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34-427: The IRT Second Avenue Line , also known as the Second Avenue Elevated or Second Avenue El , was an elevated railway in Manhattan , New York City , United States , from 1878 to 1942. It was operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company until 1940, when the city took over the IRT. Service north of the 57th Street station ended on June 11, 1940; the rest of the line closed on June 13, 1942. In 1875,

68-458: A suspension railway . Elevated railways are normally found in urban areas where there would otherwise be multiple level crossings . Usually, 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

102-467: A demonstration track of Palmer's system in 1826, in Elberfeld, Germany, at the time commercial centre of the early industrial area Wupper Valley . The steelmill owner had the vision of a coal-carrier railway between Wupper Valley and the nearby coal-mining region of Ruhr , which would connect his own factories in Elberfeld and Deilbachtal. Due to protests from mill owners that were not integrated along

136-705: A junction with the Third Avenue El , then continued east above Division Street . It turned north above Allen Street to Houston Street , where it continued north above First Avenue , then turned left on 23rd Street , then ran north on Second Avenue to 129th Street. At that point it rejoined with the Third Avenue El and crossed the Harlem River into the Bronx. As of 1934 Second Avenue service operated as follows: On April 23, 1939 express service

170-518: A prototype of an electric monorail in Odessa , modern-day Ukraine. In 1897, he presented a functional model of his monorail at the meeting of Russian technological society. This idea was approved by the society, and an experimental electric monorail was built in 1899. In 1900, Empress Maria Fedorovna approved the building of an 0.2 kilometres (0.12 mi) long electric monorail in Gatchina. The monorail

204-989: 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 , 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

238-485: 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

272-704: 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, 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

306-508: 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 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

340-715: The PHX Sky Train at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; AeroTrain at Kuala Lumpur International Airport; and the Tracked Shuttle System at London Gatwick Airport , United Kingdom. Suspension railway The British engineer Henry Robinson Palmer (1795–1844) filed a patent application for a horse-drawn suspended single-rail system in 1821, and constructed a demonstration at Woolwich Arsenal , in England soon afterwards. German industrial pioneer, thinker and politician Friedrich Harkort built

374-650: 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)

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408-758: The 1920s the Port of Hamburg used a petrol powered, suspended monorail to transport luggage and freight from ocean-going vessels to a passenger depot. Very small and light weight systems have been used widely on farms to transport crops such as bananas. In the mining industry suspended monorails have been used because of their ability to descend and climb steep tunnels using rack and pinion drive. This significantly reduces cost and length of tunnels, by up to 60% in some cases, which otherwise must be at gentle gradients to suit road vehicles or conventional railways. A suspended monorail capable of carrying fully loaded 20' and 40' containers has been under construction since 2020 at

442-672: The IRT Second Avenue Line was in anticipation of the subway's construction. The first phase, between 72nd Street and 96th Street , opened in 2017, and a second phase to Harlem–125th Street is being planned. Elevated railway An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) 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

476-780: The Japanese have built two successful SAFEGE lines, the Siemens Company of Germany has developed a smaller scale system similar to the SAFEGE Monorail. Aerorail of Texas and Sky Train of Florida were promoting steel-wheel versions of SAFEGE as well but both appear to have ceased trading without having installed a system. Japan would later adopt the ALWEG and SAFEGE monorail systems including the Shonan Monorail and build more transit monorails than any other country in

510-894: The Rapid Transit Commission granted the Gilbert Elevated Railway Company the right to construct the railway from Battery Park to the Harlem River along Second Avenue . The commission also granted the Gilbert Elevated Railway Company the right to operate the Sixth Avenue Elevated and soon afterward the Gilbert Elevated Railway changed its name to the Metropolitan Elevated Railway. Around 1900,

544-905: The Wuppertal Schwebebahn or H-Bahn systems in Germany. A 1.6-kilometre (0.99 mi) test track in Margao, Goa started trials in 2004, but on September 25, one employee was killed and three injured in an accident. No progress was made after the accident. In 2013, the metro was dismantled. Four new SAFEGE style suspended railway prototypes, with test tracks and vehicles, have been developed since 2010. In China three have been created, by CRRC Qingdao Sifang in Qingdao, by China Railway Science and Industry Group in Wuhan and by Zhongtang Air Rail Technology in Chengdu. A SAFEGE based test line

578-685: The end of the decade, in 1969, a prototype test track of track of the Vero Monocab personal rapid transit was built in Texas. This design was sold to and developed by Rohr, Inc. as the ROMAG system with a new test track built in California. Based on another new design using small capacity cars, the Jetrail system opened in 1970 at Dallas Love Field Airport taking passengers from a carpark to

612-443: The factory of Otto and Langen, now Deutz . The official name was Anlage einer elektrischen Hochbahn (Schwebebahn), System Eugen Langen Köln or Electrical Elevated Railroad ("Floating tram") Installation, System Eugen Langen Cologne . The installation and stations were built by three companies, among them the company of Friedrich Harkort. In 1901 the first track of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn opened, and still runs today. In 1903 it

646-541: The inventor of the internal-combustion engine , and probably knew the Palmer Railway. In the nearby expanding industrial zone of Wupper Valley, entrepreneurs and governors were looking for a modern urban transportation system. A cooperation between politicians and businessmen from the Barmen-Elberfeld industrial area around 1890 led to the implementation of an electric powered elevated railway system from

680-651: The line and from the transporting branch, this idea could not be executed. The first suspended railway was opened at Cheshunt , England, United Kingdom on June 25, 1825, using Palmer's patent. It was built to carry bricks, but as an opening stunt it carried passengers. A work, Description of the suspension railway invented by Maxwell Dick: with engravings By Maxwell Dick , published in Irvine, Scotland , in 1830, refers to an aerial tramway /cable car system. The Enos Electric Railway, an electric-powered monorail with wagons suspended from an elevated frame of open steelwork,

714-560: The line was electrified . Between 1914 and 1916 construction was undertaken to install a third track to provide express service on the line during peak hours. Express service commenced on January 17, 1916. On July 23, 1917, Second Avenue El service over the Queensboro Bridge to Queens began. The Second Avenue El did not run entirely on Second Avenue. Its southern terminus was above Park Row adjacent to City Hall . From there it ran above Park Row to Chatham Square , where it had

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748-512: The monorail began service in 1988. Two further H-Bahn suspension railways were built in Germany in 1975, at Dortmund University campus and Düsseldorf airport . The Memphis Suspension Railway was opened in the United States in 1982. The Skybus Metro was a prototype suspended railway in Goa , India. The system consisted of an elevated track with the cars suspended below the track, like

782-613: The terminal. It closed in 1974 when Braniff International Airways moved most of its operations to another airport. Based on the SAFEGE design, the Shonan Monorail opened in 1970 in Kamakura , Japan—part of the Greater Tokyo area. It continues in operation today. The Chiba Urban Monorail , also in Japan, is the world's largest suspension railway; it is owned and operated by Chiba Urban Monorail Co. Ltd, established in 1979, and

816-560: The track was dismantled and rebuilt at the Texas State fairgrounds where it ran until 1964 The Ueno Zoo Monorail is a 0.3 km (0.19 mi) long suspended monorail operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei). It is similar to the Wuppertal Schwebebahn , but has rubber tires rather than steel wheels. The line began operating on December 17, 1958. After 60 years of operation service

850-488: The world. In 1956 Monorail, Incorporated built a short test track of their suspended system at Arrowhead Park in Houston, Texas. The single 55 seat car was called "Trailblazer". Its promoters claimed it could reach speeds of 160 km but no installations were ever built. The system was unusual because the driver's position was on top of the bogies, not in the same cabin as the passengers. After eight months of testing,

884-583: Was also constructed in the Krasnogorsk District, Russia in 2016. As of 2021 no revenue service systems have been completed although one short system began construction in 2020 in Enshi City China and a number of other projects have been considered in both China and Russia. Aside from a multitude of indoor uses in factories, suspended railways are also used for number of outdoor applications other than passenger transportation. In

918-849: Was built by the Scottish engineer George Bennie near Glasgow . Two propellers delivered 240 horsepower (180 kW) in a short burst for acceleration to the cruise speed of 160 km/h. It was not a true monorail as it used an overhead running rail and a guide rail below. In 1947, Lucien Chadenson became interested in the Bennie Railplane experimental line, and the Paris Metro Route 11 , which uses rubber tyres. A test track operated in Chateauneuf , south of Paris from 1958, but attracted no further interest in France. However,

952-636: Was demonstrated in the grounds of the Daft Electric Company in Greenville , New Jersey, in 1886. It was built out of lightweight steel construction and worked well, but was never expanded. The design of the rail-frame appears to have influenced Eugen Langen , as his Wuppertal Schwebebahn framing bears a remarkable likeness to the Enos construction. In March 1895, Russian engineer Ippolit Romanov (originally from Tbilisi , Georgia) built

986-656: Was discontinued. Finally, on June 13, 1942 all service was discontinued. The M15 bus , which runs along much of the IRT Second Avenue Elevated Line's route, is one of the busiest bus routes in New York City. However, it does not carry as many passengers as a rapid transit line, and transfers to rapid transit stations can only be made using surface connections. The Second Avenue Subway , a rapid transit route running under Second Avenue, has been under consideration since 1919. The demolition of

1020-496: Was extended to the final length of 13.3 kilometres (8.3 mi). This system is still in operation as a means of public transport, moving over 20 million passengers each year. Langen also designed the Dresden Suspension Railway , a short funicular railway using the same suspended monorail technology, which opened in 1901 and is still in operation. A unique demonstration electrically powered suspension line

1054-481: Was inaugurated weekday and Saturday daytime in Queens between Queensboro Plaza and 111th Street, and elevated trains were cut back to 111th Street. On September 8, 1939 Astoria trains were rerouted in the weekday PM peak to City Hall. The Second Avenue Elevated was closed north of 59th Street June 12, 1940. Evening and Sunday Queens trains were extended to City Hall or South Ferry. On May 19, 1941 evening and Sunday service

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1088-819: 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 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,

1122-690: Was suspended on 31 October 2019, with the operator citing the high costs of replacing the aging trains. In the 1960s in the United States a large number of suspended monorails systems were opened but none were for transit. These included 1962 at the LA County Fair (closed late 1990s), 1964–1965 at the New York World's Fair , in 1964 at Houston International Airport (closed 1966) and in 1966 at two Busch Gardens parks at Van Nuys in California (closed 1979), Tampa in Florida (closed 1999). At

1156-465: Was tested on 25 June 1900. The monorail carriage could be loaded with up to 25 kilograms (55 lb) and moved at a speed of 15 kilometres per hour (9.3 mph). During the 1880s the German businessman and engineer Eugen Langen experimented in his Cologne sugar factory with a low one-track suspension railway system for the transportation of raw materials. He was a business partner of Nicolaus Otto ,

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