Mystery Solved: Link between Church and Ditmas Avenues Brooklyn

The above two pictures were taken off the web at various times.  I cannot give you the source, but my purpose is educational.  Church Avenue station on the Independent Subway System Prospect Park Line opened on March 20, 1933.  If we jump forward to October 30,  1954, we see that the link between Church Avenue and Ditmas Avenue was complete and thus "D" trains from the Bronx were able to reach Coney Island, or what is considered a one seat ride.   This link that enabled the extension of the Independent subway to Coney Island caused trolley service below on McDonald Avenue to be cut back.

In a earlier post, I showed that the incline with the trolley support poles were already built in the 1930s, perhaps at opening day.   The proof of this may be that there is a four track yard partially underneath the incline.  If you look between the tracks as the subway enters the incline, you will see ventilation grills and a street emergency exit just about where the track level reaches street level (West side of McDonald Avenue at the sidewalk).

What happened between 1933 and the pictures above from 1941?  I am not sure but the pictures seem to show that the incline existed without steel grid work with no built connection to the BMT Culver line.  I am not sure if the entire steel structure spanned completely from the end of the incline to the Culver Line in the 1940's   I do know that for many years there was a one track connection (North Bound IND Local Track) to the Ditmas Avenue Station.   Other parts of the steel structure had no tracks on them until 1954.    To be continued.

Thus the probable sequence:

• 1933:  Church Avenue Station and incline (non steel) to street level
• 1941: Steel Girders from street level to just south of curve of structure of Culver Line.
• 1942 - 1954? Steel girder connection between incline steel and Culver Line Structure, Track connection (one track) at the northbound local track at Ditmas Avenue to incline structure.
• 1954:  Incline and steel structure have tracks installed.  New Culver shuttle track built (southbound platform Ditmas Avenue).  Culver BMT line tracks severed from structure at Ditmas Avenue except one track.  Three tracks at Ditmas Avenue connected to four track incline.

Look at This:

From Southern Brooklyn Scrap Book

This great photo was taken in 1941.  It shows that the incline to the IND subway to Church Avenue was in place and some of the steel structure was in place, but no steel structure was connected to the BMT Culver Line.  Pictures around 1954 shows that the northbound local IND track was connected to the BMT Culver structure south of Ditmas Avenue, near the signal and workmen shown above.  Notice the trolley line poles to the right on McDonald Avenue.  They were there since the Culver Line was electrified on the surface.  The BMT structure dates from 1919 so the poles were out of service from 1919 to at least 1941.  More to tell you later.

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1931

From Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/2/1931

This citation came to my attention on March 29, 2016 in subcat.  The above photograph was taken on 10/2/31 and answers some questions concerning the link between the IND subway at Church Avenue ( on the current F and G) routes and the former BMT Culver Line at Ditmas Avenue.  If memory serves correct, the Church Avenue station of the IND Prospect Park line opened in 1933.  Through service through the link above did not open until October, 1954 when the IND subway "captured " the BMT Culver Line to Coney Island.  I have posted pictures showing the area above around 1951 in which the three western tracks were not constructed.  I saw a photo showing only one track, that is the northbound local track in existence around 1951 entering into the subway from the three track Culver Line at Ditmas Avenue.  The photo above, facing south from Avenue C and "Gravesend Avenue "  now McDonald Avenue shows the warehouse and part of the Culver Line structure at the extreme right of the photo.  The retaining walls for the incline and the trolley support poles are already in place by 1931.  We can thus say that at least for the incline, the incline was in existence by 1931.  This is logical because part of the yard tracks are under the ramp tracks for a portion of the the incline.  When was the ramp iron work joined to the Culver line to the south?  This I do not know but pictures taken in 1951 shows PCC cars running in the area under the new structure that was untracked, except for the northbound local track.  Probably the iron structure was joined after World War II was metal shortages were eased.  Somewhere in the literature, it was described by an old timer in the 1930's or 1940's that a huge tree, that typically grows in lots in Brooklyn, and described in a "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" was growing in the middle of the ramp during this time.

Of Baseball Fields and Trolley Loops

With a few hours, two commenters wrote on different subjects but dealing generally with the same area, namely the McDonald Avenue area in Brooklyn between the Ditmas Avenue and Avenue I stations.  One writer wrote about the Swedish Trolley car that ran in 1961 under wire power on McDonald Avenue.  I posted this picture before and the rights to the picture and the trolley itself is stored in the New York Trolley Museum in upstate  New York.  A second writer commented on my posted aerial 1924 view of Kensington Junction including the area around 16th Avenue.  The writer provided a link dealing with a lot between Gravesend Avenue (McDonald Avenue) and East 2nd Street between Cortelyou Road and Ditmas Avenue.  To my surprise, that block was the location of  important Baseball field before the 1920's.....  see comments from Artie:

Well, something that is lost in history is that large, rectangular shape at the bottom of the photo, just to the right of center. This plot of land between McDonald and E. 2nd, and Cortelyou Rd and Ditmas Ave. is "Suburban Oval." A multi-use athletic field on which H.S., Prep School, College AND Professional AND Semi-Profession Major League and Negro League Teams played. This included the Brooklyn Superbas in 1912 and 1913 featuring, among others, Casey Stengel. The owners lost their lease about 1916, and it fell into disuse until the mid-1920s when the land was developed.
More info can be found at http://www.covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/semipro_parks.html

Some aerials of the area are shown below:

The same area before the labels where added:

 

The next two pictures come from new Daves Rail Pix.

This southbound PCC car 1023 on the 50 McDonald Route is just about to enter the lead track to the Kesington Loop to the left of the picture.  You can see that to the right of the trolley car, the east side of McDonald Avenue south of Cortelyou Road at least between 1951 and 1956 did not have many buildings on it.  Perhaps the shack was previously part of the base ball field?  From the structure of the elevated structure, it looks like the fourth track was not added yet for the future Culver Shuttle and the date of the picture must be the early fifties.  This is from the Dave Pirmann  collection from Joe Testagrose.  The photo of the Swedish streetcar posted is not from this spot.

A PCC car just completed the loop and is headed north.  From the Frank Pfuhler collection.  Notice that the fourth track to the Culver Line Ditmas Avenue station has been added. Also notice the coal bin in the extreme left of the picture.  The traditional Culver Line (mainline) takes a sharp curve east in the background towards the 13th Avenue Station.

Looking North from Ditmas Avenue Brooklyn 2009

This shot was taken by Leonard Wilson on 4/15/2009 and it shows a R-160B F Train emerging from the tunnel south of the Church Avenue Station.  I took this photo off the http://www.nycsubway.org website because in this one picture, many of the topics that this blog discusses is shown.  You can see the tunnel into which the F train goes into south of Church Avenue.  This tunnel was built for the Independent Subway.  This portals' construction date is not clear. It may have been built after the Church Avenue station opened in 1933 or later, perhaps before World War II.  The actual incline did not have service until October, 1954 when the IND subway "captured" the BMT Culver Line.  For many years, the incline, which has space for four tracks had only one track, the northbound local track, was actually connected to the BMT Culver Elevated.  I read someplace that in the middle of the incline, there was a large tree growing probably through the war years.   In the picture, you will also see the large radio tower at Bishop Ford High School which was the location of the 9th Avenue trolley depot that was in service until 1956.  This trolley barn had two levels.  Also, if you look at the right side of the incline, you can see serveral vertical iron beams that were used to support the McDonald Avenue trolley wires.  Believe it or not, some of the insulators and a few inches of trolley support span wire are still in the horizontal position!  These are probably the very last of the few artifacts of the great trolley operation in Brooklyn.  The only other artifacts are several trolley line support poles scattered throughtout Brooklyn and an occasional peak of trolley track through asphalt for the few tracks that have not been pulled yet.

Another View from the Manhattan Bridge - July 2012

This beautiful shot was taken last week by docjayva from the Manhattan Bridge looking south to lower Manhattan showing the World Trade Center area.  Since we are on the subject of the Manhattan Bridge and some of my posts deals with the Culver Line, either as a subway line or as the Culver-Fifth Avenue Elevated line, I would like to tell you about an unusual Culver Line operation in the subway.  I will verify this in the future, but in the 1950's before the line was truncated at Ditmas Avenue and even afterwards, there was an unusual loop operation in the morning rush hour.  Trains would depart Ditmas Avenue and go north to 36th Street and 4th Avenue where they would run express to Pacific Street.  I am not sure if the Culver trains would stop at Dekalb Avenue but would go over the Manhattan Bridge and loop southward to the Nassau Street loop.  This connection does not exist today since the Chrystie Street Loop service began in 1967.  The Culver trains would now go southbound through the Nassau Street Loop, into the Montague Street tunnel and run local southbound on Fourth Avenue.  It would stop at 36th Street and finally end up at Ditmas Avenue were it started from!    The BMT Standard subway cars had two types of roll signs, large and small.  The description of the route was something like ".. Via Bridge to Manhattan and Southbound via Nassau  Street Loop..."  I am not sure of the exact wording but it was clearly not visible on the small size BMT Standard destination curtains.   This service ended in 1959 when the Culver Line really became a true shuttle between Ditmas Avenue and  Ninth Avenue. (To be verfiied and modified in the future.)
Readings on a BMT Standard roll sign is found below.  Taken from web.  Culver related items in red.

Ditmas Ave 36th St.-4th Av Forest Hills-Queens
Astoria
Via Tunnel thru
NASSAU LOOP Via Bridge to Bklyn
Via Bridge thru
NASSAU LOOP Via Tunnel to Bklyn
6th Av.Manh't'n
8th Av.Manh't'n
Myrtle Av.
Eastern P'kwy
Atlantic Av.
Canarsie
Bowery
Chambers St.
Canal St.
Jamaica
Crescent St.
111th St.
Metropolitan Av.
Broad St.
Whitehall St.
Queens Plaza
95th St.-Ft.H'ton
Prospect Park
Franklin Av.
Franklin-Nassau
Nassau St.
Brighton Beach
57th St. Manh't'n
Kings Highway
Times Square
Coney Island
Bay Parkway
62nd St. Bklyn
City Hall
Ninth Av.