What is the history of the Harlem Line?

The Harlem Line opened in stages beginning in 1832, with track extending from Prince Street on the Bowery up to 14th Street. The Harlem ran at street-grade in the middle of the Bowery, the main road into town in those days. (Elevated train lines did not appear in the city until after the Civil War.)



People Also Ask

The Harlem Line was originally chartered in 1831 as the New York and Harlem Railroad (NY&H) and was leased to the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company in 1871. The line became part of the Metro-North Railroad in 1983.

MORE DETAILS

Puffing Billy is the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive, constructed in 1813–1814 by colliery viewer William Hedley, enginewright Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth for Christopher Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne, in the United Kingdom.

MORE DETAILS

A short piece of surface route of this railroad, the BMT West End Line (today's D train) on the west side of the Coney Island Complex north of the Coney Island Creek, is the oldest existing piece of rapid transit right-of-way in New York City and in the U.S., having opened on June 8, 1864.

MORE DETAILS

By 1920, central Harlem was predominantly black. By the 1930s, the black population was growing, fuelled by migration from the West Indies and the southern US. As more black people moved in, white residents left; between 1920 and 1930, 118,792 white people left the neighbourhood and 87,417 black people arrived.

MORE DETAILS

Harlem became an area that held a portion of New York City's population that was relatively well-off. While the area had a wealthy white population, it also held a small black population since a few blacks had stayed from the time of slavery. New blacks moved in with the whites as domestic servants.

MORE DETAILS

Maneuver Manhattan's train system like a local Here, Archer Hotel New York's consummate host offers timely tips on navigating the New York City subway (aka train) system like a boss. LOCAL TIP: New Yorkers typically call the subway “trains” (not underground or metro) or by their alpha name (the C or the Q).

MORE DETAILS

THE world's first metro, now the world's oldest system, is the London Underground in England, which is more commonly known as the Tube, which was opened in 1863. At 402 kilometers in length the London Underground is also the world's second longest metro system.

MORE DETAILS

The phrase actually began with railroads in the early 1900s, when the New York Central used crimson carpets to direct people boarding its luxurious 20th Century Limited, which it eventually advertised as “the most famous train in the world.” Now, the luxury train is taking off once again—and you can be on board.

MORE DETAILS