Later Means of Communication 241 



and Third Avenue, Manhattan. These lines go over a part 

 of Third Avenue for a greater or less distance before diverging 

 to their special destination. Until the spring of 1908, an 

 additional fare of three cents would secure a transfer to or from 

 the elevated. 



The entire system within the Borough was under the Union 

 Railway Company, or "Huckleberry Road," until January, 

 1898, when the Third Avenue Company secured control. 

 The Third Avenue and leased lines were, in their turn, leased 

 to the Metropolitan Street Railway Company on April 13, 

 1900, for nine hundred and ninety-nine years. On November 

 25, 1901, the Interurban Railway Company secured control. 

 The development of the system is, however, mainly due to 

 the Union Railway Company. In January, 1904, the Inter- 

 urban Company petitioned the county court of Westchester 

 County to change its name to the New York Railway Com- 

 pany. 



During the decade from 1898 to 1908, all the railways of 

 Manhattan and The Bronx were being manipulated by the 

 late William C. Whitney and others, with the result that they 

 came virtually under one management. The stock was 

 enormously increased beyond any reasonable relation to the 

 actual value of the road-beds, rolling stock, barns, power- 

 houses, franchises, and earning capacity, so that in June, 

 1908, they went into the hands of receivers; and the transfers 

 to and from the elevated and the Westchester Traction Com- 

 pany were abolished by the United States courts, though 

 those with the Westchester Company have been resumed in 

 some cases. 



The successful operation upon Manhattan Island of the 

 elevated railroads after 1870 turned the attention of engineers 

 and capitalists to the possibilities of similar structures in the 



