- In 1846 train tracks were embedded into 10th, 11th and 12th avenues to make transporting cargo easier into the industrial areas of New York City
- The trains were so dangerous on the street level that 'cowboys' were commissioned to ride ahead of the trains on horseback to warn pedestrians
- Even with the hardworking cowboys, hundreds of adults and children were killed and injured from the trains
- To prevent more deaths, an elevated railway called the High Line was built in 1934
- In 1941, 90 years after the cowboys were started, George Hayde took their last ride after trains stopped running on street level
It was the final ride of New York’s famed West Side cowboys: George Hayde and his horse Cyclone rode up 10th Avenue for the last time, leading a 14-car train carrying a cargo of oranges at 10.50am from 17th Street.
It was delivering produce to a warehouse near 30th Street in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District and Hayde’s job was to monitor the train’s speed – it traveled at no more than its six-mile-per-hour speed limit, the next day’s newspapers noted - and to warn pedestrians the 130 ton vehicle was coming – right down the middle of the street.
It was long before New York’s 21st Century cowboy wore only underwear and posed for photos with tourists in Times Square. This was March 24, 1941, and it was the end of an era.
Cowboys on horseback toting red flags and lanterns to warn of oncoming cargo trains had been a common sight on the western avenues of New York City for 90 years.
They were there to protect pedestrians from the freight trains running through 10th, 11th and 12th avenues that had killed hundreds of people, giving 10th Avenue in particular the sinister nickname Death Avenue.
The last ride of the West Side cowboys: George Hayde, 21, pictured on his horse Cyclone, led the final ride of the West Side cowboys up 10th Avenue on March 24, 1941 at 10.50am. Hayde's job was to warn pedestrians of the oncoming freight train and to monitor its speed, making sure the 14-car train did not go faster than six miles an hour
To make transporting goods into New York City's industrial areas easier, train tracks were embedded into 10th, 11th and 12th avenues in 1846. After that, freight trains shared the streets with horse-drawn carriages, cars, trolleys and pedestrians. To keep people safe, the New York City Council commissioned men on horseback to ride ahead of the trains and warn pedestrians. Those men became known as the West Side cowboys. The cowboy pictured is William Connolly on 11th Avenue on December 18, 1932, near the end of the cowboys' era
Early on, the cowboys wore more formal uniforms like the cowboy pictured here on 11th Avenue in 1910 wearing a hat and coat. Later on, cowboys were pictured wearing more casual clothes such as jeans and ten-gallon hats like real cowboys from the Wild West would have worn
Despite the cowboys’ hard work, hundreds more adults and children were killed or seriously injured by the trains.
By 1934 the cowboys’ job became almost obsolete when the High Line railroad was introduced. Seven years later, George Hayde and Cyclone took their last ride.
Photographer and writer Annik La Farge has lived in New York City her whole life and wrote a guidebook about the High Line, which is now a public park. As an expert on the West Side, La Farge said the West Side cowboys connect the modern day to New York City’s past.
‘This really speaks to a whole other era of the way the city worked,’
‘Trying to imagine freight trains running up and down 10th Avenue - it puts you into a whole different historical period. And I think that this figure – not only is he colorful because he’s a cowboy in the middle of Manhattan, but he’s connected with this idea of the 19th century and early 20th century process of moving goods around.
‘Stuff got into the city by freight trains and the freight trains came in at-grade, through the actual streets where people were living and working… Today things get delivered by UPS that come from Amazon’s warehouse - they get delivered by air or by truck.’
But in the 19th and early 20th centuries, everything was delivered by train including produce, raw materials, appliances and even clothes.
And the cowboys were an important part of that delivery process. They guided the trains down the street and protected people from the massive machines that were delivering goods.
The cowboys protected the West Side for 90 years, but there were still hundreds of adults and children who were killed or injured by the freight trains. This unknown cowboy is riding ahead of a freight train coming down 11th Avenue. In the distance, a man in white can be seen trying to cross in front of the train anyways, putting himself in danger
Freight trains were essential in the 19th and early 20th century for transporting goods from one place to another. In New York City almost everything that was delivered to the city came in by train, making the West Side cowboys an important part of the transportation and delivery process. This cowboy is riding down 11th Avenue wearing a formal uniform
Little is known about specific cowboys, but they all had to be over 18 and most were hired from outside the city. This unknown cowboy is riding down 11th Avenue ahead of a train wearing overalls, a hat and a flannel shirt - a more casual uniform than many of his predecessors
La Farge said: ‘It’s a really important part of the history of the city. Which is now really gone. Now here it’s all art galleries, and it’s fancy restaurants and beautiful buildings and hedge fund guys and whatnot, but in those days, it was a whole different thing.
‘So that figure, that one single figure, connects us to all of that history. And I think that’s part of why he’s captivated so many people for so long.’
She added: ‘I mean, who doesn’t love a man on horseback? And these guys are in Manhattan doing this job of trying to protect people. They’re almost like fire fighters. They’re guys who are brave and really colorful.’
In 1846 train tracks were embedded into the cobblestones of 10th, 11th and 12th avenues so that freight trains could bring shipments of produce and other goods to the warehouses and factories of the industrial Meatpacking District.
The convenience of having street-level freight trains for the warehouses also brought danger to the city streets that were shared by horse-drawn carriages, trolleys, cars and pedestrians, so in 1850 the New York City Council passed an ordinance to commission a ‘proper person’ to ride in front of every freight train, warning pedestrians and monitoring train speeds.
That ‘proper person’ soon became known as the West Side cowboy.
The cowboys were employed by whichever railroad company owned the West Side lines. Rail lines often changed hands because they were bought and sold or their companies went out of business.
Though many people think that railroads replaced horses, railroad companies had more horses than most companies, according to New York City carriage driver Christina Hansen. Besides the cowboy horses who protected the streets, rail yards used horses to move train cars on the tracks so they could be attached to the proper trains
In 1934 an elevated railroad called the High Line was built for the freight trains to continue delivering goods to warehouses and factories without the frequent casualties that the West Side saw. After freight trains were replaced with trucks for transporting goods, the High Line was renovated into a public park, pictured
The West Side of Manhattan used to be largely industrial, with factories and warehouses. Pictured is one of the street-level trains in front of the Manhattan Refrigerating Company on today's 10th Avenue between Gansevoort and Horatio streets
The cowboys’ horses were also owned by the rail lines and were most likely stabled with the railroad’s other horses.
Christina Hansen, who is a New York City carriage driver, told DailyMail.com that rail lines actually employed many horses, not just the ones the cowboys rode.
‘The largest employer of horses were railroads,’ she said. ‘People think railroads replaced horses, but railroads came and increased demand for horses.’
Railroad horses worked in the yards and moved train cars along the tracks to be attached to the proper trains.
‘There were stables all over Manhattan, all over the West Side in particular. I don’t know where particularly [the horses] were kept… Presumably their stables would have been by the rail yard terminus,’ Hansen said.
The cowboys’ horses served for eight years before they retired and were auctioned off at a horse market in New York.
By 1934 the West Side cowboys' job was becoming obsolete because the High Line had been built. However, trains continued to run on the street-level tracks until 1941 when the cowboys took their final ride up 10th Avenue. The unknown cowboy that is pictured rode his horse ahead of a train on 11th Avenue
The West Side cowboys are an important reminder of the history of New York City, said West Side expert Annick La Farge. She said: ‘It’s a really important part of the history of the city. Which is now really gone... So that figure, that one single figure, connects us to all of that history. And I think that’s part of why he’s captivated so many people for so long.’ Pictured is 11th Avenue at 43rd and 44th streets above the rail yard at 30th Street
Photographs show that early on the cowboys wore formal uniforms, but as time went on they dressed more casually, like cowboys from the Wild West with jeans and ten-gallon hats.
At their height there were 12 cowboys and 24 horses. On their shifts the cowboys worked alone, though there were crossing watchmen who also worked for the railroad in designated spots along the two-mile route through Manhattan.
In the crowded streets of the West Side, the cowboys did not have an easy job. While they were waving a flag or lantern, they also had to keep their horses steady among the loud noises of the traffic around them and trains behind them.
The cowboys had to make sure the trains didn’t go faster than six miles an hour, which they did by maintaining that speed themselves in front of the massive and dangerous machines.
Despite their heroism cowboys were also blamed for accidents and the children they tried to protect often harassed the men on horseback as they played in the street.
Though the cowboys were well-respected, they didn't necessarily live in luxury. The last known West Side cowboy, George Hayde and his wife Mary lived in a tenement apartment in a known slum. Pictured is a tenement house on 10th Avenue and 33rd Street
And even though the position of the cowboys was respected, the men did not necessarily live in luxury. The last cowboy, 21-year-old George Hayde and his wife Mary, 19, lived together on one of the worst blocks in New York City. It was a known slum at the time, a tenement apartment on 8th Avenue between 20th and 21st streets.
The cowboys, who all had to be over 18, were mostly hired from outside the city because it was difficult to find riders and ‘because a country boy knows and understands horses’, according to a newsletter from the West Side luxury apartment on 24th Street, London Terrace Towers.
The newsletter came out in 1934, the same year that the High Line railroad had been built. The newsletter was a way of saying goodbye to the era of the wild West Side, though the cowboys would continue riding until 1941.
The newsletter said: ‘Every resident of London Terrace knows, and we believe, likes the cowboy riders of New York Central, who day and night, rain or shine, majestically precede the electric trains along Tenth Avenue [sic].
‘For eighty years [sic] this unique custom has been in existence, but now, even as the riders of the West have faded into glamorous limbo of romance, their own day is drawing to its close. With the early completion of the overhead roadway, they will disappear from the streets of New York.’
Pictured is another tenement building beside the train tracks on 11th Avenue and 45th Street. Hayde and his wife lived at 8th Avenue between 20th and 21st streets
Today there are no more West Side cowboys and trains no longer run at street-level on 10th, 11th or 12th avenues. Pictured is 11th Avenue from the corner of 34th Street from April 2016
The High Line was built in 1934 as part of the West Side Improvement Project to combat the frequent deaths that were happening even with the cowboys.
Hundreds of adults and children were injured and killed by the oncoming trains and 10th Avenue became known as Death Avenue.
In one instance, a man named Willie Lennon lost a leg to a train in 1894 and in 1897 a train killed crossing watchman Michael Fox because the conductor did not wait for his signal.
Children, who often played in the streets on their way to and from school were also victims of the trains. Seth Low Hascamp, a seven-year-old, was killed in 1908, which led to a protest of 500 schoolchildren. And in 1911, five-year-old John Murray slipped and was decapitated.
Some estimations say that 436 people were killed on West Side train tracks from 1852 to 1908 despite the hard work of Manhattan’s cowboys, so the elevated platform of the High Line allowed trains access to warehouses and factories without endangering people.
Today the High Line is a public park that runs along the elevated rail road built in 1934. It was renovated in sections, beginning in 1999 with the founding of Friends of the High Line
But even after the High Line was built, trains continued to run on the street-level tracks until 1941, when the last cowboy, George Hayde, took his final ride down 10th Avenue.
After that ride, Cyclone and the two other cowboy horses moved on to jobs at a riding academy. And even though Hayde put up his ten-gallon hat for good, he continued to work for the railroad until a few months later.
He served in the Army during the Second World War after the US joined on December 7, 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
After the war, Hayde returned to work with the railroad until his death in 1977.
Hayde and Cyclone have become iconic because of their last ride, particularly since the High Line tracks were renovated into a public park. Trains stopped running on the High Line in 1980 when freight trains were largely replaced by trucks and the interstate.
In 1999 the Friends of the High Line was founded and began to renovate the elevated railroad.
La Farge said that since the group started, they have brought the West Side cowboys to life.
‘One of the things they did was to kind of fixate on this character and it was a really smart thing to do because he’s really colorful and really interesting and kind of unbelievable, particularly in modern-day Manhattan.
‘They said not only is that a beautiful place, both in terms of its horticulture and its architectural design, and the perch that you get by standing on it, but it is filled with this history that connects us to the city.’
The revised edition of Annik La Farge’s guidebook, On the High Line: Exploring America’s Most Original Urban Park, was published in 2014. It is the first illustrated guide to the High Line.
La Farge said that since Friends of the High Line started renovating the former elevated rail line, pictured, they have done a good job of bringing the story of the West Side cowboys back to life
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