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.



Elevation of Roadway on Selected Bridges New York City

  Since many of my photo postings involve the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridges, please find attached a map showing the elevations of the roadways connected with these bridges.  The color coding was constructed to show red as the highest elevation and this appears to be, of course, the middle of the bridge. In some places, the map will show the elevation in feet in numerials.  The green line on the southern shore line of Manhattan is the FDR Drive.  Map constructed using ARCGIS and City of New York elevation file of buildings and structures.

Another Great Photo Shot from the Manhattan Bridge

This photo was shot by docjayva several days ago from the Manhattan Bridge.  The white streak between the Manhattan tower and anchorage is a protective sheet at road level due to road maintenance.

Photo Shot from the Brooklyn Bridge on July 27, 2012

Another great shot by docjayva of the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday, July 27, 2012..  Fifty two years earlier, trolley bus service on the Flushing Avenue Line ended at High Street on July 27, 1960.  The line's end was very close to the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn side and probably in streetcar days, the Flushing Avenue trolley ran on the bridge to Park Row.

Long Gone Brooklyn Elevated Lines by Roger Arcara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPWVQzN7AF8

   The attached youtube video was narrated by the late transit historian, Roger Arcara.  It is a great narrative for those of us born after 1950, because we get to see so many elevated lines that have been gone for over sixty years or more.  You will get to see the els that died or were truncated in the 1940's, namely the Fifth Avenue - Culver El, the 5th Avenue - 3rd Avenue Bay Ridge Branch, the Fulton Street El, the western end of the Myrtle Avenue El.  The Lexington Avenue El that died in 1950 is also shown and parts of the City Line Branch as well.  The fabulous structure just south of the Brooklyn Bridge is also shown, near Sand Street where you will see various Brooklyn trolleys entering the elevated structure.  Notice the lattice trolley wire support frames, they are most interesting.  You will get to see a Fifth Avenue - Culver Elevated train pass through the 38th Street Yard, and you will see for a nanosecond that the trackless westerly ramps were not used, instead the present day yard leads were utilized.  A young person walking near the Brooklyn Bridge today near Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn will never have imagined that such complicated rapid transit structures were in place, both for rapid transit and trolley.  With the opening and the extention of the IND subway in Brooklyn in the 1930's through the 1950's, the number of passengers gradually fell on both trans East River elevated and trolley cars as a one seat, one fare ride was provided for passengers coming in from eastern Brooklyn and Queens to Manhattan.  For this reason, and others, all these great structures and trains and trolleys were discarded.  Today in Brooklyn, there are very little artifacts of our great elevated and trolley heritage except for some vastly spaced  trolley line poles and some trolley track shadows under the asphalt on some streets.  Thank you for making this video available for us to enjoy!  Tramway Null(0)

Brooklyn Bridge as seen from Manhattan Bridge 3-29-12

This picture taken last night from the Manhattan Bridge faces south towards the Brooklyn Bridge.  Like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge is rich in transit history.  The Manhattan Bridge today carries four rapid transit subway tracks for 6th Avenue and Broadway subway services.  Many years ago, the Manhattan Bridge had a shuttle trolley that used regular overhead and at one time, I believe a set of tracks existed on the upper roadways that had a conduit that allowed some Manhattan streetcar lines that used conduits to travel as far east as downtown Brooklyn near the Manhattan Bridge extrance.  Note:  All photos shot so far for this blog is from the photography of docjayva.

The Brooklyn Bridge Once Carried Elevated Trains and Street Cars

This photo, taken about one year ago, faces Brooklyn.  Since 1950, no electric transit has crossed the bridge when streetcar service from Brooklyn was stopped.  Rich in transit history, the Brooklyn Bridge carried Brooklyn Elevated trains on two tracks and streetcar service on two roadway tracks.  After elevated service accross the Brooklyn Bridge stopped around 1940-1944?, streetcars eventially used the PRW of the former elevated railroad to reach the Park Row Loop.  The former Park Row station, which was the terminus of many Brooklyn elevated lines provided a paying transfer to IRT Elevated trains such as the Third Avenue Line at the City Hall terminal, or a transfer to the Lexington Avenue Subway at the Brooklyn Bridge station.