What it was like when freight trains ran at grade down the streets of Manhattan¡¯s West Side.
They used to call these men the ¡°West Side Cowboys¡± or ¡°Tenth Avenue Cowboys¡±.
The job of urban cowboy was created by an 1850s city ordinance that permitted freight cars to run along the streets so long as they didn¡¯t exceed six miles per hour and that the railroad ¡ª first the Hudson River, later the New York Central ¡ª ¡°shall employ a proper person to precede the trains on horseback, to give the necessary warning in a suitable manner on their approach.¡± Still, so many accidents and deaths occurred that Tenth Avenue came to be known as ¡°Death Avenue.¡±
This photo documents the end of street running on Tenth Avenue as the trains began using the elevated High Line.
It was at 10:50 a.m. that the last cowboy rode down Tenth Avenue. It was March 29, 1941. He was George Hayde, age twenty-one, mounted on what one reporter dubbed ¡°his faithful bay, Cyclone.¡± The two led a string of fourteen freight cars loaded with oranges.
Bob Chaparro