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
19th century
By the late 1870s, the elevated railways in Manhattan were operated by two companies, the Metropolitan Elevated Railway (Sixth Avenue) and New York Elevated Railroad (Third and Ninth Avenues). The Metropolitan also began constructing a line above Second Avenue.[1] The Manhattan Railway Company was chartered on December 29, 1875, and leased both companies on May 20, 1879.[2]
The company was the subject of investigation by the New York State Legislature's Hepburn Committee which exposed a scheme that involved barely legal business practices and massive watering of the company's stock in order to raise its nominal value from $2 million to $15 million.[3] The exposure of the shady business practices of the company led the Hepburn Committee to propose an act of the legislature outlawing fictitious "ownership" of railroads via leases and related stock watering schemes.[4]
See also
- The Hepburn Committee
- George Jay Gould
- Frank K. Hain, longtime general manager
External links
References
- Consolidating Rapid Transit in New York Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 23, 1879^
- New York Supreme Court County of New York^
- Supplemental report relating to the elevated railroads of the City of New York. Internet Archive, New York State Legislature, 1880, retrieved 11 February 2022