When Brooklyn had its own railroad lines
Yet, in many parts of Brooklyn we see reminders of railroad lines of yesterday. When I lived on Avenue O and East 16th Street, I often noticed that the concrete support walls for some of the stations on the B and Q subway lines stretched out far beyond the actual track bed. I eventually learned that alongside the subway system’s Brighton Beach line, there once was a Long Island Rail Road line that went to Manhattan Beach, then a fashionable summer resort.
After the glamorous (and “restricted”) Manhattan Beach Hotel burned down, there was less and less need for such a line, and passenger service ended by the early 1920s. (Interestingly, intensive residential development in Manhattan Beach started only after the line closed.) Freight service along the line continued through the 1930s, at which time the line was dismantled and the land alongside the subway tracks was sold to real estate developers.
One well-known freight line that snakes through southern Brooklyn was once a passenger line as well. Most residents of Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Midwood and East Flatbush are aware of the Bay Ridge Freight Line, owned by the LIRR but run by a private company, the New York and Atlantic. For many years, the line was in a decrepit state and saw little freight traffic, but the New York and Atlantic has done a great job of reviving the line.
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