This video found on Forgotten New York is of the Third Avenue El just before it was abandoned in the 1950s. Many of the cars from the diminishing Els in New York went to the Richmond Shipyard Railway in the East Bay to transport workers to the Kaiser Shipyards [1] [2]. "This is a great film because it is not just about the trains, it's about people".
The New York City High Line was built by the New York Central in the 1930s to provide better freight service to the West Side in Manhattan. The line was abandoned in the 1980s and after being neglected is being turned into a park.
In 1847, New York City let the railroad build the first tracks to serve businesses in the West Side. Trains on the street level line collided left and right with pedestrians, horses, trolleys and other traffic. In 1929, the New York Central met with the city to discuss elevating the tracks. The High Line (officially the West Side Elevated Freight Railroad), which relocated the tracks off of "Death Avenue," eliminated 105 grade crossings and cost over 2 billion 2007 dollars ($150 million 1930 dollars).
The line was an ingenuous invention as a beautiful one as the tracks went right through the buildings which they served; also, freight movements did not cause any disruption on the street level. The Nabisco Factory used the High Line to transport their famous Oreo Cookies to stores all over the country.
In the 1950s, service declined on the line and in the years following a few sections have been torn down. However, much is still left through the hard work of preservationists. The Friends of the High Line was formed in 1999 to facilitate its rebirth as a beautiful park.
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One of the coolest things I have seen in a while and where else but at Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Enjoy!
Also you must check out this PBS program on Grand Central Terminal.
Near the end of the movie Michael Clayon, I saw one of the coolest trestles I have seen in a movie. I immediately paused the movie and found the Moodna Viaduct. The trestle, located in Salisbury Mills, New York and was built between 1904 and 1908 by the Erie Railroad. It is the highest and longest trestle east of the Mississippi. The open design design of the trestle was used to reduce wind resistance, which is one reason why the trestle is still in use today.
Rochester, NY was the smallest city in America to build (and later abandon) a subway system. In 1928, after the Erie Canal was rerouted south of downtown Rochester, the Rochester Industrial & Rapid Transit Railway (the 'subway') was built in its place as a link between the five different railroads and interurban trolley lines that served the Rochester area. As the industrial landscape of Rochester changed, and highways replaced the railroads, the Rochester subway gradually became a relic of a bygone era and in 1956 the subway was abandoned. Much of its former route was converted into Interstate 490. Learn about Rochester's subway system at railroad.net and at RochesterSubway.com