Remembering the Myrtle Avenue El
BMT Myrtle Line: Central Avenue, 1952 — from nycsubway.org
Once upon a time, Bushwick was part of Brooklyn. Bushwickers could get to our own downtown on a train without going through Manhattan or Williamsburg. And then in 1969, it was over, and they knocked the Myrtle elevated down, save for a bit of ghost trusses for a few hundred feet west of Broadway. Of course now that most traffic-generating buildings on western Myrtle have been bulldozed for projects or burned down, the bus shoots down the road and you’re downtown in 15 minutes. Problem solved!
I can’t tell if Robert Moses had anything to do with the destruction of this particular line, but let’s just blame him, ok? I’m sure the evidence is out there, I just don’t have to time to look it up. Actually, it’s easy to blame one man — and Moses was a whopper of a man, no doubt — but he was working in a time and within an administration that thought lightly of moving hundreds of thousands of fellow human beings around like pawns in a civilizational chess match. The 20th Century was a time of previously unsurpassed totalitarianism, mostly abroad, but the philosophy reared its head here in the States, too. And so the majority of New York’s transportation and housing problems stem from the damage the philosophy of top-down urban planning did to our city. That was substantial damage, and we are still recovering.
Anyway, enjoy the photo and think back to a time when there was an entire rail line just to take people from Bushwick and Ridgewood to the beach!
May 15th, 2007 at 9:52 am
It’s really a shame this line doesn’t exist anymore. It would make getting around Brooklyn so much easier than having to schlep around on buses or go far out of the way on the trains.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:51 am
maybe brooklyn never should have agreed to be incorporated into new york city. is it to late? can we secede?
May 15th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
New York is bigger than quite a lot of countries in population and economy — hell, in area, too. It’s too damn big. Secession! If Giuliani were still in and we tried, he’d burn down Park Slope.
May 18th, 2007 at 8:23 am
I wish they would start renovating the stations on the M line. You actually need an umbrella INSIDE the Central Ave station. Maybe in 5 or 10 years if population trends continue. I see not even a hint of such a thing in my researh/obsession of infrastructure projects. Actually from my new place, I am much closer to the Jefferson L stop but one thing I’ve always loved about the area is that there are two options, especially when that L is fucked up late at night during renovation.
May 18th, 2007 at 9:33 am
They haven’t renovated stations even in the fanciest hoods of Manhattan. Don’t hold your breath.
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:58 am
The original Myrtle Ave El ran from Park Row-City Hall in Manhattan to Wyckoff Ave in Ridgewood which was called Ridgewood depot a major transit hub at the time about 110 years ago via the Brooklyn Bridge. It was operated by the BRT El system and was absorbed into the BMT under the Dual Contracts in 1913. That same year service was completed to Metropolitan Ave-Middle Village and a connection was built on to the Broadway line which is still used by the (M) train. At that point the BMT introduced subwy service to Lower Manhattan via the Williamsburg Bridge which meant using steel subway cars. The Els used wooden cars and the entire Broadway el and the Myrtle north of Broadway was retrofitted for steel cars. As early as the 1920s the city hoped to rid Downtown Brooklyn of El structures. The Fulton St el was gone by the 1940s, and service to Manhattan was ended on the Myrtle El over the Brooklyn Bridge around 60 years ago. The completion of the IND Crosstown (G) line, meant to the TA that those neighborhoods were covered for transit service if and when Myrtle El service was discontinued. Very low ridership, poor maintenance and an un-retrofitted el structure helped in the decision to discontinue service south of Broadway in 1969. Although it may seem stupid today, at that time Brooklyn had lost over 700,000 middle class white people between 1950 and 1960. And the Downtown business district suffered greatly as a result of that lost revenue.
To get to Coney Island the Myrtle used to transfer to the Culver-5th Ave El at Flatbush Ave which was discontinued during the 1940s.
The Myrtle Ave El was the (MJ) train, Myrtle-Jay
August 23rd, 2007 at 3:40 am
Damn Brooklyn Pete! You know your stuff. Thanks for the history lesson. When I was a kid in Bushwick, I lived near Broadway and Myrtle avenue. We were told that they removed the rest of the El at Myrtle because a train had fallen from it’s tracks along time ago and damaged the line. Any truth to that rumor?
August 23rd, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I recall that day with great sadness when the Myrtle Avenue el made its last run in 1969.
I do not recall hearing about a train going off the tracks. Back in those days there was no token salemne at night south of Broadway and the conductor wouldcoem thru the train and collect the fares just like on a commuter train.
You always knew the terminus of the train not by the letters but by the train. Wooden trains to Jay Street …steel trains to Manhattan (Chambers)
Those old wooden trains had a certain romance to them .. as the train rode down the tracks all the leather straps would swing in unison.
I think one of those cars may be inthe transit museum
August 24th, 2007 at 4:34 am
A train never fell off the Myrtle El, but there was a famous accident about 100 years ago, when a Fifth Ave El, train fell off the tracks at Flatbush Ave/Fifth Ave. There should be pictures of it on line just search for it I guess.
I am not sure if one of these cars is in the museum, I know they have the original IRT cars. I will have to go there soon and check. If this museum does not have it, then the Illinois Railway museum probably would, I think they have every train that ever ran in America.
My dad’s German grandmother who lived on Myrtle Ave in what they now call Clinton Hill, used to ride the El backand forth when she babysat her grand-kids. She just put them by the open front window and read the newspaper while the train took care of the rest for the kids.
August 27th, 2007 at 1:41 am
bklyn pete; knows nyc; maybe he can persude city council, to preserve bklyn old history; into the furture developement, god him must knew old robert moses; the new jesey nets are getting the deal the dodger/giants didnt’. go pete?
August 29th, 2007 at 12:42 am
My Pop once told me that getting from Ridgewood to Coney Island took about an hour, involved a transfer between two different lines and paying two fares–but he doesn’t remember the particulars. This was in the 1950s.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:20 am
I can tell you in the 50s we would go to Brighton Beach a lot from Ridgewood ( just before Coney Island) and you could do it for one fare … any number of ways ..
Take 14st Canarsie line to Union Square and switch for Brighton Beach train..
Take the “steel train” on the Myrtle el to Canal and make similar change
The above are just two ways…(Notice I used the old monikers for the subway lines as well)
It was probably possible to switch from a bus to a subway and make it quicker but back then 15 cents the cost of a token ( remember those) was a consideration and there were no free transfers form bus to subway and vice versa.
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:24 am
By the 1950s you had to pay two fares to Coney Island if you took the Myrtle El to Flatbush Ave and then walked one block to Dekalb Ave and took the Brighton Express. My grandmother said it was more costly but much quicker then going into Manhattan.
The more direct and free transfer route on the old 5th Ave-Culver El went when it was torn down in the 1940s.
September 3rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Bklyn Pete Your grandmother was probably right about the travel time and that would definitely have saved 20 -30 minutes over my suggestion above.
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:20 am
Thanks for the post - brings back a memory. My dad took me for a ride on the Myrtle just before it closed.