhattan Els in the 1933 movie?

I had no idea they were pressing the ancient, ANCIENT converted Q cars into service on that line until the very end of days. That's actually shocking. Great for fans, but truly shocking for commuters.

Gosh it would've been very useful now.

Get a bunch of still photographs of Els, a Paul Simon song and slop together a video. There are still plenty of ELs in Brooklyn.

"Holy Christ on the cross in Brooklyn..." That's a quote from The CrazyNYDriver...Joe Demarko...The Steel Industry made a fortune

Sure can use those torn down subways in NYC with all the car congestion these days.

If it was demolished, presumably it's not living anymore????

3:36

All these Els should be resurrected, including those in Manhattan. Far cheaper and quicker than constructing one block of the Second Avenue underground line.

…only living el? nope, it’s not. it wasn’t even the last stub el, that could be claimed by the Culver Shuttle which closed two years after the 3rd Ave. El. I wasn’t even the last el run as really only the G doesn’t run on an elevated line.

0:34

1:52

You forgot about allot of "El" lines man.

A shame that New York destroyed much of a perfectly good elevated rail network. But I guess it's going the same way as other US cities in terms of general attitudes towards Public Transportation. Just as cities outside America are realising and reaping the benefits of rail and good public transportation networks. Nice video of how it used to be, anyway.

.

at 2:40 Louis Restaurant of Godfather Fame

Slow down.... LoL! MetroNorth has the only 'El' in Manhattan

So was it under this El that they shot the car chase if The French Connection?

That nice gal in Burger King now that’s sad shit

congratulations selfish person posted on different pictures of the location of the Bronx that is the grandparents used to be living in the Bronx in the past present and set a future that everyone's to remember that the songs how I used to look like how used to be before and then after it's gone and believe me that every every Americans always to respect that shows up pictures videos or any other stuff that's remember that all used to be look back in the old glowing things to remember Dad how does grandpa or grandfather that passed it on the videos or pictures or any other stuff that having the songs that used to be a working in the uniform or any other pictures congratulations

Thanks for the great assembly of photos. Too bad the music sucks and doesn't match.