"Construction of subway cut on West 162nd Street, just west of Anderson Avenue, November 1915. 68 West 162nd Street is the building at left."

The tunnel was constructed as part of a project to extend the Ninth Avenue El service from 155th Street in Manhattan to Bronx points, while providing a connection to the New York and Putnam Railroad’s new Sedgwick Avenue terminus (the line had previously ended at 155th Street, after crossing the Putnam Bridge). The project was completed in 1918.

Though part of an elevated line, transit engineers decided to tunnel through the West Bronx hillside in order to connect the Sedgwick Avenue station with the IRT Jerome Avenue Line (today’s 4 train) to the east.

Ninth Avenue El service was discontinued in 1940, but the newer Bronx stations remained in service for the Polo Grounds Shuttle to 155th Street, Manhattan, until 1958.