This Is What Riding The Third Avenue Elevated Was Like In 1950

A Train Ride New Yorkers Will Never Experience Again

Third Avenue El photo Joseph FrankThis is a portrait of a vanished New York unlike any other ever captured on film.

This ten minute impressionistic documentary film Third Avenue El (1950) is occasionally shown on Turner Classic Movies. If you love old New York City and have never seen the film, I strongly recommend you watch it (below).

On all levels this is a magnificent film and I’m so grateful that writer/director Carson Davidson preserved so many aspects of mid-century New York, all in glorious color.

Service on the Third Ave. El ended in 1955 and the tracks were soon torn down, forever altering  the streets of New York.

3 thoughts on “This Is What Riding The Third Avenue Elevated Was Like In 1950

  1. c

    I am a native New Yorker and a Locomotive Engineer for the Rail Road. I just came across this video and I loved it! This true artist has captured a period in NYC time that so many NY’ers never got to experience and through the magic of film it has been documented. I am a photographer myself. I’ve been Shooting 35mm since 1972 and have documented the changing scenes of NYC over the last 45 years.

    Reply

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