Church - McDonald Streetcar Line died 10/31/56

/Tonight is the anniversary of the end of streetcars in Brooklyn on 10/31/56 which may have been also a Wednesday.   On this date, the Church Avenue, Church - McDonald and the Cortelyou Road trolleybus (B-23) also ended.  In this shot taken off the web shows a southbound Church - McDonald streetcar along the incline of the IND subway system between Ditmas and Church Avenue stations.  To the right of the PCC streetcar is a R-1-9 subway car going south towards the Ditmas Avenue station.  The Brooklyn - Queens Tram shown below is not doing well and around a week ago it was declared that the Staten Island Ferris Wheel is also dead.   I guess trolleys in Brooklyn, old or new and a ferris wheel in Staten Island were not meant to be.

Ashland Street Connection

Currently in subchat, there is a thread dealing with the Myrtle Avenue Line in Brooklyn and its demise.  There is some discussion stating how useful would the line be today if it was still in existence and a thought / experiment dealing with a re-introduction of the line.  Where would the line end in the western part of Myrtle Avenue now that Metrotech occupies the former Myrtle -Jay Street-Bridge Street area?

  Around 1969,  before transit became fashionable and the only way to do research was to go to the Public Library, I went to the  Research Division of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.   I remember either looking at a early New York Regional Plan (the first? )  written in the early 1920's or the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit (BMT) document dealing with transit development, also dated in the 1920's.   Something was mentioned about an Ashland Street connection where an elevated line would be connected to the relatively new BMT subway in the area.  Dual Contracts was not finished and the BMT was having trouble building the Nassau Street Loop at this time.  For better service, it was proposed to connect one of the elevated lines to the subway and have the line go to one of the BMT branches in Manhattan.  I do not remember if the document had a map showing where this would be built.

    It would be very difficult these days to construct an elevated line in a residential area, however, something that I never saw before is happening today:   Large skyscrapers are being built near the elevated Flushing Line.   Attitudes are changing about being near rapid transit and younger persons may be less against elevated lines.

Myrtle Avenue and Flatbush Avenue Extension: Revisited

https://pcullinan.smugmug.com/Brooklyn/The-Myrtle-Avenue-El/Myrtle-Ave-El-Oct-1969/i-z5WGrVN

  For the last few weeks, there has been a thread going on in subchat dealing with the Myrtle Avenue El, whose anniversary of it's abandonment was in early October.  This line, the last one to end service with wooden cars, ended service in October, 1969.  I rode on that line, in the early afternoon of the last day.   Growing up, my mother used to take me to downtown Brooklyn for shopping in the big department stores on Fulton Street and as we walked, at each intersection to the north,  I saw views of the line about one block away.   When I was very small, I remember seeing gate cars on the line (prior to 1958), but no matter how much I begged my mother, should would not take me on the line.
In the picture above, taken off the web at the address indicated, is  view of Flatbush Avenue Extension and Myrtle Avenue.  You can see part of of green arched structure that I remember as a child.   As you look at the left of the picture, you can see black squares.   These are the air vents to the BMT Subway at the Myrtle Avenue station which is now abandoned.  I believe that on the Myrtle Avenue El, there was no station at Flatbush Avenue because Flatbush Avenue Extension was a street created to reach the Manhattan Bridge and it did not exist when the el was constructed in the 19th Century.  Thus this intersection was between the Navy Street and Bridge Street Stations.  When elevated service ended on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1944?, the line had to be reconfigured at the western end.   I believe the Bridge Street station was extended westward towards Jay Street with a passenger walkway to the IND Jay Street - Borough Hall (Now Metrotech) station.   Many people do not know that Myrtle Avenue continued westward towards Court Street or Adams Street with the el passing the Sand Street on it's route over the Brooklyn Bridge to Park Row in Manhattan.  The Supreme Court at Adams Street is the approximate location where Myrtle Avenue and its' el continued westward.
  I remember that there was some sort of unusual transfer procedures for Myrtle El  passengers that were established.  It went something like this:  Passengers paying fares at some westerly Myrtle Avenue El Stations got a ticket to transfer to the IND Jay Street Subway station at Myrtle and Jay streets.  They used the new walkway and gave the paper transfer to the agent.   According to the ticket, this transfer was also valid for streetcars on Jay Street (1944-1951) as well.  These streetcars were Park Row bound.   The ticket was only valid until the Broadway-Nassau stations (Fulton Street today).   Theoretically, the passenger who have to exit the subway at Broadway Nassau.   Going to Brooklyn, only those paying fares at Broadway Nassau got a ticket to transfer to the Myrtle El at Jay-Bridge Street station on the Myrtle El.  At some point, probably at nights, perhaps in the 1950's, the fare agent booths were closed at night and passengers paid there fares to conductors on the el trains.  I am sorry that the el is gone even though I have no business in this part of Brooklyn.   Els were considered as "old fashioned" and transportation planners considered smelly stinkeroo diesel buses as a solution to all our transit woes.  Picture from Brooklyn Public Library.   The arch was visible from many blocks away.  Myrtle-Gold Street station should be underneath the arch.   Thus at Myrtle - Flatbush,  you have subway, trolley and elevated service.  The area looks very different today.

Tramway Null()