The Vanishing El, 1950

[Music] this is the age of Swift flexible transportation [Music] but a me I'm just an old New York City elevated car weather beaten browbeaten just plain beaten oh I'm by no means alone in the world quite a few of my kin have escaped the Kennon pile up to now but all signs point to our days being numbered [Music] the Third Avenue branch is the last remaining limb of my family tree I remember how when a youngster we did our family chores with wood burning engines but soon we were taught that if we were to grow into a good healthy system we'd have to lead a cleaner life so they shot Us full of electricity and we grew GRE and grew until our structures became the transportation backbone of the largest city in the world our Gable stations were a new high in architectural achievement when built all went well until the 1930s when we noticed that Subways were undermining our security when we failed to carry our customary total of a million passengers a day zip the props were pulled out from under us acetylene torches did the rest a horrible horrible death for the poor old second 6th and 9th Avenue branches our terrific noise if you ask me is one big reason for our downfall but can we help it if the Canyons of buildings we run through through kick our sound around few folks realize that we have our quieter side why one of our Spurs mingles with the stately trees and fragrant flowers of the Bronx [Music] Park [Music] I have to take a run downtown now if you stay with me I can show you a New York City no other means of transportation can from my Windows you will get glimpses of the most famous buildings in the world from my windows well just [Music] wait we have to pass through the dense Bronx senent District before coming to Manhattan it's an overall trip of 15 Mi to South Ferry from there you'll be able to see the Statue of [Music] Liberty this stretch sandwiched between the tenements I always call clothesline [Music] alley in a sense it's my gateway to Manhattan for outside it just around this big curve we cross the Harlem River which separates the Bronx from Manhattan here under my bridge is where East Side kids [Music] swim straight As the die now down Third Avenue toward Midtown out of my windows along the way I'm too often reminded of my fate whole blocks of old New York being turned under to make way for the [Music] new even though the Third Avenue is the last of the L's there are still over a thousand people employed in operating us and we carry 270,000 passengers a day kind of a Melting Pot on Wheels I I am I carry the old and the young the dignified and the Not So [Music] dignified the pious and the [Music] Hopeless the towers of the walor atoria where Millionaires and visiting royalty stay tell my passengers that we have reached Midtown Manhattan the Chrysler Building Grand Central Terminal the Empire State State Building all in sight for my trembling station which stands in the middle of Fame 42nd [Music] Street with the swirling activity of Midtown behind us we now proceed South to Brooklyn Bridge and the Lower East Side made in song the New York of the Smiths the caners Jessel Winchell the roonies and the [Music] [Music] ogres the mysteries of the bowy and Chinatown are ever present under my [Music] rails in chinatown's chattam square our route divides itself the train to the left is ours proceeding to southf as I promised you we would the other is on its way to our city hall terminal neighboring the Woolworth [Music] Building on we go our route becoming ever narrower like a mountain stream cutting its way through a deep booming Gorge we cross Wall Street and arrive at the little station where many a banker has paused to rub his palms not in anticipation of the day's Financial gains but to warm his hands over the friendly potbellied [Music] stove [Music] finally our route swings off into the comparative open and from my Windows the confining walls of skyscrapers give way to the maritime scene in New York Bay South Ferry where all the elvs used to terminate passengers transferring to Staten Island ferry boats or for the Statue of of [Music] Liberty to a lot of people I mean a lot of things one sightseeing guide often refers to my structure as the eighth wonder of the world during hell Construction in the 1870s the big Wonder used to be how we'd keep from toppling into the street to the Aged I am their past still living to child Hood I am Fascination to folks living along the tracks I'm everything from a noisy nuisance to something as natural as morning noon and night well that's the picture as of now time borrowed time will tell the [Music] rest