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.
Tramway Null(0)

Could these be two 145 Street Streetcars at the Plow Pit West of Lenox Avenue in 1924?

Notice the two streetcars circled just west of the 145 th Street - Lenox Avenue intersection in this 1924 aerial.  Could they be at the location of the plow pit?  Going east  (see red question mark) from the "plow pit" should be visible trolley wire and poles but I could not see evidence of this, or trolley poles on top of the two streetcars in this 1924 aerial shot.  On the right side of the aerial, where the red question mark is located, you can see at intervals shadows that might be trolley poles supporting the wires, but I am not sure about this.  Off the picture, and to the right is the 145th Street Bridge over the Harlem River.  This bridge connects with 149th Street in the Bronx.

Below shows an extended aerial from 1924.  The two streetcars are at the extreme left.  On the bridge and in the Bronx, are the repeating shadows on the side of the road trolley support poles?

Unusual Manhattan Streetcar Line - The Avenue B Line

Source:  B. Linder, "Avenue B Line", New York Division Bulletin, Vol. 44, No. 11, November 2001,  pages 2 -3.

I came across this interesting map about an obscure streetcar line in Manhattan called the "Avenue B Line".  According to what is in the fine article and map written by Bernard Linder, I found these interesting points dealing with electrified and non electrified street trackage that our readers may find interesting.

• The original franchise was dated April 17, 1860 but due to complications, horse cars have been running on a similar route since 1869.
• On October 1, 1911 battery cars replaced horse cars.
• From 1913 to 1924 there were many extentions and cut backs to the route.
• Buses replaced street cars on July 30, 1932 and on the next day, the Avenue B & E Broadway Transit Corporation took over.  I remember the smaller fishbowl GM private buses running on this route.
• On March 29, 1980, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority  took over this route ( part of the New York City Transit Authority).
• On September 13, 1987 the route was extended to W. Thames Street and South End Avenue near Battery Park City near the former World Trade Center.
• On the map, notice that non electrified track is indicated by a bolder black line.  This indicates that sections of the map where used by both traditional conduit - plow street cars and battery cars.  According to the article, Battery Cars 1152 to 1201 were built by Brill and were assigned to the Dry Dock Lines, of which, the Avenue B Line was a part in 1911.
• The Avenue B Line was always two-man operated cars and this implies that the othe battery operated lines were one man operated cars at some point.  On the Avenue B Line which shared trackage with conduit operated cars, a special procedure had to be followed.  At junctions, a special spring operated switch had to be set.  The default position was  for the operation of conduit cars.  If a battery car needed to switch unto non conduit trackage, the conductor had to leave the car and hold a lever as the battery car passed over the switch.  When the car passed the switch, he released the lever and the switch was reset for conduit cars.  If the procedure was not followed and the switch was not reset, a conduit operated streetcar would enter trackage where there was no conduit and the plow would have been sheared off causing a big interruption in service.
• The line had five owners between 1860 and 1932, the first was the Dry Dock, East Broadway & Battery Rail Road Company which I heard has an interesting history.

4th and Madison Avenue Streetcar Line (Manhattan) 1919 - 1933 Track Map

Source: B. Linder, New York Division Bulletin, ERA, Vol. 30, No. 7, July, 1987, pages 4-5.

The 4th & Madison Avenue Streetcar Line started its' life early as a very early horsecar line in 1832 and was electrified in 1898.  This line like most Manhattan streetcar lines used an underground conduit for its' power source.  The line was long and ran  from 135th Street and Madison to the old post office at Park Row.  The line ran under the 3rd Avenue El on the Bowery and had a short lived branch to Brooklyn via the Williamsburg Bridge at Delancy Street.  Some Manhattan streetcars crossed the Williamsburg Bridge to Bridge Plaza in Brooklyn using conduit track directly to the plaza.  Brooklyn streetcars at that plaza used trolley wire.  The Williamsburg Bridge branch service lasted from 1907 to 1920 only.  The entire line was replaced by buses according to the material supplied by B. Linder in 1935.  Notice the tunnel at 34th Street and Park Avenue South, which is in use today by automobiles.