A BMT train map from 1925 shows the Myrtle Avenue El running from Metropolitan Avenue to the Brooklyn Bridge.Before the G train, buses and frustrating loops through Manhattan, Bushwick residents got to downtown Brooklyn in rickety wooden carts on the Myrtle Avenue El. Originally built in 1888, the completed line connected Metropolitan Avenue to the Brooklyn Bridge, running through Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Ridgewood, and Middle Village. The section west of Broadway was closed in 1969 due to declining ridership and increasing maintenance costs.
As a tribute to the old clunker, the New York Transit Museum unveiled their latest exhibit yesterday, "Last Day of the Myrtle Avenue El," a collection of color and black and white photographs by Theresa King along with a variety of archival materials. When King learned the train would be shut down on Oct. 3, 1969 she decided to spend the day documenting stations, passengers and views from the carts with her camera and the result provides a unique view into a Brooklyn newcomers will never know.
“During my childhood, I rode this train daily and loved the look of the station stops and the train itself,” King said. “When I realized the line was due for demolition, I wanted to document a part of Brooklyn’s past that would be no more."
I visited the museum for the first time to see the exhibit and walked away with more urban transportation knowledge than most MTA employees.
Myrtle Avenue became a major roadway between Brooklyn and Queens in the 1850s when the Knickerbocker Stage Coach Line began running along the road. When the Myrtle Avenue El opened in 1888 – twenty years before subways would reach Brooklyn – it only ran between downtown Brooklyn and Grand Avenue Junction, but became so popular that it was quickly expanded. The line was extended to Wyckoff Avenue in 1889 and then to Metropolitan Avenue in 1906, coaxing growth away from Manhattan as New Yorkers enjoyed faster public transportation and Bushwick and Ridgewood’s (comparatively) ample breathing space.
Citywide "el" ridership peaked in 1921, but fell drastically during the Great Depression as the subway system expanded with Independent Subway lines in the 1930s. This, along with a decline in population and employment in Brooklyn and a growing number of people driving cars, made "el" trains seem nothing more than aging, light-blocking noise makers. The city began demolishing them one by one.
By 1966, The Myrtle Avenue El was one of the last two lines that still collected fares by hand, but there were not enough riders to justify the operation. At midnight on Oct. 3, 1969, more than 1,200 people – a mix of railroad enthusiasts, reporters, and Pratt Institute students – packed the last Myrtle Avenue El train to take one last ride. At the end of the run, the passengers were allowed to take souvenirs from the train, including everything from advertisements to seats and light bulbs.
The line was demolished in 1970 and businesses along Myrtle suffered from the resulting reduction in foot traffic. Today, all that remains of the Myrtle Avenue El, or “Old Myrt” as some called it, is the skeletal row of green trusses that stand next to Food Dimensions.
"Last Day of the Myrtle Avenue El" runs until Feb. 28, 2010, at the New York Transit Museum at the corner of Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn Heights. Hours: Tues-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat-Sun 12pm-5pm
chillinoncentral September 30th, 2009 at 11:13 am
What a fascinating exhibition this must be at the Transit Museum… a “must see” for us local ol’ timers! My most unforgettable memories of the M train (known as the MM train at the time) were when I rode them to play hooky (mostly from fifth grade, afternoons only, circa 1965). The fare was 15 cents at the time, but I rode free with my bus pass. Some of the older cars had a sort of semi-private (straw-bound) seating near the chained-walkways between cars… those were my favorite seats. I also remember the transit truancy officer that patrolled the line (in the mornings) and mostly favored Tompkins Ave (you needed to be alert at the stop or you might get dragged back to school). I’ll look forward to visiting the Transit Museum soon.
Samuel September 30th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
“I visited the museum for the first time to see the exhibit and walked away with more urban transportation knowledge than most MTA employees.”
Is everyone that writes for this blog a pompous, know-it-all jerkoff?
This entry was interesting but what is the point of that line. I mean come on.
Professional Alternative September 30th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
*blink*
Yeah, uh, ANYWAY, it’s sad they actually bulldozed this thing instead of just closing it, in case it became useful again in the future. Like now.
Oh but maybe that’s a pompous suggestion. I’m such a know-it-all jerkoff.
FormerRidgewoodite September 30th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Actually, the Myrtle El south of Broadway was removed because it was never rebuilt to handle heavier subway cars like the Broadway El was, or the northern part of the Myrtle line was. It was the last remnant of the city’s “el only” lines, and was built of lightweight steel construction, too light to handle heavier subway cars that were used underground, and had lightweight wooden cars running on it. The dilemma in 1969 was that they were met with either rebuilding the line, or buying lightweight new trains for it, as the trains used on the line were well beyond their useful life. Unfortunately, they chose neither, and abandoned the line instead.
Notice also that on that map the L train ends at Montrose Ave. Also noticed that the “proposed” dotted part of the L line from Montrose Ave to Broadway Junction has a “Flushing Ave” and a “Central Ave” station instead of the Jefferson and Wilson stations we know today. That is because, the line was originally supposed come out of the ground between Montrose Ave and Morgan Ave, and run on an el over Wyckoff Ave and to Broadway Junction. Early form “Not in My Backyard” (NIMBY) protests in Bushwick against the el made the BMT put the line underground instead, the line we now know, but it is interesting to imagine that the Morgan stop, and all the others to Broadway Junction would have been on an el instead had the original plan been built….and of course there would have been a Flushing station and a Central Ave station on that el instead of the Jefferson and Wilson stops we know today….
chillinoncentral September 30th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I’m pretty sure that Samuel would disagree with me, FormerRidgewoodite, but I gotta tell you… that is such a well informed and appreciable comment! Thanks for your insight. =]
Hank Raudenbush September 30th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Note that when the 14th St-Eastern (now L) line ended at Montrose Ave, it had no track connection to anything else. Fifty new 67-foot cars were brought to the LIRR Bushwick station, down temporary track laid on a side street, around a corner and down a steep ramp through a hole left in the roof of the subway. The opening was then closed up, and for a few years those cars were maintained in the subway tunnel, until the line was extended to East NY.
Myrtle Ave was operated for most of its life with open-platform wooden cars. After about 1951, these were mostly the 1300 series convertibles, built about 1905. Remarkably, right down to the last summer they ran, East NY shop went to the heavy job of removing at least 4 of the closed panels on each side and replacing them with the gratings for summer. In 1957, these last open-platform cars were replaced with the wooden “Q Type” cars. These were originally 1200 and 1400 series open platform cars, built around 1902-08, but had been rebuilt with closed platforms and sliding side doors for service on the Flushing Line to the 1939-40 Worlds Fair. In 1949, they were transferred to the Third Ave el, and in 1957 the Q’s came back to the BMT to run on Myrtle. Problems with their trucks – which had a long, tangled history – were the primary reason why the TA wanted to close what was the last wood-car el line in the system. The Q’s ran there until the lower portion was abandoned.
The TA musem collection includes three gate cars converted back from Q types in 1979. These are occasionally run on special trips. There also are several BMT gate cars at the Shore Line trolley museum in East Haven CT, where they are pulled out a couple of times a year and run for “New York” days.
The TA said that one reason for closing the lower portion of Myrtle was because the riding was declining. This was true in absolute numbers, but the percentage decline was slower than any other line in the system; it was the best line they had! Around that time, the TA published a monthly financial statement(the “Transit Record”), and twice year this included the turnstile count of every station, and the farebox count for every surface route. You may be able to find this in libraries, and you can see the facts.
Myrtle was the last of the el lines where the structure would not take the heavy standard steel cars. Before the line was abandoned, the TA did prepare a specification for lightweight cars for the line (R-23), but this became an expendable item in the City’s annual budget crunch. It may be noted that the Budd R-32′s and the Flushing line R-33′s and R-36′s were actually lighter than the wooden Q-types.
Fred October 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Fascinating…
FormerRidgewoodite October 1st, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Notice also that Bed Stuy also had the Lexington Ave El which branched off of the Broadway El, just west of the Gates Ave station. That line ran to Grand St, and then joined the Myrtle el. Now all they have is the “G Train”.
FormerRidgewoodite October 1st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Also note, that while in later years, the Myrtle El terminated at Bridge St/Jay St (where the F train’s Borough Hall Station is), it originally, at the time of this map ran over the Brooklyn Bridge to Park Row. There was a time when you could get on at Metropolitan Ave, or any station along the line, like let’s say Central Ave, and ride directly to the Brooklyn Bridge, and over the Brooklyn Bridge.
John Dereszewski October 1st, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Wonderful article, as always, Diego – and some mostly terrific comments to boot.
In 1969, I rode the old Myrtle line during the last weekend of its run. I remember the old wooden train cars very fondly.
It was clearly not lack of ridership that shut the Myrtle line. Instead it was a combination of the fiscal operational bottom line and – more importantly – a general hostility to the above ground train lines that sealed the Myrtle’s fate. The els were seen as urban blights that just had to go, despite the real needs that they met. (The same was true of the Bronx remnant of the much needed 3rd Ave. line, which met a similar fate in the mid-1970′s.)
Back in the late 1970′s, I remember talking to Maureen Walters, who was then the Ridgewood Times’ star reporter and now is the Publisher of the Times Newsweekly, about the demise of the old line. She noted that the Myrle el really provided a vital link between Ridgewood and the downtown Brookly business and shopping district that was rudely severed when the el was demolished. The reamining – and far slower – bus connection just did not fill in the gap.
The earlier comment about a proposed “L” line el along Wyckoff Ave, was fascinating. I wonder if Mayor Hylan, who lived on Bushwick Ave., had anything to do with the death of this proposal. Hylan, who was the father of the IND line and hated the IRT and BMT companies, might have had a lot to say on this point – or not.
Finally, I was also fascinated by Diego’s transit map, which identified so many of north Brooklyn’s long lost els. Of particular interest to me was the old Lexington Ave. el, which, I believe, was constructed before the Myrtle el and made its way to Broadway, near the Gates Ave. station, until about 1950. This must be Brooklyn’s most forgotten el. It should also be the subject of a future Transit Museum exhibit – and perhaps our friends at the Bed-Stuy blog might wish to further explore this long lost treasure.
Nast October 1st, 2009 at 5:30 pm
More great info if anyone is interested.
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/myrtle/myrtle.el.html
John. October 6th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
As much as we could use it today, you have to look as the decision in the period it was made. El Lines on fairly narrow streets make for a pretty unpleasant environment. If you watch any movie made in NYC in the 50′s, you can see how els were viewed back then. Having grown up and still living a block away from an elevated line, its a love/hate relationship at best.
I remember riding along Myrtle in a car right after the demolition. All the adults in the car marveled at how ‘bright and modern’ the street looked after the demolition.
But as the song goes, everything old is new again.
FormerRidgewoodite January 13th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Well, the MTA is finally considering reusing the long unused track connection between Broadway-Lafayette and Essex St. This is tooted as a “service cut”, but is really a service ENHANCEMENT to Broadway El, and M line riders who want midtown. Gone will be the trek down the stairs at Myrtle-Wyckoff for the L train, as your train will FINALLY go to Midtown. For many, this will make a 3 train ride into a 1 train ride, as the MTA is planning to do away with the M line, and extend the V line Iwhich currently dead ends in Manhattan at 2nd Ave) to Metropolitan Ave.
Hellllooooow Broadway El 6th Avenue Line service!!!!
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/mta-retooling-subway-and-bus-service-cuts-1.1696319