Series I. Second Avenue Line is made up of sixteen photographs (ca. 1899-1906) of the elevated line that ran from Chatham Square to 129th Street in Manhattan. The Second Avenue Line was the last of the four Manhattan elevated lines to be constructed, beginning service in 1880. An 1886 mammoth plate albumen print shows the curving tracks at the 129th Street Terminus. Two prints in the series illustrate the relationship between the tracks and buildings, one an 1899 view looking down at the tracks near 42nd Street, the other a 1905 view of the tracks over Allen Street, looking north from Division Street. The latter image is part of a set of ten photographs from 1905 that also show street life under the tracks along Division Street. A 1905 view captures an electric train at the 34th Street station, providing evidence of the system-wide conversion from steam to electricity that occurred 1901-1903. A 1906 image shows a train at the 80th Street Station, the conductor's head appearing out of a window as a man in a bowler hat (who may be William Reeves) watches from the platform.

Photographs are arranged from south to north on the train route. The number of prints in each folder is noted in parentheses.

Series II. Third Avenue Line contains twenty-nine photographs dating from 1876 to 1904. The Third Avenue Line began service in 1878 and ran from South Ferry to the Harlem River in Manhattan. An early-twentieth century copy print of a photograph from 1876 shows a view from a rooftop looking north from 96th Street before the construction of the tracks. Another copy photograph of an image from ca. 1878 shows a group of women and children on a lawn at Whitehall Street with the El behind them. Two mammoth plate albumen prints from 1882 show the City Hall Station and include the Manhattan terminus of the Brooklyn Bridge, still under construction. City Hall Station appears again in an 1884 albumen print. Different sized albumen prints from 1882 show stations at 9th Street and 23rd Street. The tracks and terminal yards at 98th-99th Streets are shown in two mammoth plate prints and one early-twentieth century copy print of a photograph from ca. 1895-1900. Two additional mammoth plate albumen prints that show Third Avenue between 26th and 27th Streets ca. 1890, have stamps and notations that suggest they were used as evidence in legal proceedings. Northern sections of the line are visible in a group of six cyanotypes from about 1898 showing views from 99th Street and the yards at 129th Street used by the Third Avenue and Second Avenue Lines. Three prints from 1900 show the tracks at Third Avenue and 76th Street. Another set of three prints, these from 1904, show improvements, mainly at ground-level, to the station at the Chatham Square, where the Third Avenue Line was linked to the Second Avenue Line. An 1878 photograph shows the original Chatham Square station and the tracks before work on the Second Avenue Line began.

Photographs are arranged from south to north on the train route. The number of prints in each folder is noted in parentheses.

Series III. Sixth Avenue Line contains 136 photographs that span the period from ca. 1876 to 1933. The Sixth Avenue Line ran from Morris Street to one terminus at 59th Street and also had a branch that turned west at 53rd Street, then headed north on Ninth Avenue to 110th Street where it curved east onto Eighth Avenue and continued north to 155th Street. The Sixth Avenue Line began service to 59th Street in 1878 with the northern section of the route opening the following year.

Images of the line below 59th Street include two 1880s mammoth plate albumen prints of the station at 34th Street, and another of the station at 42nd Street, that depict the decorative architecture of the station buildings. In contrast to the ornate stations, the dark spaces created beneath the tracks are evident in a series of three albumen prints of Sixth Avenue from 42nd Street to 43rd Street. Among the businesses visible is the studio of photographer James A. Bostick, suggesting, perhaps, that he made these images. A set of nine gelatin silver prints from 1899 documents the tracks in lower Manhattan, each one captioned with text describing problematic structural details. Two cyanotype views from 1902 show the tracks at the South Ferry Station, which by that time was the southern hub of the elevated lines. A silver gelatin print, taken by Herman Cos in 1913, shows the stairway to the 50th Street Station.

Above 59th Street, a series of mammoth-plate albumen prints document the construction of the tracks from 97th Street to 112th Street. Two of these, dated February and April 1891, show the same view under the tracks both before and after the paving of Ninth Avenue. Two gelatin silver prints from 1933 show the tracks at 63rd Street. Two early-twentieth century copy prints of photographs from ca. 1876 show early test trains on the tracks between 59th and 60th Streets. The dramatic curve at 110th Street is captured in a series of mammoth-plate albumen prints from 1879. The 100th Street station is shown in cyanotypes from 1903 as well as in a few silver gelatin prints from 1933. The construction of the yards at 155-159th Streets, used by both the Sixth Avenue Line and the Ninth Avenue Line, appears in several cyanotypes dated 1902 and 1903. A 1904 print showing cars at the yards has the notation "Cottington vs. Interborough R. T. Co." on the verso. An album from 1902-1903 holds sixty photographs which document the construction of the Inspection Building at 159th Street.

Photographs are arranged from south to north on the train route. The number of prints in each folder is noted in parentheses.

Series IV. Ninth Avenue Line contains twenty-three prints (ca. 1868 to 1905) of the first elevated railroad line in New York City. Service began in 1869 on a route from Dey Street to 29th Street and eventually the line ran from Battery Park to 59th Street. Images of tracks on Ninth Avenue above 59th Street are included in the collection in Series III, because the route of the Sixth Avenue Line included the stretch of Ninth Avenue from 53rd Street to 110th Street.

Images of the Ninth Avenue Line include a series of albumen prints from 1868-1869 showing the construction of tracks along Greenwich Street. An early-twentieth century copy print of a photograph from 1869 shows the first cable propelled passenger car at the 29th Street Station, with a horse-drawn omnibus below the tracks. The construction of the second elevated structure on Ninth Avenue, built on the West Side of the street, appears in a print from 1876, looking north from West 46th Street. A series of four prints by N. L. Coe from 1898 vividly illustrate the close proximity of the tracks to buildings at the Desbrosses Street Station. An 1891 albumen print preserves the view of the tracks at Greenwich Street and Morris Street where the Ninth Avenue Line merged with the Sixth Avenue Line. Two images from about 1905 show the tracks over Greenwich Street near Dey Street.

Photographs are arranged from south to north on the train route. The number of prints in each folder is noted in parentheses.

Series V. Bronx Lines spans the period from ca. 1883 to 1906 and contains eighteen images relating to the elevated trains in the Bronx. Elevated railroad service in the Bronx began in 1886. A set of three images documents the construction of the bridge and tracks built over the Harlem River in 1883-1884. Mammoth plate albumen prints from 1884 by J. Reid show stations and track structures of the Suburban Rapid Transit Company, the company that built the elevated railroads in the Bronx. A series of four prints from about 1906 show the tracks over Third Avenue. A 1903 print by George P. Hall & Son shows a train car elevator at the Bronx Park Yards.

Photographs are arranged from south to north on the train route. The number of prints in each folder is noted in parentheses.

Series VI. includes photographs which are mostly uncaptioned and undated. These are mainly images of railroad trains and equipment, or railway men. One print shows a twentieth-century copy photograph of a plan for an elevated railway, proposed in 1872 by Civil War General Franz Sigel. Another photograph shows several men, including William Reeves, watching as ground was broken in January of 1924 for the removal of the 42nd Street Elevated Spur. There are also a series of mounted photographs showing aerial and street views of the area around 74th Street along the East River in 1905, and several 1904 photographs of excavations in Chatham Square for the elevated railway.