Atlantic Avenue Railroad

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Atlantic Avenue Railroad
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Snow sweeper owned by Atlantic Avenue Railroad from 1894. The Street railway journal (1894) (14572233357).jpg
Snow sweeper owned by Atlantic Avenue Railroad from 1894.
Postal streetcar owned by AA on the "City Hall and Bridge" Line. The Street railway journal (1894) (14572291938).jpg
Postal streetcar owned by AA on the "City Hall and Bridge" Line.

The Atlantic Avenue Railroad was a company in the U.S. state of New York, with a main line connecting downtown Brooklyn with Jamaica along Atlantic Avenue. It was largely a streetcar company that operated its own trains, but the Long Island Rail Road operated both streetcars and steam trains over its main line. It later became part of the Nassau Electric Railroad, but is now divided between the active Atlantic Branch of the LIRR and the unused Cobble Hill Tunnel, which is preserved in its original state, albeit without service tracks.

History

The Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was the first railroad on Long Island, incorporated on April 25, 1832, to build from the East River in Brooklyn to Jamaica. [1] The Long Island Rail Road was chartered in 1834 to extend the line east to Greenport. [2] When the Brooklyn and Jamaica was completed on April 18, 1836, its line was operated by the LIRR under lease. The original line ran from South Ferry on the Brooklyn waterfront east to a depot at the current 158th Street in Jamaica, with a ferry connection to lower Manhattan at South Ferry. [3] [4]

The Brooklyn Central Railroad was incorporated on August 31, 1859, to take over the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, then operated by the Long Island Rail Road as a steam-powered line, for a horse car service once the LIRR completed their new line to Long Island City. This happened soon after the LIRR was authorized to abandon service through the Cobble Hill Tunnel to South Ferry in Brooklyn in exchange for ending steam power in the Brooklyn city limits. [5] The city authorized them on June 6 to lay tracks on Atlantic Avenue west of Boerum Place (where the Brooklyn and Jamaica passed through the Cobble Hill Tunnel); east of there, they would use the Brooklyn and Jamaica trackage. They were also granted on November 28, 1859, the right to build along Furman Street, the waterfront street from Atlantic Avenue north to Old Fulton Street, connecting the South Ferry (Atlantic Avenue) to the Wall Street Ferry (Montague Street) and Fulton Ferry (Old Fulton Street).

The Brooklyn Central Railroad and Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad merged on August 8, 1860 [6] to form the Brooklyn Central and Jamaica Railroad. The company also opened a line from Atlantic Avenue south on Flatbush Avenue and Fifth Avenue to 37th Street at Greenwood, with a branch east along Third Street to the city line. [7] The LIRR ended steam service on Atlantic Avenue on September 30, 1861. [8]

The Atlantic Avenue line became the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railway in 1866 and the Atlantic Avenue Railroad in 1872. [9]

The Cobble Hill Tunnel remained empty and unused (despite several urban legends about illegal use) until its rediscovery in 1981.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cobble Hill Tunnel</span> Disused tunnel in Brooklyn, New York

The Cobble Hill Tunnel is an abandoned Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, running through the neighborhoods of Downtown Brooklyn and Cobble Hill. When open, it ran for about 2,517 feet (767 m) between Columbia Street and Boerum Place. It is the oldest railway tunnel beneath a city street in North America that was fully devoted to rail. It is also deemed the oldest subway tunnel in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long Island Rail Road</span> Commuter rail system on Long Island, New York

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic Avenue (New York City)</span> Avenue in Brooklyn and Queens, New York

Atlantic Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. It stretches from the Brooklyn waterfront on the East River all the way to Jamaica, Queens. Atlantic Avenue runs parallel to Fulton Street for much of its course through Brooklyn, where it serves as a border between the neighborhoods of Prospect Heights and Fort Greene and between Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, and between Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. This stretch of avenue is known for having a high rate of pedestrian fatalities and has been described as "the killing fields of the city."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic Branch</span> Long Island Rail Road branch

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic Terminal</span> Long Island Rail Road station in Brooklyn, New York

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The South Brooklyn Railway is a railroad in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is owned by the government of New York City and operated by the New York City Transit Authority. Its original main line ran parallel to 38th Street from the Upper New York Bay to McDonald Avenue, and south on McDonald Avenue to the Coney Island Yards, mostly underneath the former Culver Shuttle and the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East New York station</span> Long Island Rail Road station in Brooklyn, New York

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montauk Branch</span> Long Island Rail Road branch

The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City to Montauk. However, in LIRR maps and schedules for public use, the term Montauk Branch refers to the line east of Babylon; service from Jamaica to Babylon is covered by separate Babylon Branch schedules, while the line west of Jamaica is currently unused for passenger service. A select number of Montauk Branch trains operate via the Main Line and Central Branch during peak hours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hempstead Branch</span> Long Island Rail Road branch

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Main Line (Long Island Rail Road)</span> Long Island Rail Road branch

The Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It begins as a two-track line at Long Island City station in Long Island City, Queens, and runs along the middle of Long Island about 95 miles (153 km) to Greenport station in Greenport, Suffolk County. At Harold Interlocking approximately one mile east of Long Island City, the tracks from the East River Tunnels and 63rd Street Tunnel into Manhattan intersect with the Main Line, which most trains use rather than using the Long Island City station.

The South Side Railroad of Long Island was a railroad company in the U.S. state of New York. Chartered in 1860 and first opened in 1867 as a competitor to the Long Island Rail Road, it was reorganized in 1874 as the Southern Railroad of Long Island and leased in 1876 to the LIRR. After a reorganization as the Brooklyn and Montauk Railroad in 1879 it was merged in 1889.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bay Ridge Branch</span> Freight rail line in New York City

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedarhurst Cut-off</span> Former Long Island Rail Road branch

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockaway Junction station</span> Former New York railroad site

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockaway Beach Branch</span> Former Long Island Rail Road branch (closed 1962)

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Central Railroad of Long Island was built on Long Island, New York, by Alexander Turney Stewart, who was also the founder of Garden City. The railroad was established in 1871, then merged with the Flushing and North Side Railroad in 1874 to form the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad. It was finally acquired by the Long Island Rail Road in 1876 and divided into separate branches. Despite its short existence, the CRRLI had a major impact on railroading and development on Long Island.

References

  1. "PRR Chronology, 1832" (PDF). (77.1  KiB), June 2004 Edition
  2. "PRR Chronology, 1834" (PDF). (79.7  KiB), June 2004 Edition
  3. "PRR Chronology, 1836" (PDF). (93.3  KiB), June 2004 Edition
  4. Arrt's Arrchives, Brooklyn & Jamaica Rail Road, Atlantic Avenue Railroad 2
  5. "PRR Chronology, 1859" (PDF). (60.9  KiB), March 2005 Edition
  6. "PRR Chronology, 1860" (PDF). (91.7  KiB), May 2004 Edition
  7. Henry Stiles, A History of the City of Brooklyn, Volume 3: Part II, Rail Roads and Plank Roads, 1867
  8. "PRR Chronology, 1861" (PDF). (176  KiB), May 2004 Edition
  9. Felix Reifschneider, History of the Long Island Railroad Archived March 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , 1925, reprinted winter 2001 in The Third Rail