✗ SKIP — Not worth it

Around the Big Curves on the Manhattan Elevated R.R.

Name: Around the Big Curves on the Manhattan Elevated R.R.
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1899-03-25
Duration: 1 min
Rating: 4.9

1899 · 0h 1m · Documentary

IMDb 4.9

Unless you're a transit history obsessive or silent film completist, skip this 1904 novelty footage—even the IMDb score can't hide that 10 minutes of jerky locomotive footage gets old fast, no matter how thrilling it seemed to audiences in Edison's era.

Plot

Taken from the front end of a locomotive following an express train at high speed around the high curves of the Ninth Avenue Elevated, from the 104th to 116th Street station. This section, with its reverse curve, is known as "The Big Loop", and is the highest (at over 100 feet) and most dangerous section on the New York Elevated. During the trip, Grant's Tomb, Columbia College buildings, the new Cathedral of St. John The Divine, and Morningside Park, as well as a portion of the north end of Central Park are visible.

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