Operation In 1875, the Rapid Transit Commission granted the
New York Elevated Railway Company the right to construct the railway from
Battery Park to the
Harlem River along the
Bowery and
Third Avenue. At that time the company already operated the
Ninth Avenue Elevated, which it acquired in 1871 after the bankruptcy of the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway. The Third Avenue El opened in 1878, running from
South Ferry to
129th Street. The Manhattan Railway assumed operations of the Suburban in 1891 as an extension of the Third Avenue Line, and through service between the Bronx and Manhattan began in 1896. A 999-year lease of the Manhattan Railway was brokered by the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company in 1902, for which rapid transit services in the Bronx, of which the Third Avenue Line was a part, would eventually be coordinated alongside
the new subway. Around this time, the line was
electrified. The center track of the Bronx portion opened on January 17, 1916; in Manhattan it was opened on July 9, 1917. In addition, weekday peak service north of
Gun Hill Road was eliminated, as were weekday locals to 129th Street. On March 14, 1952, service south of 149th Street was reduced to weekday daytime only, with Gun Hill Road to 149th Street locals at other times. On May 29, 1952, weekday midday local-expresses were eliminated. On June 26, 1952, thru-expresses were cut back to Gun Hill Road. On November 21, 1952, morning rush hour locals were cut back from Chatham Square to Canal Street, and PM rush hour locals were cut back from Fordham Road to 125th Street. However, this resulted in severe overcrowding, so local service to Fordham Road in the PM peak direction was resumed on December 3, 1952. On December 31, 1953, the Chatham Square to City Hall portion of the line was closed. Service then consisted of local trains from Tremont Avenue or 129th Street and Canal Street in the weekday morning peak, Gun Hill Road and Chatham Square midday, and Chatham Square and 129th Street or Tremont Avenue in the PM peak. Local-expresses and thru-expresses operated between Gun Hill Road and Chatham Square southbound in the AM and northbound in the PM peak hours. Evening, all-night, and weekend service was Gun Hill Road to 149th Street locals. When the El was closed in Manhattan in 1955, the East Side was left with the overcrowded
IRT Lexington Avenue Line as the only subway east of
Fifth Avenue.
Closures In the 1930s and 1940s, as part of the integration of the different subway companies in New York City—the IRT along with
Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit (BMT) and
Independent Subway System (IND)—the Third Avenue elevated and its counterparts on
Second,
Sixth, and
Ninth Avenues came under criticism from New York mayor
Fiorello La Guardia and his successors. The elevateds were regarded as blights on their communities and obsolete, since the subways were being built or were planned to replace them. The
IND Sixth Avenue Line and the
IND Eighth Avenue Line rendered the Sixth and Ninth Avenue elevateds obsolete, except for a small shuttle that served the
Polo Grounds on the Ninth Avenue Line. They were closed by 1940 and demolished by 1941. The Second Avenue elevated was also gradually demolished from 1940 to 1942. When the Second Avenue elevated was closed on June 13, 1942, the weekday and Saturday Chatham Square to Freeman Street via the West Farms line service was rerouted via the Third Avenue Line, running express south of 129th Street. The Third Avenue elevated was kept open because it was intended to stay in use until the
Second Avenue Subway was built to replace it. Pressure against the elevated from real estate interests soon began, with the creation in 1941 of the Third Avenue Elevated Noise Abatement Committee, which consisted of what
The New York Times described as "men in the real estate business." The committee initially sought a decrease in train service, saying the noise from the elevated "constitutes a menace to health, comfort and peaceable home life." The system was closed in sections from 1950 to 1973. First, the
South Ferry spur, which connected South Ferry to
Chatham Square, was closed on December 22, 1950. This permanently closed the South Ferry elevated station, which had previously served all four IRT elevated lines that originally ran in Manhattan. The Bronx Park terminal station was closed on November 14, 1951, with morning peak and midday locals thenceforth running to Gun Hill Road, and afternoon peak locals running to
Fordham Road. Morning peak local-express trains started at Fordham Road, while PM peak local-express trains were extended to Gun Hill Road. Next to close was the
City Hall spur in 1953, which started at
Park Row in Manhattan and then connected with the South Ferry spur at Chatham Square. The removal was a catalyst in a wave of new construction, adding
property values on the East Side, while bringing increased isolation and hastened decline throughout much of the Bronx. The head of the
Real Estate Board of New York suggested that Third Avenue be renamed "
the Bouwerie" to symbolize the transformation. In 1967, the remaining service in the Bronx was formally given the
8 route designation. However, the 8 bullet was only marked on maps and station signs; cars always displayed SHUTTLE and the terminal destination. Under the MTA's 1968
Program for Action, plans were made for demolition of the remaining line as part of the city's effort to remove "obsolete elevated railway structures", which also saw the razing of portions of the
BMT Jamaica elevated in
Queens. It was to be replaced with a parallel line along the
Metro-North Harlem Line's right-of-way, part of the
Second Avenue Subway plan. Local residents and business owners also sought similar revival seen following the closure of the line's sections in Manhattan. However, the line was cancelled after the defeat of a $2.5-billion transportation bond issue in November 1971. The remaining portion in the Bronx from East 149th Street to Gun Hill Road finally closed on April 29, 1973 and demolition started on March 9, 1977. Demolition was completed by the end of 1977, along with the condemned portion of the Jamaica Line. Work on the planned
Second Avenue Subway was suspended, due to the
1970s fiscal crisis. In the Bronx, the Third Avenue el was replaced by the Bx55 bus, making only the stops the train made. This bus route was one of the first to have free transfers to and from the subway, with the three transfer points at the
Third Avenue–149th Street and Gun Hill Road
IRT White Plains Road Line stations, and the
161st Street–Yankee Stadium station. In 2013, the Bx55 was eliminated with the introduction of the
Bx41 Select Bus Service. It was partially replaced by the Bx41 SBS and the
Bx15 Limited, the latter of which it used to run to
West Harlem, Manhattan via
125th Street until service was cut back to 149th Street in The Hub due to the Bronx Bus Network Redesign on June 26th, 2022, but does not extend past Fordham Plaza to Gun Hill Road. ==Station listing==