Off the Beaten Track
Remembering the abandoned Polo Grounds Shuttle

By Kristina K. Hermann
Contributing Writer

Many people from Highbridge, when looking west to Manhattan, see the bumper-to-bumper traffic of the Major Deegan Expressway and the Harlem River Drive.

For many older Highbridge residents however, they also see a part of history, an old elevated subway that connected the Bronx to Manhattan in the first half of the last century. Not only did the elevated subway join the two boroughs, it also connected two legendary ballparks.

The Polo Grounds Shuttle, as it was known, connected Yankee Stadium (home of the New York Yankees), to the old Polo Grounds (home of the New York baseball Giants (now the San Francisco Giants). Throughout the exciting years that the Yankees and Giants battled heart-wrenching games, the Polo Grounds shuttle transported thousands of fans, providing true meaning to the term “subway series.”

Photo by Ian Koski/Horizon The platform of an abandoned I.R.T. station still stands behind buildings on Anderson and Jerome avenues at 162nd Street.

Built in 1918, the two-car elevated subway shuttle provided quick and easy transportation. The Polo Grounds shuttle traveled from 155th Street and 8th Avenue in Harlem to 167th Street at Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. It was an extension of the 9th Avenue El line. Like many other elevated lines, the 9th Avenue. The El was shut down in 1940. Interestingly, the Polo Grounds shuttle hung on until 1958, serving as an easy way for residents of Manhattan and Highbridge to commute to work, and for fans to reach the baseball games.

“I used to watch and see if the shuttle was coming,” former Highbridge resident Bob Abate said, “if it was, I would take it over to the old Polo Grounds where I worked selling scorecards at baseball games. I would arrive there in less than five minutes.”

The Polo Grounds Shuttle was unique to other elevated subways because in the Highbridge section, the elevated train traveled underground like modern subways. It went through a tunnel built into a hill at the shuttle’s first stop at Jerome/Anderson Avenue. There, passengers climbed up the stairs to reach the platform, but if they entered at Anderson Ave. which was at the other end of the platform, passengers had to walk downstairs, making it the only El train passengers had to walk down to get to.

Continuing underground from Jerome/Anderson avenues, the second stop on the Polo Grounds Shuttle was the Sedgwick Ave. station, which was the final destination before heading into Manhattan.

Photo by Kristina Hermann/Horizon The sign denoting a substation on River Avenue at 162nd Street still hangs.

“Those who were commuting in from Westchester for baseball games would park their cars in Highbridge and take the shuttle,” Mr. Abate recalled. Perhaps even big name baseball players such as Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays took advantage of the shuttle’s easy access to the baseball fields.

More importantly as Mr. Abate remembers, “Highbridge residents used the shuttle to travel to work each day in Manhattan.” Many Highbridge residents had jobs in Harlem near and around the Polo Grounds. The Polo Grounds shuttle allowed Highbridgians the ability to work in parts of Manhattan that were difficult to access before the Polo Grounds shuttle was built.

Former Highbridge resident George Duffy recalled a time when, “there was a pedestrian bridge or ‘catwalk’ that people used to cross over the Harlem River, by foot into Manhattan.” The walk was often crowded with people, especially on game days. “It took about 15 minutes to cross the river,” Mr. Duffy said. However, during the bleak cold winter days, the shuttle proved to come in very handy.

Although the Polo Ground Shuttle hung on for four “subway series” between the Yankees and Giants in 1923, ’36, ’37, and ’51, its closure finally came in 1958. As the NY Giants headed west to San Francisco and the Polo Grounds closed, the usage of the Polo Grounds shuttle dropped significantly. Along with this, new subway lines such as the B and D train were built. The shuttle was discontinued and finally torn down. For many, the loss of the Polo Grounds shuttle signified a loss of an era – a loss of community.

Photo by Kristina Hermann/Horizon The elevated subway tracks near River Avenue were not dismantled when the tracks were taken out of service in 1958.

Today, evidence of the old Polo Grounds shuttle is scattered throughout Highbridge. History of the old shuttle has been passed down to some, while others have no idea that a subway tunnel actually exists underneath their apartment building.

“A lot of people know about the old train that used to run through here,” said Miguel a 16-year-old gas attendant on Jerome Avenue said. “Just look at the tracks that stick out at the #4 train by Yankee Stadium.” At 162nd Street and River Avenue where the Polo Grounds shuttle once connected with the # 4 subway train, there are old tracks and railings that remain overhead. The tower that once directed the merger of the #4 subway line with the Polo Grounds Shuttle is also there, a square brick building behind a fence.

On 162nd Street and Jerome Avenue where the old Jerome/Anderson station is now a sign shop, spray-painted with intricate graffiti now stands. There is a door on the sign shop that once led to the platform that is now closed. For the more adventurous, on the side of the sign shop there is a rock wall that can cautiously be climbed leading up to the roof, where the shuttle’s platform once stood.

At 950 Anderson Avenue, where Highbridge Community Life Center’s new location of G.E.D., E.S.L and Nurse’s Aide Training Program operates, a view out of an office window allows one the ability to see where the Polo Grounds Shuttle once traveled.

Today, the old Sedgwick Ave. station is covered up by the Major Deegan Expressway. However, by crossing the Major Deegan at 162nd Sreet and Summit Avenue it is possible to view a portion of the platform where the Sedgwick Avenue station once existed.

So, maybe now Highbridgians when you look west to Manhattan and see the Major Deegan Expressway and the Harlem River Drive, you too can envision the ghost of an old New York subway. An elevated train that both transported thousands of residents to and from work, and also helped put the eyes of a sports-loving country on Highbridge for a while.

For more information regarding the Polo Grounds shuttle, visit: www.nycsubway.org