The 59th Street station was a local station on the demolished

IRT Third Avenue Line The IRT Third Avenue Line, commonly known as the Third Avenue Elevated, Third Avenue El, or Bronx El, was an elevated railway in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City. Originally operated by the New York Elevated Railway, an independent railwa ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It was built on September 16, 1878. The local trains used two tracks and two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s. The center track was built as part of the

Dual Contracts The Dual Contracts, also known as the Dual Subway System, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the City of New York. The contracts were signed on March 19, 1913, by the Interborough Ra ...

and was used for express trains. Due to its location along the east side of the headquarters for

Bloomingdale's Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain; it was founded in New York City by Joseph B. Bloomingdale, Joseph B. and Lyman G. Bloomingdale in 1861. A third brother, Emanuel Watson Bloomingdale, was also involved in the bus ...

, the station was also known as "Bloomingdale's Station." The station was also the first

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

stop in the city to have an

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

, installed in September 1901. This station closed on May 12, 1955, with the ending of all service on the Third Avenue El south of 149th Street.NYCTA Notice of Third Avenue Rail Closure for May 12, 1955
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References

IRT Third Avenue Line stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1878 Railway stations closed in 1955 1878 establishments in New York (state) 1955 disestablishments in New York (state) Former elevated and subway stations in Manhattan Defunct New York City Subway stations located aboveground {{Manhattan-railstation-stub Third Avenue 59th Street (Manhattan)