Brownsville / East New York, Brooklyn

On the border of Brownsville and East New York the Bay Ridge Line descends into a cut going north. The BMT Canarsie Line (L train) joins from the south and proceeds on an elevated track just to the east of the Bay Ridge Line but standing on its right-of-way. It's a strange juxtaposition of high vs. low track. The Bay Ridge Line was built before the Canarsie Line, but the Canarsie Line was built when elevated trains were the fashion in the late 19th century and the below-grade cut for the Bay Ridge Line didn't happen until around 1914.

One suggestion of the RPA for how to start development of the Circumferential Line is by moving the Canarsie Line track into the Bay Ridge Line cut, which would improve speed on the L train as well as get a head start on track that would be presumably be shared by the Canarsie Line and the Circumferential Line.

Brownsville is a very troubled section of the city, with a high concentration of public housing units and the associated poverty and crime.

7/16/2008 04:23 PM One of numerous high-rise public housing complexes in Brownsville

As the Bay Ridge Line curves to the north, it passes the Linden Shop and Yards... where subway tracks come from. A nice video of what goes on inside is HERE...

7/16/2008 04:16 PM Rockaway Avenue side

7/16/2008 04:17 PM Rockaway Avenue side

7/16/2008 04:24 PM Admin Building sign

7/16/2008 04:25 PM Crane

7/16/2008 04:25 PM Entry gate

7/16/2008 04:27 PM Crane - note the guard staring me down - so who's being terrorized now?

7/16/2008 04:29 PM Linden Shop

7/16/2008 04:29 PM Linden Shop

7/16/2008 04:28 PM Row houses - Watkins Street at Linden Boulevard across from Linden Shop

7/16/2008 04:30 PM Brownsville Rec Center

7/16/2008 04:31 PM Brownsville Rec Center

7/16/2008 04:34 PM Vestiges of old Brownsville architecture off Linden Boulevard

The NBI lists the Linden Boulevard Bridge (BIN 7702670) as a 173-foot steel girder bridge (widest span 62 feet) built in 1930. The date marker cast in the concrete is damaged, but appears to read 1932.

7/16/2008 04:33 PM Linden Boulevard Bridges viewed from the southwest

7/16/2008 04:33 PM Linden Boulevard Bridges viewed from the west

7/16/2008 04:34 PM Linden Boulevard Bridge

7/16/2008 04:34 PM Is the date 1932?

7/16/2008 04:36 PM Under the Linden Boulevard Bridge

7/16/2008 04:36 PM Canarsie Line (L train) coming from the south

7/16/2008 04:36 PM Canarsie Line Bridge over Linden Boulevard

7/16/2008 04:37 PM Lot being developed between the Bay Ridge Line and Canarsie Line

7/16/2008 04:38 PM Narrow Van Sinderen Avenue to the east of the elevated track

New Lots Avenue Station

New Lots is the site of a station on the Canarsie Line and in the late 19th century, the LIRR Bay Ridge Line had a New Lots Road station somewhere around here.

There are three separate rail bridges crossing here at New Lots. The easternmost bridge (BIN 7702661) is an 42-foot girder span carrying a service track from the Linden Shop that runs to the west of the Bay Ridge Line and connects to the IRT Brooklyn Line a few blocks up at Livonia Avenue - presumably to carry track sections to/from the Linden Shop. The center bridge (BIN 7702662) is an 42-foot girder span that is a bit overgrown with vegetation. The Canarsie Line bridge (BIN 7702470) is a 53-foot girder span built in 1905.

7/16/2008 04:41 PM IRT service track bridge viewed from the west

7/16/2008 04:42 PM Overgrown Bay Ridge Line bridge over New Lots Avenue

7/16/2008 04:43 PM Drain pipe from the service track bridge

7/16/2008 04:44 PM Service track bridge BIN 7702661

7/16/2008 04:44 PM Bay Ridge Line bridge BIN 7702662

7/16/2008 04:45 PM Ghost sign outside New Lots Station for Tobey's Liquor Store

7/16/2008 04:46 PM New Lots Avenue station (L train)

Palagonia makes great Italian bread that I have often bought in the grocery store. Little did I know it comes from this humble little bakery in Brownsville beside the Bay Ridge Line.

7/16/2008 04:52 PM Palagonia truck

7/16/2008 04:52 PM Palagonia bakery

7/16/2008 04:53 PM Palagonia bakery

7/16/2008 04:42 PM Looking north along the west retaining wall for the MTA storage yard and the Bay Ridge Line right-of-way

7/16/2008 04:50 PM Retaining wall continues to descend - near NYPD surveillance camera

7/16/2008 04:53 PM Razor wire and dead trees protect the storage yard

7/16/2008 04:54 PM Crossover tracks

Livonia Avenue / Junius Street Stations - Brownsville / East New York

The elevated Brooklyn IRT crosses over everything at Livonia Avenue. The Canarsie Line and IRT do not share a station, although there is a pedestrian overpass between the two. A service track from the IRT descends to the south to head into the Linden Shop.

If the recommendation is taken to move the Canarsie Line into the Bay Ridge Line cut, the Circumferential Line and Canarsie Line would share a station here, although there would still probably be no direct transfer available to the IRT.

7/16/2008 04:55 PM Brooklyn IRT (3 train) crossing over everything

7/16/2008 04:56 PM Surveillance warning sign

7/16/2008 04:56 PM Service track from the IRT descending into the Linden Yards

7/16/2008 04:57 PM Under the IRT track looking west

7/16/2008 04:58 PM Storage yard looking south - IRT service track descend into the yard

7/16/2008 04:59 PM Bay Ridge Line tracks looking south from the Livonia Ave. station pedestrian overpass

7/16/2008 05:00 PM Bay Ridge Line tracks headed north

7/16/2008 05:00 PM End of the storage yard just north of Livonia Ave.

7/16/2008 05:02 PM Livonia Avenue pedestrian overpass

7/16/2008 05:01 PM The Livonia Avenue station

7/16/2008 05:02 PM The Brooklyn IRT headed off to its terminus at New Lots Ave.

7/16/2008 05:04 PM Sealed freight doors on a warehouse on Van Sinderen Ave, just east of the Bay Ridge Line

7/16/2008 05:05 PM Looking North up Van Sinderen Avenue

7/16/2008 05:06 PM Compromised fence at Dumont Avenue

7/16/2008 05:06 PM Arthur N. Brook Center for Positive Change - in an old warehouse on Dumont Avenue

7/16/2008 05:07 PM New row houses on Snediker Avenue

7/16/2008 05:07 PM New apartment buildings on Snediker Avenue

7/16/2008 05:08 PM Old warehouse beside the tracks

7/16/2008 05:08 PM Wheel with wings logo - an automotive concern, we could assume

7/16/2008 05:11 PM The Bay Ridge Line tracks from the south viewed from Blake Avenue Bridge

The Blake Avenue Bridge (BIN 2243900) is a 75-foot prestressed concrete slab bridge built in 1990 that replaced a span here that dated from the 1909 grade elimination project.

7/16/2008 05:11 PM Parking lot turned soccer field off Blake Avenue

7/16/2008 05:12 PM Bay Ridge Line tracks headed north viewed from Blake Avenue Bridge

7/16/2008 05:13 PM NYPD Surveillance camera on Blake Avenue

7/16/2008 05:13 PM Blake Avenue Bridge (BIN 2243900)

7/16/2008 05:14 PM Falling concrete wall between Bay Ridge Line and Canarsie Line

7/16/2008 05:15 PM Cables to MTA power substation

7/16/2008 05:15 PM DANGER 27,000 VOLTS

7/16/2008 05:16 PM Nico Metal Products

Sutter Avenue - Brownsville / East New York

Sutter Avenue is a Canarsie Line stop and presumably would be one on the Circumferential Line. The bridge over the tracks (BIN 2243890) is a 87-foot prestressed concrete bridge built in 2004 that replaced a span dating from the 1909 grade elimination project.

7/16/2008 05:17 PM Bay Ridge Line tracks viewed from the Sutter Avenue Bridge

7/16/2008 05:17 PM Sutter Avenue Station

7/16/2008 05:18 PM Sutter Avenue Bridge

7/16/2008 05:18 PM Crumbling concrete wall beside tracks

7/16/2008 05:19 PM The tracks continue north

This vestigial junction is a remnant of the Fulton Street Elevated, which was opened in 1888 by the Kings County Elevated Railroad Company to compete with the borough's first El, the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad, which had opened in 1885. The Fulton Street El initially ran from the Fulton Ferry on the East River to Nostrand Avenue and was extended within a year to a station on Atlantic Avenue in East New York (the station that has become Broadway Junction). The line then took a brief turn to the south on Van Sinderen before turning east again here on Pitkin Avenue, ultimately heading out to the Brooklyn city line at Grant Avenue. In 1900, the Kings County Elevated Railroad Company was bought out by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT).

The Canarsie Line (L train) opened in 1907 and used a portion of the Fulton Street El on Van Sinderen Avenue south of Broadway Junction before heading south on new track. In 1940, the three NYC transit companies were merged and the portion of the Fulton Street El from the river to Rockaway Avenue (just west of here) was abandoned because it was redundant with the newer IND Fulton Street underground line that had opened in 1936. An extension of the IND Fulton Street Line was built from Rockaway Avenue east to Euclid Avenue after WWII and opened in 1948. In 1956 a connection was made between the IND at Euclid Avenue with the Fulton Street El at 80th Street, making the section of the Fulton Street El between Van Sinderen and 80th Street redundant and obsolete. That section was finally demolished in 2004, leaving this junction alone since it was part of the structure of the Canarsie Line track.

7/16/2008 05:22 PM Fulton Street El junction viewed from the south

7/16/2008 05:22 PM Fulton Street El junction

7/16/2008 05:23 PM Fulton Street El junction north of Pitkin Ave - viewed from the south

7/16/2008 05:24 PM Fulton Street El junction north of Pitkin Avenue

7/16/2008 05:25 PM Fulton Street El junction south of Pitkin Avenue

7/16/2008 05:25 PM Pitkin Avenue looking east - no more El

7/16/2008 05:23 PM The Bay Ridge Line tracks proceeding north from Pitkin Avenue

7/16/2008 05:24 PM Looking north under the Fulton St. El / Canarsie Line tracks at Pitkin Avenue

The Glenmore Avenue Bridge (BIN 2243860) is a 108-foot prestressed concrete bridge built in 2004 that replaced a steel stringer bridge from 1930.

7/16/2008 05:26 PM Glenmore Avenue bridge

7/16/2008 05:30 PM Bay Ridge Line headed north from Glenmore - East NY Tunnel in the distance

7/16/2008 05:28 PM The Bay Ridge Line tracks headed north toward Glenmore Avenue

7/16/2008 05:29 PM Jesus may be Lord, but not here anymore - Glenmore at Junius

7/16/2008 05:29 PM Rubel Coal and Ice Corp.

7/16/2008 05:29 PM L Train headed south from Glenmore

7/16/2008 05:31 PM Looking north under the Fulton Street El / Canarsie Line tracks

7/16/2008 05:33 PM Fulton St. El / Canarsie Line crossing Liberty Avenue