
The Dream of New York's Forgotten Elevated Subway - samclemens
https://jalopnik.com/the-dream-of-new-yorks-forgotten-elevated-subway-1838439070
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gen220
One of my favorite fun facts about this area of Brooklyn, is that there was an
elevated train perpendicular to the one described here, that today would cut
straight through Pratt’s campus, from north to south, and is the reason why
there’s such a wide space between the boiler building and the engineering
building. It connected the G line to EL. It was also surrounded by tenements,
which were eminent domain’d (along with the elevated train line), so that
Pratt could get a campus. That’s why Pratt’s campus is still a public park.

It’s interesting because it’s a perfect counterpoint to what the city planners
of the era wanted to do with Washington Square Park (replace an existing green
space with a mass transit hub). Here, they did the inverse.

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cmroanirgo
> _perpendicular_

Neat trick. I think it was the proximity to _elevated_ that made me do a
double-take as to your meaning. I had visions of vertical trains, like those
in sci fi (eg. 5th element).

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pseudolus
The movie "The French Connection" was partially filmed around 86th Street in
Brooklyn and featured an incredible car chase scene around the subway lines.
Amazingly, the scene wasn't cleared by the city and there was a close call
with at least one other car [1].

[0] [https://youtu.be/IzEloJ5venk](https://youtu.be/IzEloJ5venk)

[1] [https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-
culture/entertainment/video...](https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-
culture/entertainment/videos/a24683/the-french-connection-chase-was-shot-on-
uncleared-public-streets/)

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bzillins
The NYC blizzard of 1888 had a large impact on the city's decision to build
subways which started construction in 1900.

[https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/The_Blizzard_of_1888;_the_Imp...](https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/The_Blizzard_of_1888;_the_Impact_of_this_Devastating_Storm_on_New_York_Transit)

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ryanmccullagh
We have elevated subways in Chicago. The red line is elevated and underground,
depending on where you are.

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60654
Yeah, I think every line has elements that are elevated over streets as well
as underground. And it's working fine, but that's because we fund them
properly instead of closing them. ;)

By the way - CTA just released an update of their stunning "ride the rails"
time-lapse videos filmed from the driver's seat. Really neat:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/CTAConnections](https://www.youtube.com/user/CTAConnections)

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nkrisc
Just the red and blue. The others all run elevated or at grade.

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est31
Berlin still has them!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxYiz4knmkU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxYiz4knmkU)

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twic
If i understand correctly, one of the distinctive things about New York's
elevated railways is that they ran on top of roads:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevated_railway#/media/File:R...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevated_railway#/media/File:Roosevelt-
avenue-queens-nyc_cars_driving-under-elevated-railway-line_1980s.jpg)

Whereas that line in Berlin looks like it's on a viaduct. Lines on viaducts
are all over the place, including in London:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_%E2%80%93_Greenw...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_%E2%80%93_Greenwich_Railway_Viaduct)

As in Berlin, and i'm sure everywhere, the arches get used as commercial or
industrial premises. We have a particular fetish for putting craft breweries
in them:

[https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2019/9/12/Londons-
rail...](https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2019/9/12/Londons-railway-arch-
breweries)

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mstaoru
There is a very interesting elevated transportation network in Xiamen, China
(a city in Fujian, not far from Taiwan) which uses long buses with dedicated
lanes. It works quite well and merges nicely with other traffic where needed,
or during construction or maintenance.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiamen_BRT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiamen_BRT)

~~~
dirtyid
Big fan of BRT systems, but seems like they're mostly viable in places with
low labour. Mexico City Metrobús bus surprisingly competent given it's
conditions. Hope they have a future if self driving technology mature.

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closeparen
I wish these were still in vogue. Street running light rail feels pathetic by
comparison; stopping at intersections misses the point of a train system.

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epc
Missing context from this article is that there was a whole trolley network
which ran from lower Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge to what is today's
Cadman Plaza park. The Myrtle el connected to this (I think the lines ran out
along Myrtle and Fulton). Robert Moses "beautified" downtown Brooklyn by
leveling much of the neighborhood at the end of the Brooklyn Bridge, including
the trolley network. Devoid of the terminal, there was little value to the
Myrtle Ave el. And the infrastructure was built to support trolleys, not the
subway cars used throughout the rest of the system, so they would have had to
rebuild much of the tracks to integrate into the existing network.

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melling
How fast does an elevated subway go?

China is developing low-speed maglevs.

In a decade or two perhaps the future will arrive and we'll be moving millions
of people within cities at the incredible speed of 100-120 km/h.

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thescriptkiddie
Generally slower than underground ones, because of issues like noise.

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jdc
See also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevated_railway#Modern_system...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevated_railway#Modern_systems)

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mc32
Those things must have been noisy. Like bringing the Manhattan bridge to your
own neighborhood.

But if they could make them quiet, I bet people would like them.

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greggman2
For me quiet would not be enough. Being under the tracks on the road is dark
and depressing. I'd prefer the trains/subways underground. No noise and I can
see the sky when above.

Think of it this way. Imagine a street with a lot of cafes with outdoor street
seating. Now imagine building an elevated train over the street. I believe
most people would no longer find the outdoor setting to be pleasant even if
the train was quiet.

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ghaff
The popular High Line park in Manhattan was an elevated railroad (although
freight, not subway).

