13-529: The Kings County Elevated Railway Company (KCERy) was a builder and operator of elevated railway lines in Kings County, New York . Kings County is now coextensive with the borough of Brooklyn in New York City , but at the time the railway started, it consisted of several towns and the smaller independent city of Brooklyn. Its original services were operated with steam locomotives . The KCERy
26-409: Is a railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks). The railway may be broad-gauge , standard-gauge or narrow-gauge railway, light rail , monorail , or a suspension railway . Elevated railways are normally found in urban areas where there would otherwise be multiple level crossings . Usually,
39-485: Is a type of driverless grade-separated, mass-transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems that serve as loops or feeder systems, but is sometimes applied to considerably more complex automated systems. Similar to monorails, Bombardier Innovia APM technology uses only one rail to guide the vehicle along the guideway. APMs are common at airports and effective at helping passengers quickly reach their gates. Several elevated APM systems at airports including
52-750: The Docklands Light Railway is a modern elevated railway that opened in 1987 and has since expanded. The trains are driverless and automatic. Another modern elevated railway is Tokyo's driverless Yurikamome line, opened in 1995. Most monorails are elevated railways, such as the Disneyland Monorail System (1959), the Tokyo Monorail (1964), the Sydney Monorail (1988–2013), the KL Monorail ,
65-1143: The Las Vegas Monorail , the Seattle Center Monorail and the São Paulo Monorail . Most maglev railways are also elevated. During the 1890s there was some interest in suspension railways , particularly in Germany, with the Schwebebahn Dresden , (1891–) and the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (1901). H-Bahn suspension railways were built in Dortmund and Düsseldorf airport , 1975. The Memphis Suspension Railway opened in 1982. Suspension railways are usually monorail; Shonan Monorail and Chiba Urban Monorail in Japan, despite their names, are suspension railways. People mover or automated people mover (APM)
78-725: The New York City Hall . In 1896, the KCERy built a short elevated line from Franklin Avenue and Fulton Street to connect to the tracks of the Brooklyn & Brighton Beach RR south of Atlantic Avenue, permitting KCERy elevated trains access to the communities of Crown Heights , Flatbush , Midwood , Homecrest , Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island at Brighton Beach . Elevated railway An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short)
91-971: The US included the Chicago "L" , which was built by multiple competing companies beginning in 1892, as well as the Boston Elevated Railway in 1901 and the Market–Frankford Line in Philadelphia in 1907. Globally, the Berlin Stadtbahn (1882) and the Vienna Stadtbahn (1898) are also mainly elevated. The first electric elevated railway was the Liverpool Overhead Railway , which operated through Liverpool docks from 1893 until 1956. In London,
104-574: The late 1860s onward, elevated railways became popular in US cities. New York's West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway opened in 1868 as a cable-hauled elevated railway and was operated using locomotives after 1871, when it was renamed the New York Elevated Railroad. This was followed in 1875 by the Manhattan Railway Company , which took over the New York Elevated Railroad. Other early elevated systems in
117-639: The project. Due to the principals behind the project being from out of town, the project had difficulty getting fully licensed. The package of rights and designs were sold to New York City investors led by Gen. James Jourdan due to the lack of support for the Bostonians by local political leaders. Due to the persistence of Jourdan the project eventually got off the ground. The company directors besides Jourdan were Edward A. Abbott , Henry J. Davison , Harvey Farrington , Wendell Goodwin , Henry J. Robinson , James O. Sheldon and William A. Read . William A. Read
130-547: The tracks of elevated railways that run on steel viaducts can be seen from street level. The earliest elevated railway was the London and Greenwich Railway on a brick viaduct of 878 arches, built between 1836 and 1838. The first 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of the London and Blackwall Railway (1840) was also built on a viaduct. During the 1840s there were other plans for elevated railways in London that never came to fruition. From
143-413: Was founded January 6, 1879, but did not open its first line for revenue service until 1888. The company was organized by Judge Hiram Bond and financed by a group of investors from Boston that included Moses Kimball and Willard T. Sears of the architectural firm Cummings and Sears , which had experience in designing stone railroad bridges and ramps. The company did surveys and design work and promoted
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#1732772534081156-603: Was one of the most lucrative in Brooklyn, operating from Fulton Ferry , through the heart of the downtown area, then through the center of the borough, and the communities of Bedford-Stuyvesant , Brownsville and East New York to City Line. In addition, the KCERy later acquired access to the tracks of the Brooklyn Bridge railroad to bring its trains to the Park Row terminal in New York City ( Manhattan ) opposite
169-739: Was the financier whose company Read & Company later became Dillon, Read . On October 1, 1899, the Kings County Elevated Railroad (KCERR) became successor to the KCERy, and on May 24, 1900, the KCERR was merged into its competitor, the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad company, thus ending its separate corporate existence. The KCERy ran only one rapid transit mainline , the Fulton Street Elevated , beginning in 1888, but it
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