Series IV: Ninth Avenue Line

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.