Taking the 3rd Avenue El to the Botanical Garden

We can’t be sure that these genteel New Yorkers actually took the Third Avenue El to get to the New York Botanical Garden, a 250-acre cultural treasure founded in 1891.

But after the turn of the century, when this image was likely taken, there was no easier way to get from Manhattan to the Gardens or the new Zoo opened nearby in 1899.

You could say that the El, the Botanical Garden, and the Bronx or New York Zoological Park, as it was called, are all products of a great late 19th century push to improve city life and its offerings, making New York easier to transverse and giving it world-class cultural institutions—all of which we continue to benefit from.

Tags: Bronx Annexed Manhattan, Bronx Park, Bronx Zoo Early Photos, Clothes New Yorkers Wore 1900, Gilded Age New York, New York Botanical Garden, Third Avenue El, vintage New York postcards