3RD AVE.EL in the Bronx , Movie footage

My station was 183rd and Third Ave. (the remaining remnant from 149th Street to Gun Hill Road) I rode that line countless times and loved to stand in the front car looking down the tracks. It's more than nostalgia. Our society is quick to tear down and reconstruct.There were, of course, many who opposed removing elevated lines, especially on the subway-poor East Side. According to a blog post from CUNY’s Gotham Center for New York City History, “skeptics questioned the wisdom of summarily displacing the 25,000,000 the Third Avenue El had carried in 1954. Some lawmakers tried to ensure that El service would not be eliminated until construction of the promised new subway began.” We lose our history this way. Cities like Chicago and Philadelphia still have their elevated lines. NYC destroyed ours. The dual contract connections at least saved the remaining elevated structures even though they are not considered true elevateds standing alone.

I dig man. NYC history, especially NYC Transit history, is very important, especially for a native New Yorker like myself. But if you think about it, my motive is not necessarily "nostalgic" when it comes to the Third Avenue El. The El did serve its purpose and it was faster than your Bx55 bus, or any bus for that matter. Back in the early 70s there were groups trying to save the El but the case of urban blight was made (in reality it was property values), which was the real motive...

183rd Street was my station stop on the Third Ave el. I lived on 184th Street between Park and Washington Avenues. (1947 - 1961). The el was torn down in 1973. My old neighborhood brought back to life in this Roger Arcara video. I forwarded this to some of my relatives and friends. Great memories.

Amazing how they replaced clean electric trains with diesel busses.

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!

As I watched Roger Arcara's attempt at video documentary, I was whisked back to my Bronx of the 1950s and early 1960's...it was a great time...Jewish Delicatessens on every corner, 2 for $.25 cent hamburgers on Webster Avenue and of course Lorry's burgers at 152nd Street and Third Avenue across from Hearns Department Store at the end of a shopping Saturday at the "Hub" (meaning 149th Street and Third Avenue) before we moved to Queens and all of its suburban placidity...thanks for the memories!...

So well done! I rode the 3rd Ave El as a kid back from 1969-72. I remember seeing the "Low-V" cars on the line then sometime in 1970 or 71 the R12 cars replaced the Low Vs and I think it was the exact cars shown on this vid in the blue and gray paint scheme. Seems now that if had remained, this would have been a well patronized line today. The last time I visited the Bronx, 3rd Ave was pretty busy, especially near 149th Street.

The Bronx needs 2 subway lines... They need the 2nd Ave. project from Manhattan to go all the way back along this route.  Also the #3 needs to be extended from Harlem up to Highbridge and University Heights.

Excellent and very informative . What a shame they disbanded it. I remember as a kid with my Mother and Grandmother transferring from the Hub at 149 and 3rd going to 183 and Arthur av.They should have let it stand. It would have still been used.

I remember that the underground "Enclosed Passageway" free transfer at 149th Street was a very small tunnel with a very low roof. I remember my friend who was 6'2'' tall had be careful not to hit his head on the low ceiling!

i went to school from manhattan to the bronx from 1968-1971. i would catch the third ave el at 149th street station from riding the number five train.

than you for preserving this rich history of the 3rd ave el

Thank U very much for this important part of NYC history. I remember riding that line with my Mother and Grandmother getting off and on 183 st walking to Belmont av. .

Thank you for this video. I was too young to remember ever riding the El before its demolition...but wish I had if I didn't.

The 9th Ave El was indeed the first. It started as the Westside & Yonkers Patent Railway which was built and tested in the late 1860's I believe. Pulled by a cable, then steam powered, then electric powered.

...for tearing it down. The El had not issues with ridership, it had a solid one. NYC Transit was not losing money at all, they never do, the government wanted to push gentrification motives which date back to Rockefeller and his gang who wanted to take away NYC from the average small businessman and worker to yield the right of way to rich people. That is what is defunct about the system.

This is so informative! Nearby where I grew up there’s an abandoned El station— “Sedgwick Avenue”. It was apart of the 9th Avenue El. Such a shame when the highways came to The Bronx, down came our buildings & train lines.

Thanks for the video, it's was great,,!!!history is awesome" ,,,

My station was 174th and 3rd Avenue. This film goes from Tremont Avenue (177th Street) to 169th St missing the 174th Street station and Claremont Parkway station.

My grandmother's apt is (was) eye level with the station platform @ 169st. She and my uncles told me stories about the riding the El and how they started tearing it down in sections in 1973. My pops said it was called the "8" train in the latter days. I got here in 1980 so its all before my time but I can still visualize the sights and sounds of that old relic but change is inevitable and the era of the original Old "El's" official died when this last hold out was torn down. The last survivor...