Marcy and Ocean Avenue Lines in Williamsburg Brooklyn

Source: B. Linder, New York Division Bulletin, Electric Railway Association, Vol. 23, No. 3 & 4, March - April 1980, pp.2-3,7, 10.

These two lines that ran in Williamsburg have a complicated history.  Just as a side point, the Marcy Avenue Line had its' depot located at 37 Street and 13th Avenue during 1895-1898.  This was very far away from its' base of operations.  I posted earlier a street level view of 13th Avenue and 37th Street  from 1956.  The depot was previously located on the left side of the picture. When a block of garages were demolished in the early 1970's at the site, I saw a lot of bent rails in the ruble.  History may follow in the future.  The depot at 37 th Street was a Nassau Electric yard.  Regarding the Ocean Avenue Line map below, I remember after the Church Avenue trolley stopped in 1956 and before, the unusual configuration of wires and tracks at Rogers and Church Avenue.  As a small child, I could not figure out why the track curved from Church Avenue to Rogers and ran only for a few hundred feet northerly on Rogers Avenue.  Later on, I discovered that it was a turn around "wye" for single ended PCC cars on Church Avenue that needed to return in a westerly direction, perhaps in emergencies.  The wires and poles on Church Avenue remained many years after abandonment, perhaps lasting to the beginning of the Kennedy administration?

  The Marcy Avenue Line, Rogers Avenue Line and the Ocean Avenue Line were at some time owned by the Nassau Electric Company who had a yard at 37th Street. 

The Marcy Avenue Line according to Edward B. Watson in the op.cit started in April 1,  1897 and ran from Broadway Ferry at the East River east to Nostrand Avenue and west via Bergen Street to Hamilton Ferry. An earlier version of the line opened in 1895 and was also called the Marcy Avenue Line but ran via Ocean Avenue to Emmons Ave at Sheepshead Bay and the line was renamed the Manhattan Beach Line in 1896.  During 1897, the line was again renamed the Broadway Ferry & Coney Island Line and was extended to West 8th Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island.

More history of these three lines in the future.

Tramway Null(0)

Please find below an ARCGIS map of the Williamsburg area using some old shape files from 2008-9.  See if you can find Bridge Plaza which is a bus terminal.

Similar to the map above, but I used a 1975 Typo Map from 1975  with 2008-9 Transit Data for Williamsburg.