[3] After the success of the Tremont Street subway (now the Green Line) the Commission began looking at options for a unified system that would serve all of downtown Boston and reach out into the growing suburbs.

At the time, Atlantic Avenue was the heart of the fishing and maritime industries in Boston, and home to ferry terminals.

The El turned north after a block onto Harrison Avenue, continuing to Beach Street, where it turned east for its first station, Beach Street, on the block just east of Harrison Avenue.

Just south of Battery Street, on the east side, was the Boston Elevated Railway's Lincoln Wharf Power Station.

[4] On January 15, 1919, the Boston Molasses Disaster damaged the elevated structure north of Battery Street.

[17] Ferry ridership from elsewhere in Boston Harbor also declined sharply, and many maritime industries moved away from Atlantic Avenue.

[1] It sat unused for several years and was torn down in 1942 for scrap metal for World War II.

The Central Artery, an elevated highway, was built in the 1950s along Atlantic Avenue and was demolished in 2003 as part of the Big Dig.