Pelham Park and City Island Railroad
Encyclopedia
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, which connected City Island
City Island, Bronx
City Island is a small island approximately 1.5 mi long by .5 mi wide. At one time attached to the town of Pelham, Westchester County, it is now part of the New York City borough of the Bronx. As of the 2000 census the island had a population of 4,520. Its land area is 1.023 km²...
with the Bartow station of the New Haven Railroad on the mainland of The Bronx. For most of its existence it was horse-drawn; between 1910 and 1914, the portion on the mainland operated as a monorail
Monorail
A monorail is a rail-based transportation system based on a single rail, which acts as its sole support and its guideway. The term is also used variously to describe the beam of the system, or the vehicles traveling on such a beam or track...
system. The lone operational monorail car was nicknamed The Flying Lady.
The line was incorporated as two companies on August 30, 1884; the Pelham Park Railroad Company and the City Island Railroad. The two would connect end to end at Marshall's Corner on Rodman's Neck
Rodman's Neck
Rodman's Neck refers to a peninsula of land in the Bronx, New York jutting out into Long Island Sound.The southern third of the 'neck' is used as a firing range by the New York Police Department; the remaining wooded section is part of Pelham Bay Park...
, just short of the bridge to City Island. At the time the territory to be traversed lay entirely within the Town of Pelham
Pelham
-Surname:* British Whig politicians:** Thomas Pelham, 1st Baron Pelham and his sons, both Prime Ministers of Great Britain** Henry Pelham ** Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne * American artistic family:...
in Westchester County. The Pelham Park Railroad was designated as the operator of the 3-ft. 6-inch narrow-gauge system. The line opened from the Bartow station to Marshall's Corner on May 20, 1887. Five days later operations were extended across the bridge to City Island and along City Island Avenue to Brown's Hotel. By 1892 the line had reached Belden's Point, its final terminal. The length of the combined system was 3.2 miles.
In 1895 New York City's Borough of The Bronx was enlarged to its present size and the area through which the horsecars ran was included within the new boundaries. On March 14, 1902, some two years before it began operating New York City's first subway, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940...
(IRT) took control of the two companies. An experimental operation of a monorail by Howard Hansel Tunis at the Jamestown (Virginia) exposition of 1907 impressed the management of the IRT, and during the winter of 1908-09 permission was obtained to construct a similar electric monorail from the New York State Public Service Commission and various New York City agencies.
The monorail, between the Bartow station and Marshall's Corner, opened for regular service on July 16, 1910, although the cars unofficially began carrying passengers two days earlier. The monorail car toppled over on its maiden journey, and operation was immediately suspended. Service was ultimately restored on November 14, 1910. The monorail was not a success and the IRT forced the companies into bankruptcy on December 4, 1911. The monorail on the line's western end and the narrow-gauge horsecar line on the eastern end continued to operate.
In 1913 the IRT decided to convert the line to a standard-gauge electric trolley system and with this in mind, merged the two companies into a new entity, the Pelham Park and City Island Railroad, which took over operation on July 1, 1913. The trackage across the bridge and on City Island was converted to standard gauge, with leased New York Railways
New York Railways
New York State Railways was a grouping of several large city streetcar and electric interurban systems in upstate New York. It included the city transit systems in Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Oneida and Rome, plus various interurban lines connecting those cities.The company was formed in 1909 when...
horsecars taking over the service. The monorail ceased operation on April 3, 1914, with service temporarily operated by a leased bus from Fifth Avenue Coach Lines.
On July 9, 1914, the company was sold to the Third Avenue Railway
Third Avenue Railway
The Third Avenue Railway System was a street railroad system in New York City in the 19th and early 20th century.-History:The principal company was the Third Avenue Railroad Company from 1853 to 1910, when it was succeeded in reorganization by the Third Avenue Railway Company...
by its owner, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. After taking control on August 1, 1914 the Third Avenue quickly completed construction of the standard-gauge railway, but did not install overhead wire. The last horsecar in The Bronx completed its run during the midday hours on August 18, 1914 and the first storage battery car began operation from Bartow to the line's end on City Island 15 minutes later.
In 1919, the Third Avenue Railway petitioned the New York Public Service Commission
Public Utilities Commission
A Utilities commission, Utility Regulatory Commission , Public Utilities Commission or Public Service Commission is a governing body that regulates the rates and services of a public utility...
to permit abandonment, on the grounds of insufficient funds to continue operation, the permission being granted.
Operation ceased on August 9, 1919.