• Steam Locomotive Operations / Restrictions & Bans in Manhattan
• The Hudson River Railroad Comes to Manhattan
• Population Boom
• So called "Death Avenue"
  
• West Side Cowboys
• The Situation Come to a Head. And a leg. And an arm.

• West 145th Street
• West 132nd Street - Manhattanville
• West 60th-72nd Street Yard & Roundhouse
• West 41st Street Stock Pens and Slaughterhouses
• West 30th-36th Street Yards and Freighthouses
• West 33rd Street Transfer Bridges
• West 29th-30th Street Milk Sheds
  
• West 15th-17th Street - Uneeda, Cold Storage Warehouses, Produce
• West 14th Street - Gansevoort Street Meat Packing District
• St. Johns Park Terminal

• Spuyten Duyvil - West 30th Street
• Those Platforms
  

• West 30th Street - Morgan General Mail Facility "Parcel Post Building"
• the "New" St. Johns Park Terminal
• "Death Avenue" didn't die when the High Line was born.
• Street Operations Continue - for 8 more years
• Third Rail Territory
• West Side Improvement Booklet issued by New York Central - 1934

• Real Facts - not Rail Fiction:
  Actual Dates of Cessation of Street Running

• 1980 - The End of the High Line
  
• 1982 - Last move on the 30th Street Branch - Conrail
• 1987 - West Side Yards - LIRR
• 1991 - The Resurrection of the Tunnel - Amtrak

• New York Central
• Penn Central

• G. W. Bromley Property Maps:  1913,  1916,  1921,  1955 
• New York Central:  1917 ROW & Track,  1942 Siding Location Map
• Port Facilities of Port of New York ACoE Maps:  1932,  1942,  1965
• Port Authority of Port of New York Freight Terminal Map:  1934

   The first passenger railroad to ply a route on Manhattan, was the New York & Harlem Railroad, organized in 1831. Their first section of the line to open for service was along the Bowery from Prince Street north to (East) 14th Street. This opening took place on November 26, 1832. After that, the following sections opened:

• June 10, 1833         north along Fourth Avenue to 32nd Street
• May 9, 1834            north along Fourth Avenue to Yorkville, including the Murray Hill Tunnel
• October 26, 1837    north along Fourth Avenue to Harlem, including the Yorkville Tunnel
• May 4, 1839            south along Bowery, Broome Street and Centre Street to City Hall at Centre Street and Park Row.

.

   Following at least one boiler explosion in 1834, fear from this incident; as well as outcry from residents along the route about the nuisance of smoke cinders, and hissing steam, which was causing a great stir among the livestock on their farms (yes, hard to believe that this area still had farmland at this point!) and in some instances where the trains were hitting cows.

   So an ordinance was passed in 1834 prohibiting the steam locomotives south of 14th Street. The steam locomotive was uncoupled from the passenger car, a team of horses brought in, hooked up and the passenger car brought south. As I understand it, if a train consisted of more than one passenger car, each passenger car needed its own team of horses, so if the train consisted of three cars, three teams of horses would be bringing three individual passenger cars south. 

"A new practice arose. At the steam terminal, at Fourth Avenue and Fourteenth street, incoming trains were broken up and one by one the cars were drawn by horses the rest of the day down to Chathm street terminal  at Broadway, opposite Saint Paul's. And the horse-drawn cars, northbound, were made up into trains on reaching the steam terminal and thence drawn by locomotives..."

("Grand Central" No Place For A Railroad, by David Marshall, Whittlesley House - McGraw Hill; 1946)

   A very labor intensive and time consuming practice to say the least. Regardless of that, this ordinance only applied to the New York and Harlem's route along Fourth Avenue, the Bowery, and Centre Street (not that there were any other railroads in Manhattan at this time.)

   The following is direct quote from the 1920 Joint Report with Recommendations, p.99:

   So, not only was the Hudson River RR now permitted to use steam locomotives, but it was in fact using them in joint freight and passenger handling to and from the Chambers Street Station until 1868. 

   Therefore, the St. Johns Park Freight Terminal was not the first freight station on the West Side, but the dual purpose Chambers Street Station was. 

Atlases of New York City - Manhattan - 1857
Plate 8 - William Perris Civil Engineer and Surveyor Third Edition 
Publisher: Perris & Browne
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
New York Public Library Digital Collection
annotated version © 2024~ freightrrofnyc.info
added 20 May 2024

Looking south-southwest. I firmly believe this image is misattributed as West Broadway & "Liberty Street"; the reason being West Broadway and Liberty Street do not intersect.
Furthermore, the buildings and geography shown in the image perfectly align with the Perris Street Atlas above at the intersection of Chambers Street and West Broadway.
The triangle where the horsedrawn drayage carts are lined up is present day Bogardus Plaza.
Nevertheless, the presence of numerous open two wheel horsedrawn carts queued after the hacks and carriages exemplifies freight transport at this station.

"The charter of 1846 granted the right, subject to permission from the City of New York, to build a line down the West Side of Manhattan. That permission was given the next year, and the West Side tracks were laid as part of the Hudson River Railroad.

The line handled passenger as well as freight business, inasmuch as the Park Avenue line to what is now Grand Central Station belonged to an entirely different company, the New York & Harlem Railroad Company.

The Hudson River Railroad Company established a passenger station at Chambers Street, but drew its passenger cars by horses between that point and Thirtieth Street.

The company's freight traffic grew to such an extent that the company was forced to find a site inland from the waterfront for a downtown terminal. On this site, at Beach and Varick Streets, was built the St. Johns Park Terminal, after which, in 1868, the tracks south to Chambers Street were removed.

In 1871, the same year the first Grand Central Station was completed at Fourth Avenue and Forty-Second Street, the Spuyten Duyvil & Port Morris Railroad, connecting what had then become the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad with the New York & Harlem Railroad, was opened, and the Central transferred its passenger trains to the new route.

Since that time the West Side line has been used almost exclusively for freight, express and milk business."

   As originally laid out, the trains were brought as far south to a station located on the corner of Chambers Street and College Place / West Broadway beginning on October 8,1851.

   Backing up in history just a tad, Cornelius Vanderbilt obtained control of the Hudson River Railroad in 1867.

   And for clarity; let me re-iterate: the terminal at Chambers Street was overwhelmed, and it was decided in 1867 that a new dedicated freight terminal be constructed away (but not too far away) from the Chambers Street Station. This freight terminal would be constructed at Beach & Varick Streets - and of which would come to be the widely recognized St. John's Park Freight Terminal.

   Once the St. Johns Park Freight Terminal was completed, the trackage to Chambers Street would be removed in 1868, and the line south of West 30th Street was dedicated to freight use only. Almost all passenger service at this date was routed down Fourth Avenue to the original Madison Square Garden Station located at East 26th Street. Almost all, but we'll get to that a little later.

   On November 1, 1869, Vanderbilt merged the two railroads (those being Hudson River Railroad and the New York Central & Harlem River Railroad), along with Spuyten Duyvil & Port Morris Railroad in the Bronx) to form the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, and with him, the first Grand Central Depot would not be built until 1871 at 42nd Street.

   All this consolidation meant the railroads operated in a single network under one owner. And now with that history outlined, we can now focus our attention entirely to the freight operations of the West Side.
 
   While all that was taking place in New York City; the Transcontinental Railroad was completed through to the West Coast in 1869. Now freight and passengers, both to and from the West Coast, including freight importation from East and Southeast Asian countries, was now able to be transported across the Pacific, across the US and to the East Coast. 

   Because of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad's direct freight route into and out of Manhattan; and whereas other railroads had to transfer their freight to "lighter barges" (barges with their own crane), covered barges for perishables or carfloats for railroad cars; the Hudson River Railroad and later the New York Central; dominated railroad freight handling on Manhattan Island, and as the New York Central could haul its freight directly into and out of Manhattan via the West Side without transloading.

   This direct route via Spuyten Duyvil swingbridge gave the New York Central access to the "Water Level Route" north along the Hudson River north to Albany, NY; where it could go east to Boston, Massachusetts or cross the Hudson River and go west to Chicago, Illinois; or even farther to the West Coast; north to Canada; or back south to New Jersey and other points south along the Eastern Seaboard. 

    Unlike the other Class 1 railroads that did come to have offline freight terminals in Manhattan, such as the Pennsylvania; Lehigh Valley; Erie; Central Railroad of New Jersey; and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroads; the New York Central Railroad had an unbroken direct rail connection to and from Manhattan to the mainland United States rail network.

   Ironically, this physical connection still exists to this very day, albeit slightly rerouted to get the trains off the streets (which we will get to in a later chapter), and is now under Amtrak usage for passenger service.

William H. Vanderbilt May 8, 1821 – December 8, 1885

However, William Henry Vanderbilt (son of Cornelius Vanderbilt and known as "Billy", and of whom now owned the New York Central Railroad); purchased the Nickel Plate Road in 1882, in effect breaking the chain and that plan.    From childhood though mid life; William was looked down upon by his father, with Cornelius frequently berated and criticized him, calling his eldest son a "blockhead" and a "blatherskite". Billy longed to demonstrate to his father that he was not, but William never dared stand up to the Commodore, who had a very imposing presence. A case in point and even in adulthood: William once stated to his father, "If you tell me not to smoke, I'll obey you." Cornelius grunted, and William threw away the cigar, and gave up smoking forever. Cornelius was that powerful of a patriarch. A major turning point in their relationship occurred on the family trip to Europe on the steamship "Vanderbilt" in 1860, after which the two became very close and Billy was given a greater role in business matters.    His father carefully oversaw Williams' education in the business world, starting him at age 19 as a clerk in a New York banking house. After joining as an executive of the Staten Island Railway and increasing the revenue, William was elected to the office of president in 1862. In 1869, he was made vice-president of the New York and Harlem River Railroad, further becoming its president in 1877. He took over for his father as president of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern (LS&MS) Railway, the Canada Southern Railway, and the Michigan Central Railroad (MCRR) at the time of the Commodore's death in 1877.    As crude as his father Cornelius was considered amongst his peers, it was William that drew the ire of the everyman. In 1883, reporter John D. Sherman questioned him about why he ran the limited express train, "Do your limited express trains pay, or do you run them for the accommodation of the public?"    Vanderbilt responded with, "Accommodation of the public? The public be damned! We run them because we have to. They do not pay. We have tried again and again to get the different roads to give them up; but they will run them and, of course, as long as they run them we must do the same."

   This interview was then published in the Chicago Daily News, but Vanderbilt's words and the context were modified, with particularly heavy emphasis on "The public be damned." Several different accounts of the incident were then disseminated; the accounts vary in terms of who conducted the interview, under what circumstance and what was actually said.

   Vanderbilt received a great deal of negative publicity from the "The public be damned" portion, and so much so that he even went as far to clarify his response with a subsequent interview by the Chicago Times. In that interview he was quoted saying: "Railroads are not run for the public benefit, but to pay. Incidentally, we may benefit humanity, but the aim is to earn a dividend." As you can imagine, these words did not sit well with the public or the media.   

   Paying no heed to how the public viewed him, Vanderbilt's railroad holdings included no less than the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q); the Chicago and Canada Southern Railway; the Detroit and Bay City Railroad; the Hudson River Railroad (not to be confused with the New York Central and Hudson River RR), the Hudson River Bridge, the Joliet and Northern Indiana Railroad, the Michigan Midland and Canada Railroad, the New York Central Sleeping Car Company, the New York and Harlem Rail Road, the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad, and the Staten Island Railroad.

   During this same time frame, the New York Central began constructing the South Pennsylvania Railroad across southern Pennsylvania, of which was deep in the Pennsylvania Railroad's territory. At the same time, the New York Central Railroad then proceeded to drive the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railroad into bankruptcy via a brutal rate-war, of which the West Shore could not withstand financially.

   The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which was and remained the New York Central's greatest rival right up until 1968; recognized that the West Shore Railroad would make a great addition to its network, and also allowing it to penetrate deep into New York Central territory. So it began to make overtures to acquire it.

   And now a second, but more destructive rate-war between the Pennsylvania and the New York Central commenced; to wit each railroad kept lowering its freight haulage prices to the point they were actually losing money in an effort to undercut the other.

This loss of revenue was an anathema to J. Pierpont Morgan; of whom sat on the board of directors of both the New York Central and the Pennsylvania. Morgan was well respected throughout the business world, and of whom was the top railroad financier in the United States, much less among many other industries. This rate war, which drove down stock and bond prices; was essentially killing Morgan's dividends. So, he decided to personally intervene.    In July 1884, Morgan and Vanderbilt agreed to try to negotiate a peace treaty between the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads. Morgan invited George B. Roberts and Frank Thompson (president and vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad) to meet with the New York Central’s president, Chauncey Depew, on board Morgan’s yacht, Corsair. Morgan picked the executives up at a Jersey City pier, near the Pennsylvania Railroad’s terminal, on a hot July morning. They proceeded north up the Hudson River 50 miles to Garrison, NY; and then turned back south to Sandy Hook, New Jersey; located at the entrance to New York Harbor.    Depew beseeched the Pennsylvania men to end what he called the “ruinous” competition of building parallel lines and endless rate wars. These tactics added nothing to the bottom line of either railroad. A luncheon was served as the Corsair sailed up and down the river. Morgan argued that this sort of competition was not only bad for business; it was adversely affecting the flow of European (especially British) financial capital into American railroads as they continued their expansion across the continent. No agreement, Morgan implied, equated to no further European investment.    While Thompson came around to Morgan’s way of reasoning, Roberts remained adamant against it. Only when Corsair tied back up to the Jersey City pier at 7:00 pm; did Roberts, finally relent and shook hands with Morgan on the dock, stating, “I will agree to your plan and do my part.” While it took almost two more decades for the final agreement to be signed; the West Shore Railroad, would now be owned by the New York Central as a subsidiary, and the construction of the South Pennsylvania Railroad ceased (sections of which were repurposed much later (1940) for use in constructing the Pennsylvania Turnpike.)

John Pierpont Morgan April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913

   The stock prices of the two railroads rose immediately and naturally, the principals and the shareholders were pleased.

   The New York Central, having purchased the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway on November 24, 1885; reorganized its new acquisition as the West Shore Railroad on December 5, and leased it for 475 years from January 1, 1886. (So, in effect the West Shore Railroad West 36th Street Yard was originally the competition; wound up becoming a subsidiary and by proxy an expansion to the West 33rd Street Yards.)

   In 1914, all of Cornelius Vanderbilt's eleven other railroad operating interests: particularly the New York, West Shore & Buffalo with its carfloat terminals in Weehawken, New Jersey; were merged into the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad to form the New York Central Lines.

   With this basic but very convoluted and necessary history of the railroads in New York City now outlined, we can now get down to the specifics of the West Side of Manhattan Freight Operations.
.

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ca. 1934
added 15 August 2025

West 72nd Street Roundhouse (looking west) - December 9, 1930
NYC #2824 [ALCo L2c]
New York Municipal Archives
added 15 August 2025

Three types of transfer bridges in one location: New York Central Railroad West 60th Street Terminal, Manhattan, NY - 1978
Looking east.

left:       electrically operated, overhead suspension; steel, contained apron bridge "J. B. French patent" with steel gantry
center:  pontoon float / steel, pony truss
right:     electrically operated, overhead suspension, wood, Howe truss bridge / separate Apron "J. A. Bensel patent" with wood enclosed gantry house

T. Flagg photo
added 04 January 2012

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Grain Elevator A - foot of West 61st Street -  February 10, 1919
Note West 62nd Street Transfer Bridge (#1B) on left edge.
Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York
William D. Hassler photo
added 16 August 2015

Looking northeast from West 60th Street. - 1957
Grain Elevator A formerly occupied the open yard tracks bottom center with three covered barges. At the times of this image, this location now houses a cement handling facility.
New York City Municipal Archives
added 15 August 2025

West 60th - 72nd Street Terminal - ca. 1940's
Looking south from West 72nd Street. Transfer bridges to right of West Side "Miller" Highway.

West 60th - 72nd Street Terminal - ca. 1940's
Looking south from West 72nd Street. 

looking south - 1957
New York City Municipal Archives
added 15 August 2025

West 60th - 72nd Street Yards, looking northwest. Miller Elevated Highway under construction - September 17, 1931
Derrick is over the roundhouse.
Library of Congress
added 15 August 2025

   Transporting livestock by rail was effected by the use of "stock cars", and use of these cars was laborious. Cattle cars were single floor level, but hogs and sheep could be loaded into two or even three level cars for increased capacity.

   Obviously, they needed men to load and unload the livestock. 

   But there was also the Twenty-Eight Hour Law. This law dictated that if livestock are being transported for longer than 28 consecutive hours, they must be offloaded for at least 5 consecutive hours to get feed, water, and rest. This law was originally passed on March 3, 1873. 

   The law was then repealed and reenacted in 1906; and again in 1994 to set humane standards for the transportation of livestock, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has jurisdiction and enforces this regulation.

    If weather or any other type of incident caused blockage of the route and as a result delayed the train carrying livestock; special arrangements had to be made. Therefore, this added considerably to transportation costs, as well as time involved.

   But also occurring around this time, the urban development of Manhattan with industrial properties being converted to commercial and residential; slaughterhouses were increasingly vacating the New York City area. As a result, the slaughterhouses relocated to closer to the stockyards in Chicago, Kansas City and Abilene; and now were able to ship dressed meat to the east under reliable refrigeration with no
stopping or special handling.

   This is the only surviving method of perishable transport in the present day.

   Out of all the railroads entering the New York area, the New York Central RR carried the greatest share of milk. Obviously, the benefit of bringing it directly into Manhattan was a significant factor for this. 

   There were three milk stations that were served by the West Side Line:

• West 135th Street Yard - Manhattanville
• West 60th Street Yard 
  and
• West 29th Street

    Borden's had a plant at 615 West 131st Street (beginning 1937), and Sheffield had three: 632 West 125th Street, 524 West 57th Street, 529 West 28th Street.

• 632 West 125th Street   (West 135th Street Yard - Manhattanville)
• 524 West 57th Street     (West 60th Street Yard)
• 529 West 28th Street     (West 29th Street Milk Platforms)

West Street & Gansevoort Street - February 22, 1930
looking southwest
added 15 August 2025

Old St. John's Park Terminal (first): 1868 - 1927

• Train 173 departed West 30th Street at 7:00 am, Monday through Saturday,
  and arrived at Spuyten Duyvil at 7:47 am.

• Train 175 departed West 30th Street at 5:02 pm, Monday through Saturday,
  and arrived at Spuyten Duyvil at 5:43 pm.

• Train 174 departing Spuyten Duyvil at 8:10 am, Monday through Saturday
   and arrived at West 30th Street Terminal at 8:51 am.  
  .
• Train 176 departed Spuyten Duyvil at 6:17 pm, Monday through Saturday
  and arrived at West 30th Street Terminal at 7:02 pm.

   In the drawing of Lincoln's train departing West 30th Street seen at right, the curvature of the tracks is apparent, but note: there are no platforms.

   It appears embarkation was via the steps on the coach ends to and from low, ground level platforms. These types of stations usually were fully planked at rail height for the ease of walking as movement of baggage dollies.

   History has it that long distance passenger service at West 30th Street was abolished in 1871, with the opening of Grand Central Depot at 42nd Street. I highly suggest one reference those early images of the Grand Central Depot (under the glass roof) - it too had low level platforms between tracks, and not the high level type of platforms that are now in place in the current Grand Central Terminal, or likewise, Penn Station.

   As such, following the relocation of those long distance passenger trains to Grand Central Depot; the West 30th Street Yard was, for the most part almost exclusively a freight terminal, yet keeping in mind the twice daily arrival and departure of the local "Dolly Varden" passenger service between West 30th Street and Spuyten Duyvil. For this, the passenger train would have arrived and departed from the depot platform.

   Also note the placement of a run-around switch for the locomotive to change ends (without one, it would be trapped at the end of this dead end track without a means for escape), and also note the difference in height between the depot platform and the milk platform.