Uncolored, silent, powerfully moving documentary which speaks volumes within each creatively composed frame about a legendary New York City infrastructure that was needlessly destroyed by a few shortsighted and selfish individuals. At least the film maker had the foresight to document it for the future generations who may one day seek to emulate it for the betterment of our society.

Uncolored, silent testimony which speaks volumes about the loss of a much needed infrastructure that was destroyed by a few short sighted and selfish individuals. At least someone had the foresight to beautifully document it for future generations to appreciate and maybe, one day, to even recreate once our society gets its priorities in order.

I wish it were still in existence. It would be much more quicker than the buses that are currently in service.

No sound

"promosm" 👉

The city should have been keeping this line until the Second Avenue Subway gets built. Or they could have kept all the els and refurbished them and converted them to skytrains* in the 1990s. * like the JFK Airtrain but better like Vancouver's Skytrain

I am from the Mott Haven section, and I remember the El and when they tore it down. The 2 and 5 trains are in my memories forever.

Thank you for not adding that artificial colour.

Considering that there is still effectively no 2nd Ave subway, they should have left the 2rd Ave elevated standing. If they wanted to diminish its visual impact they should have just removed the express track and the upper level of the express stations and returned the el to its original form. A local-only train is still better than none at all!

I was around at the time, a little kid living 30 miles east in Plainview. My dad occasionally took me in to his business in the Bronx, but I never remember going in to Manhattan.

Twenty years later in 1975 white flight exited South Bronx and area turn inti war zone slum 1970's.

Perhaps America lost its way after it ripped out and removed all public transit infrastructure from its cities....in favour of 8 Lane Highways through them. Forcing people to drive. Just my observation. You could maybe like the rise in obesity levels with this, and the subsequent switch to cars....followed then by the total dependence on them to go anywhere. Even if it's just a couple of blocks. When public transit went, many also lost the ability to walk. Taking the car for a five minute journey, when they could easily walk it.

Great memories, my dad would always let me go to the front car so I could look out the window.

Nice video, but would have liked to see more people instead of buildings and trains.

Using wife's phone tonight not her opinions I remember looking at some old home movies my grandfather had taken a long with my father of the Milwaukee Road s Hiawatha and the first ones were black and white and my kids were kind of watching and then I hear the oldest back then color wasn't invented then one of them hey dad was color invented when you were a kid I started on about film movies Wizard of Oz no dad when was color invented for people and cars trees get in the truck to the library all of you

I remember as a kid in the late 60s to the very early 70s, there were still some old trains in service: with the old wicker-like seats, the old ceiling fans and the incandescent light bulbs overhead, especially on the LL (Canarsie line).

Your heart swells nostalgically watching this reel of vintage trains that once graced and operated in NYC's subways in the 1950s. It was a decade when trains were a necessity for travel and commuting purposes in the Big Apple. Isn't it comforting that rail passengers were leaving contently after their station stops, knowing they were safe without worrying about getting robbed or unknowingly assaulted, unlike today? 8:28 The spacious exterior design of this station is majestic to behold, like admiring a 14th-century Cathedral from below. What a shame a structure, as picturesque as it appeared over 60 years ago, is obsolete. Heaven only knows if such a mechanism takes me back to 1955, I can take a delightful trip riding a camouflaged green train with its slow whirling ceiling fans and straw-sewn seats.

It's incredible to watch what changes in demographics did to NYC

Very nice. I can't understand why they ever tore it down in the first place. We can always use more mass transit here in the New York.

Where's my time machine? I need to ride it!

Would love to see this colorized.

I remember the last remaining part of the 14 st station in early 1956 while riding the Ave B bus with my mother.i was 4.

Professional quality time machine. Thank you Mr. Calvo.

LOVELY.....KEEP THEM COMING.......THANK YOU......

Timeless Masterpiece

Great Art Work Masterpiece

I was born on July 4th, 1955, in Brazil and I love the North American people !

Would be great to see someone take these films and upgrade them like the other old films with AI stabilization, color, sharpening and time correction, although, looks like that's not a problem in these films.

You know, that version of the El was only 38 years old when they tore it down, it was rebuilt around 1917. As were the elevated subways that still remain in the Bronx, Queens, upper Manhattan and Brooklyn, they're now over 100 years old. It's a shame the city didn't just refurbish the 3rd or 2nd Av El again instead of demolishing both. They were very useful lines and to lose them left the east side with just the Lexington Av IRT. Going from Lex to 1st or York was a real bear, worth taking a bus even. Going up 2nd Av you just had one or two blocks to walk.

SO...the the Forties it was mostly just subways (except for the sections in Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens.) They knew War was coming, and the underground lines would be safer in case of bombing.

Why isn't Arcero narrating this?

Chicago still retains some of the atmospheric quality provided by the elevated trains. Saying that, this footage displays a New York that was more real then the sanitized, cellophane wrapped, New York of today. Real newstands, real diners, real taverns, populated by real New Yorkers. Everything is just an overpriced contrivance or facsimile of its former self.

Take the 8 train 🎶

wow...judging by the joyfully peculiar flambuoyancies of these el stations, I feel daft supposing we north of there signified Island of Dr Seuss

Wasnt that the stop featured on " The French Connection:?

filmer(s) really enjoyed filming these scenes 🍷

To tell the truth, those stations must've looked scary at night.

An artistic masterpiece detailing the beauty of the el.

5-10-22 do these over head reels still exist ? This from a back woods N.H. hill billy .

I was born in 55 and never really saw all this for myself but I really feel I missed out, My father drove the last trolley over the 59st bridge unhooked it at the trolley depot on northern blvd ending the Trolley era in NY! Well I still live in Queens where we still have elevated lines and they are so much nicer than going below ground,much less crime as well,I also remember Shraffts We used to go there for their delicious cheese bread.

How noir. Tenements on E 57 St. Iron filigree and wooden gingerbread on chalet stations. And Third Av in deep dark dingy relief.

Wow the folks down on the streets never knew they were filmed…just living life.

Great footage. Although I believe this is not 1955. The City Hall spur closed in 1953, and this clip clearly shows a train taking that route. Also the southbound trains all seem to be terminating at Chatham Sq, which after 1950 was as far as they could go when they closed the section to South Ferry, so I think this is between 1950 and 1953

What street is that at the start of the video?

I grew up on Washington Ave and 168th street in the Bronx in the 1950s&1960s.The third ave el was one Block east. The rumbling sounds of those trains was in my blood. Used to take it up to the last stop on Gunhill Road. Used to take it down to the last stop on 149st third ave.As a child I took the El with my parents, grandparents and great grandparents.After arriving at Ellis Island in 1895 from the Danish West Indies,my paternal great grandmother and her two sisters all took their first train ride on the El from South Ferry up to 143rd st in the Bronx. To settle in with a sister of their recently deceased father.What memories. It felt so weird to walk up to third ave and not have those elevated tracks above my head.It felt so weird not to hear that rumbling sound anymore after 1973.I felt naked

Every so often, my father use to take me to my uncle who lived on E 119 St via 3 Ave "el." Wow! That was a long time ago.

The buses that had the ad..Ride the surface lines had the same red and light yellow color schemes of the 3rd Ave Railway. After the streetcar lines ended in 1947 it bought more buses that and it was still in business in the 1960s following the original streetcar lines on the East Side and Midtown Manhattan. What was its corporate name then in that decade, I don't know.

Ihr Männer nee

We need the El restored, but for NYCTA busses running on rubber tires! It would alleviate traffic congestion on 3rd Avenue!!

All I see is animal abuse and cultural appropriation. The horses are all in pain from the severe bits in their mouths and having their necks pulled into tight arches while cantering. Not to mention that riding horses in general causes uncomfortable numbing of their backs. The traditional dress of the Bedouin is being worn by presumably non-Bedouin people, literally for the show of it. Meanwhile this is happening in the US, a country with a continuing history of racism against Arab people and colonial interference in, stealing from, downright terrorizing of, and now abandonment of Middle Eastern countries with US-caused problems. Can't believe I used to think this was beautiful. It's abuse of horses and exoticization of a culture.