From an Area of Little Electric Transit Coverage: South East Brooklyn

  This great shot was taken by docjayva a few days ago in Brooklyn from Avenue "U" near Marine Park. The view is facing east, showing the Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge in the distance to the left center of the frame.  I believe that the area shown is a wildlife sanctuary for birds and other animals.  This area of Brooklyn never was served by electric rapid transit, such as streetcars, trolleybuses or subways.  Although I cannot provide documentation for this, in the 1920's when this area was being developed, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company or the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company would have liked to developed streetcar lines for such southern Brooklyn routes as Avenue U but the city blocked it. Concerning rapid transit, there were plans to extend the IRT Nostrand Avenue from Brooklyn College to Sheepshead Bay, but nothing ever materialized.  For the IND 2nd System, the IND subway was supposed to be extended along Utica Avenue, which is in the area as well.  Part of this route would have been on an elevated structure, believe it or not.  In the 1920's, this area of Brooklyn was not developed and this may have been accomplished.  Try building a new EL in  Brooklyn now.  Much further east, the Long Island Railroad had a long history of connecting the Rockaways with Queens via Jamaica Bay.  I cannot document this, but the PRW that is presently used by the IND Rockaway Line that recently got washed out by Sandy, was used by LIRR steam and electric trains.  There may have been plans also to run rapid transit style electrified trolley cars as well along this privage right of way early in the 20th Century.  It is interesting to note that it would have been interesting to see light rail transit cross the Marine Bridge to the Rockaways and proceed to the Flatbush Avenue IRT Station.  This would have provided welcome additional clean rapid transit service to the area.  To bad the IRT subway could not have been extended to the Bay Ridge LIRR right of way south of the Flatbush Avenue station which is not to far away.  This could have provided a cross platform transfer to Rockaway bound light rail if the station was designed right, like subway - streetcar interchange stations in Toronto, Canada.