History
The earliest example of an elevated railway was the London and Greenwich Railway which was built on a brick viaduct of 878 arches between 1836 and 1838. The first 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of the London and Blackwall Railway (1840) was also built on a viaduct. During the 1840s there were various other schemes for elevated railways in London which did not come to fruition.
From the late 1860s elevated railways became popular in US cities. The New York West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway operated with cable cars from 1868 to 1870, but thereafter was locomotive hauled. This was followed by the Manhattan Railway in 1875, the Boston Elevated Railway (1887-), and the South Side Elevated Railroad, Chicago (1892-). The Berlin Stadtbahn (1882) is also principally on elevated track.
The first electrically-operated elevated railway, was the Liverpool Overhead Railway, which operated through Liverpool docks from 1893 until 1956.
In London the Docklands Light Railway is an example of a modern elevated railway, opened in 1987 and since expanded. In this case the trains are driverless and automatic.
Read more about this topic: Elevated Railway
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