Atlantic Avenue Elevated

Atlantic Avenue Elevated
The Atlantic Avenue Elevated outside South Station
Overview
System	Boston Elevated Railway
Termini	North Station Tower D
Stations	6
Operation
Opened	22 August 1901
Closed	30 September 1938
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map to Tremont Street Subway (1901-1908) Washington Street Subway (1908-1938) North Station Charlestown Elevated Tower C Battery Street State Street East Boston Tunnel Rowes Wharf BRB&L ferry South Station Cambridge- Dorchester Tunnel Beach Street closed 1919 to Washington Street Subway 1908-1938 to Tremont Street Subway 1901-1908 Tower D Washington Street Elevated This diagram:

The Atlantic Avenue Elevated was an elevated railway around the east side of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, providing a second route for the Boston Elevated Railway's Main Line Elevated (now the MBTA's Orange Line) around the Washington Street Tunnel. It was in use from 1901 to 1938, and was demolished due to low ridership.

The Atlantic Avenue El was conceived as a part of a greater mass transit proposal by the Boston Transit Commission in 1896. After the success of the Tremont Street Subway (now the Green Line) the Commission began looking at options for a unified system that would serve all of downtown Boston and reach out into the growing suburbs. As conceived, there would be two corridors through which elevated trains would run: the Washington Street Tunnel — the heart of today's MBTA Orange Line subway — under Washington Street from a portal at Oak Street to the then-existing subway portal north of Haymarket Square, and an all-elevated line which would run along Atlantic Avenue. At the time, Atlantic Avenue was the heart of the fishing and maritime industries in Boston, and home to ferry terminals. Both the Washington Street Subway and Atlantic Avenue El would service trains from the Main Line El (the elevated section of the old Orange Line, now demolished).

When the Atlantic Avenue El first opened–shortly after the Main Line itself–in August 1901, the Main Line went through the Tremont Street Subway, changing between elevated and subway at the Pleasant Street Incline (in the south) and the Canal Street Incline (in the north). The low-level trolley platforms were altered with temporary high-level platforms to allow elevated trains to unload passengers. Where the original Washington Street Elevated (the south part of the Main Line) turned west from Washington Street onto Castle Street (now Herald Street), it had a full three-way junction (Tower D) with the Atlantic Avenue El, which began by heading east between Motte Street (also part of Herald Street) and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad's approach tracks for South Station.