Metropolitan Street Railway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Metropolitan Street Railway was a street railway company in the U.S state of New York. It owned and operated a system in Manhattan.
The company was formed on November 29, 1893 through the merger of the Broadway Surface Railroad, South Ferry Railroad, and Houston, West Street and Pavonia Ferry Railroad. Through the Houston, West Street and Pavonia Ferry Railroad, it started out with leases on the following companies:
- Bleecker Street and Fulton Ferry Railroad
- Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad
- Central Park, North and East River Railroad (also leased to the Metropolitan Crosstown Railway)
- Ninth Avenue Railroad
- Sixth Avenue Railroad
- Twenty-Third Street Railway
It later leased the following companies:
- Thirty-fourth Street Crosstown Railway, 1893?
- Columbus and Ninth Avenue Railroad, leased 1893 and merged November 7, 1895
- Lexington Avenue and Pavonia Ferry Railroad, merged May 18, 1894
- Metropolitan Crosstown Railway, merged May 18, 1894
- Forty-Second Street and Grand Street Ferry Railroad, leased by the Metropolitan Crosstown Railway May 18, 1893
- Central Park, North and East River Railroad, leased by the Metropolitan Crosstown Railway October 14, 1892 (also leased to the Houston, West Street and Pavonia Ferry Railroad at the same time)
- Fulton Street Railroad, acquired 1895; operations ended in 1908
- Eighth Avenue Railroad, January 1, 1896
- Fourth Avenue Street Railway (New York and Harlem Railroad), July 1, 1896
- Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Streets Crosstown Railroad, September 29, 1896
- Second Avenue Railroad, January 1898
- Fort George and Eleventh Avenue Railroad, 1898
- Third Avenue Railroad, and its many leased lines, April 13, 1900
- Central Crosstown Railroad, acquired May 1897 and leased April 1, 1904
- Christopher and Tenth Street Railroad, leased by the Central Crosstown Railroad May 28, 1890
The company was leased to the Interurban Street Railway in 1902, renamed the New York City Railway in 1904. The Metropolitan Street Railway became independent in 1908; the Second Avenue Railroad, Third Avenue Railroad (and its lessors), and Central Park, North and East River Railroad (later acquired by the Third Avenue Railway) were separated, while the other companies stayed with it.
