Bronx, with a branch running northeast via 138th Street, Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue to Pelham Bay Park. Construction and opening In November 1915, the New York Public Service Commission approved plans for the construction of Section 2 of the line, which would be its elevated section, and opened it up to bids on November 30. The contractor for the section was expected to complete work on it within eighteen months. As part of the construction of this section of the line, a new bridge would be built over the Bronx River, which would be above high tide. Permission to construct a bridge over the river was obtained from the federal government after marked negotiations. At the time, work on Sections 1 and 1A, between 138th Street and Park Avenue and Southern Boulevard and Whitlock Avenue, was 75 percent complete. The IRT Lexington Avenue Line opened on July 17, 1918, and the first section of the IRT Pelham Line opened to Third Avenue–138th Street on August 1, 1918. On August 1, 1918, a branch of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the IRT Pelham Line was opened to Third Avenue–138th Street. On January 7, 1919, the Pelham Line was extended to Hunts Point Avenue. The extension was originally supposed to be finished by the end of 1918, but due to the difficulty in acquiring materials, the opening was delayed. In January 1919, the Public Service Commission was acquiring property for a subway yard at Pelham Bay Park. On May 30, 1920, the Pelham Line was extended to East 177th Street. Service between Hunts Point Avenue and East 177th Street was originally served by a shuttle service operating with elevated cars. On October 24, 1920, it was extended to Westchester Square, and on December 20, it was extended to the western edge of Pelham Bay Park. Service to Pelham Bay Park was served by a mix of through and shuttle trains during the 1920s. A report, "Proposed Subway Plan for Subway Relief and Expansion" by Major Philip Mathews, published on December 24, 1926, proposed a connection from the Pelham Line to a newly proposed four-track Third Avenue subway that would run to City Hall and Downtown Brooklyn. When the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway was abandoned in 1937, one proposal for the replacement IRT Dyre Avenue Line was to connect the line to the IRT Pelham Line at Whitlock Avenue, rather