The Forty-second Street and Grand Street Ferry Railroad was a

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

-drawn

streetcar line A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

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 most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, United States. It ran from the 42nd Street Ferry on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

to the

Grand Street Ferry The Grand Street Ferry was a ferry route connecting Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, joining Grand Street (Manhattan) and Grand Street (Brooklyn) across the East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New Y ...

on the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...

. The line was distinguished by a light green light. At least until 1879, the tracks ran along 42nd Street, Tenth Avenue, 34th Street,

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

, 23rd Street, Fourth Avenue, 14th Street, Avenue A, (using Second Street westbound to cut the corner),

Houston Street Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River i ...

, Cannon Street/Goerck Street (eastbound/westbound) and Grand Street.

History

The railroad was chartered on February 16, 1862 (some sources say 1863). In October 1863, the New York and Harlem Railroad, which had tracks down the middle of Fourth Avenue, took the Forty-second Street and Grand Street Ferry Railroad to court to prevent them from laying a track on each side of Fourth Avenue (between 14th Street and 23rd Street). The NY&H charged that the new tracks would obstruct access between their line and the sidewalk, and claimed exclusive rights to lay track on Fourth Avenue. The defendant argued that it had the same right as anyone else to any part of Fourth Avenue not in use by the NY&H. Since the railroad began to operate, it presumably won the case. On April 6, 1893, the Metropolitan Crosstown Railroad leased the line; the lessee merged with the

Metropolitan Street Railway The New York Railways Company operated street railways in Manhattan, New York City, United States between 1911 and 1925. The company went into receivership in 1919 and control was passed to the New York Railways Corporation in 1925 after which a ...

on May 14, 1894. That company was leased to the Interurban Street Railway on April 8, 1902. Eventually, the line was not operated as a through line. Instead, the trackage was used for the 42nd Street Crosstown Line, 34th Street Crosstown Line,

23rd Street Crosstown Line The 23rd Street Crosstown is a surface transit line on 23rd Street in Manhattan, New York City. It currently hosts the M23 SBS bus route of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Regional Bus Operations. The M23 runs between Chelse ...

, and 14th Street Crosstown Line. A special interest group called "Vision42" has been established in the 21st Century to advocate the return of light rail to 42nd Street.Vision42 (Official Site)
/ref>

References

External links

*Important Decision in a City Railroad Case, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' October 29, 1863 page 3 * Our City Railroads, ''The New York Times'' December 26, 1865 page 8 *St. Denis Hotel and Taylor's Saloon, map of Manhattan, 1879 (from ''Twelve Historical New York City Street and Transit Maps From 1860 to 1967'') *Rejects Traction Lease, ''The New York Times'' October 9, 1909 page 8 (gives April 6, 1893 date) {{DEFAULTSORT:Forty Second Street Grand Street Ferry Railroad Streetcar lines in Manhattan Grand Street (Manhattan) Defunct New York (state) railroads 1862 establishments in New York (state)