155th Street (IRT Ninth Avenue Line)
in New York, United StatesCategory: Attraction
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304 W 155th St, New York, NY 10039, USA Print route »
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155th Street was an elevated railway station in New York City which was in use from 1870 until 1958, serving as the north terminal of the IRT Ninth Avenue Line from its opening until 1918 and then as the southern terminal of a surviving stub portion from 1940 until its closure in 1958. It had two tracks and one island platform.The Ninth Avenue El originally terminated at 155th Street at its inception as a matter of geographic necessity (the hills of Washington Heights would have made an northward expansion difficult) and political boundaries (at its opening, The Bronx was part of Westchester County). Development came to the area in the New York City and Northern Railroad building its terminal at 155th Street in 1880 and relocation of the Polo Grounds to in 1889. The line expanded into The Bronx on June 1, 1918, when the Putnam Bridge, which had been built in 1881 to carry the Putnam Division across the Harlem River, was leased by the IRT and connected to the 9th Avenue line, allowing it to join the IRT Jerome Avenue Line and add intermediate stops at Sedgwick Avenue and Anderson–Jerome Avenues.
With the building of the Eighth Avenue Line and Concourse Line by the city-owned Independent Subway System in the 1930s, the Ninth Avenue El was rendered redundant. On June 12, 1940, the el was closed entirely except for the portion from this station north to provide a connection from the Jerome Avenue Line to the Polo Grounds. The retained service, known as the Polo Grounds Shuttle, ran from 155th Street to the 167th Street on the Jerome Avenue Line.
Though still moderately successful at its outset, the Polo Grounds Shuttle eventually suffered at the hands of the Concourse line and declining ridership of the New York Central's Putnam Division, the successor to New York and Northern. The need for the shuttle decreased when the Polo Grounds went vacant in 1957 after the baseball Giants moved to San Francisco and football Giants moved across the river to Yankee Stadium.
On May 29, 1958, the New York Central ceased operations on the Putnam Division, which rendered the shuttle unnecessary. Three months later, at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 31, the shuttle was shut down and the elevated portion of the line demolished. The two underground stations were abandoned, but remain intact.
