Delancey Street Trolley Terminal - Part II

These great shots, taken by Docjayva were taken from the Manhattan Bridge facing south towards the Brooklyn Bridge and shows the New World Trade Center under construction and at Delancey Street at Orchard Street.  Even though the big picture shows the Brooklyn Bridge and not the Williamsburg Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge is still relevant to our discussion.  When the Williamsburg Bridge opened between Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1903, transit planners at this time wanted to build a loop transit line connecting all three lower Manhattan bridges, namely the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges.  It was not clear if the Manhattan portion of this loop would be elevated or subway and local politics delayed the decision.  Eventually, the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges were linked by way of the Centre Street subway. Regarding the Brooklyn Bridge, plans were made to link the elevated train trackage to the Chambers Street station under the Municipal Building as well.  A concrete pathway was contructed south of the Chambers Street Station to link up to the Brooklyn Bridge but this construction was destroyed when the Nassau Street Loop subway was under construction.
     When constructed, the Williamsburg Bridge consisted of two separate vehicular roadways on the north and south sides of bridge and between the roadways were two sets of separate trolley tracks (four in all) that were separated by a two track elevated line. The northerly set of trolley tracks were used by Manhattan  streetcars using conduit trackage.  These cars ran from several starting points in Manhattan, such as the Post Office Line at Park Row and ended at the Brooklyn plaza of the bridge.  The southerly tracks were used by several Brooklyn trolley lines using overhead.  Since the Essex Street station did not open until 1908, for five years Brooklyn trolleys ended at a stub just east of Clinton Street on the bridge near the entrance.  According to Rogoff (1958), there was a double crossover and a single track connection to Manhattan trolleys on Delancey Street.
   Regarding elevated trains,   Brooklyn Rapid Transit elevated trains  running on Broadway (Brooklyn) did not use the bridge until 1908 when the Essex Street station opened.  Prior to this, elevated trains used a terminal at the foot of the East River which was the location of a East River ferry.  When the Essex Street station opened in 1908,  it was a stub terminal with two tracks with a center platform and two side platforms.  If you visit the station today, it looks a little out of alignment because it presently has three tracks with a center platform and one side platform for southbound trains coming off the bridge.  According to Rogoff, this station was built in 1908  with wide roof columns for future simple reconfiguration in case the line expanded, which it did.  Along the "elevated" train terminal at Essex Street is the huge trolley terminal for Brooklyn trolleys which I described in earlier post.  This terminal also opened in 1908?  and closed in 1950. The trolley terminal trackage was never connected to the subway\elevated trackage.  Currently, there are plans to convert this former trolley terminal into a underground park space.  In my humble opinion, since the "L" train is overcrowded and many districts in eastern Brooklyn have experienced recent population increases, a study should be made to see if trolleys going over the Williamsburg Bridge from different communities that have poor rapid transit coverage to the Delancey Street trolley terminal would be a help.
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Delancey Street Trolley Terminal Brooklyn Streetcar Track Assignments

Source:  Rogoff, David, "Fifty Years Ago in the Electric Railway Journal - BRT Williamsburg Bridge Terminal", New York Division Bulletin, Electric Railroaders Assn., Vol. 1, No. 2, June, 1958, p. 3-4

Delancey and Essex Street on the surface as of June 11, 2012.  Photo by docjayva.

In the June 1958 edition of the Bulletin, one of the first issues published, there was an interesting article published by David Rogoff which itself was a review of a Electric Railway Journal article that appeared fifty years earlier, in 1908, describing the rapid transit facilities, both elevated line and streetcar at the Manhattan end of the Wiliamsburg Bridge.  While the bridge openned in 1903, as built, the rapid transit and trolley facilities were not ready at the Manhattan end.  In a future post, I hope to discuss this.   It appears in the article that the trolley terminal alongside the Essex Street subway station did not open until 1908.  For now, I just would like to add information from the article regarding the huge underground trolley terminal for Brookyn trolleys that crossed the bridge.  The trolley terminal had 8 loops plus a 2-car stub for disabled trolleys and a bumper.  The loops were numbered from 1 to 8 from west to east.  Although the Essex Street elevated/subway station was a few feet away from the trolley tracks, there was no track connection.

The original track plan was as follows:

1. #1 Nostrand Avenue and Belt Lines
2. #2 Reid Avenue
3. #3 Hamburg Avenue (renamed WILSON AVENUE during World War I).
4. #4 Ralph Avenue
5. #5 Bushwick Avenue
6. #6 Thompkins Avenue
7. #7 Bridge Local
8. #8 Grand Street & Franklin Avenue

More information regarding both the subway and trolley terminal to follow in the future.

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