FIFTH AVENUE BUS, WASHINGTON SQUARE
OCTOBER 21, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 174

In 1885, the Fifth Avenue Coach Company began servicing the residents of Fifth Avenue with horse-drawn coaches, which ran from East 90th Street to Washington Square. In 1907, horses were replaced with double-decker motorized buses, which became a trademark of the company. The 1931 model in Abbott's photograph gave way in the late 1930s to a streamlined moderne design. Entering and leaving through the Washington Arch, buses turned around and headed back up Fifth Avenue, which until 1966 was a two-way street. Abbott depicted the double-decker bus at the end of the line between runs.

In the 1950s, the privately owned company was taken over by the city's transit system, and when the park was redesigned in 1966, buses were rerouted outside the park's confines.

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