elevated railroad

American  

noun

1. a railroad system operating on an elevated structure, as over streets.

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Etymology

Origin of elevated railroad

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

In places, the trail runs atop an old elevated railroad bed, part of an iron mine that flourished here in the 1800s.

From New York Times • Dec. 18, 2020

Inspired by New York's Highline, a garden built on an elevated railroad, and Berlin's Prinzessinnengarten, a reclaimed wasteland, a Stockholm neighborhood has turned a disused railway into a communal space for hundreds of amateur gardeners.

From Reuters • Nov. 10, 2016

It called for forty-foot stone arches to be built throughout the city to carry elevated railroad lines. 

From Scientific American • Feb. 21, 2014

So it is that below the thick arch of elevated railroad tracks and the rumble of Metro-North trains, the area around 126th Street and Park Avenue still resembles a giant, beat-up storage shed.

From New York Times • Oct. 11, 2012

She explained, too, how the elevated railroad being erected over Sixty-third Street would carry guests directly to Jackson Park.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson