The 53rd Street and Eighth Avenue station was a station on the demolished

IRT Sixth Avenue Line The IRT Sixth Avenue Line, often called the Sixth Avenue Elevated or Sixth Avenue El, was the second elevated railway in Manhattan in New York City, following the Ninth Avenue Elevated. The line ran south of Central Park, mainly along Sixth A ...

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 in 1881 by the

Manhattan Railway Company The Manhattan Railway Company was an elevated railway company in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City, United States. It operated four lines: the Second Avenue Line, Third Avenue Line, Sixth Avenue Line, and Ninth Avenue Line. History 19 ...

as part of an effort to connect the northern end of the Sixth Avenue Line to the Ninth Avenue Line. It had three 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, and was served by trains from the

. As a result, it became the last station on the Sixth Avenue Line before merging at a sharp curve with the Ninth Avenue Line. On September 11, 1905, 12 people were killed and 42 injured when a train jumped over the rails at the curve on 53rd Street between the Ninth Avenue 50th Street and 59th Street stations. In 1932, the

Independent Subway System The Independent Subway System (IND or ISS), formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOSS) or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (ICORTR), was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of th ...

built the 50th Street Station three blocks to the south on the Eighth Avenue Subway with an additional lower level in 1933, thus rendering the elevated station and line obsolete. It closed on December 4, 1938. The next southbound stop was 50th Street. The next northbound stop was 59th Street.

References

External links

9th Avenue El(Forgotten NY.com)
IRT Sixth Avenue Line stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1881 1881 establishments in New York (state) Railway stations closed in 1938 Former elevated and subway stations in Manhattan Defunct New York City Subway stations located aboveground 1938 disestablishments in New York (state) {{Manhattan-railstation-stub