Trolley Tuesday 12/01/20 - The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company

If there's one city well-known for its deep history with railed rapid transit, it's New York. The city's mass transit history alone can fill up every day of December and we'd still be unable to tell you the whole story. Every single mile of street and elevated rail oozes notable stories that have since become legendary from World Series-winning baseball teams to manufacturing firsts and so on. Brooklyn has always been a multi-faceted and densely-populated borough, with a rough-and-tumble reputation of hard workers, and their mass transit was equally as hardy. On today's Trolley Tuesday, it's No Sleep Till Brooklyn as we look at the enormous history the Brooklyn & Queens Transit Company, better known as the B&QT.

A City That Tried Everything

The first horsecars in Brooklyn, New York, began running on Myrtle Avenue on July 3, 1854. Under the Brooklyn City Railroad (BCRR), the first batch of horsecars were very cheaply built and contrasted the line's initial heavy capital of $2,500,000. One newspaper reported that the cars were "a crude affair of a stagecoach set on cast iron wheels", which even then was a very generous descriptor. Running from the popular Fulton Ferry to Marcy Avenue (some 3 miles), the line was an immediate success and gave Brooklynites the ability to meet the ferry that opened up more city movement out to Manhattan and all around Brooklyn and Queens. 

Brooklyn's Rush Hour in 1889. There's always room for one more!
(Brooklyn Historic Railway Association)

The odd "human experiment" done on the BCRR.
(Brooklyn Historic Railway Association)

Over the next twenty years, the BCRR used their Fulton Ferry transit hub to open up new lines to the rest of Brooklyn and out to the neighboring borough of Queens, with new lines up to Flatbush, East New York, Greenpoint, and Greenwood Cemetery. New constituent railroads were also leased, among them being the Brooklyn Crosstown Railroad to Red Hook and Long Island City, the Bushwick Railroad to Williamsburg, and the Grand Street and Newtown in Williamsburg. By the 1890s, the BCRR had several hundred miles of tracks all over Brooklyn in some 27 lines and some 2,500 horsecars. By this time, the "crude affairs" of horsecars were upgraded into comfortable eight-window cars with steam heating, and it was very common for service frequencies to be counted by seconds rather than minutes. Quite hilariously, one late experiment involved replacing horsecars with a team of men, reported to be comprised of inmates or low-paying workers. This "human draft animal" experiment inevitably went nowhere.

The Union Square cable car in Manhattan being
constructed, c. 1880s.
(Brooklyn Historic Railway Association)

In 1893, a revolutionary new transit system was tested in Brooklyn Heights, running on a short stretch down Montague Street. The Brooklyn Heights Railroad (BHRR) was one of a few cable car lines to run in the city of New York, and was operated as more of a novelty than a serious effort. The high maintenance costs and inexplicably heavy accident and derailment record turned plenty of people off from the cable car, and shortly after 1893, the BHRR was bought by the Long Island Traction Company. The new holding company was formed by the owners of the BCRR (who bought their system shortly after) to avoid anti-stock watering statutes (IE they could keep artificially inflating their assets and profits), and also to hold onto the BCRR's eye-watering 999-year operating lease. The Long Island Traction Company was foreclosed upon in 1895, following a strike and the company was reformed as the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) in 1896.

The Electric Revolt

(Friends of the Brooklyn-Queens Connector)

As all of the low-down corporate skullduggery was going on, a new change was coming to Brooklyn Streets. Starting in 1891, the Common Council (effectively a city council) granted permission to convert the horsecar lines into electric cars. This conversion finished by 1895, and the BRT assumed operation by 1896. Though the new company was still privately owned, it still answered to the Common Council as it was classified as a "locally owned syndicate". It wasn't just streetcar lines either, as BRT also operated new elevated railways under the Brooklyn Union Elevated System. The new company was met with hostile opposition from automobile activists, who opposed the elevated system as "noisy and clattering", but that didn't stop the BRT from expanding their tracks into some 600 miles between Brooklyn and Queens over 125 streetcar and elevated lines. 

An early 8-window Brill car waits on fishers, some time in the 1890s.
(Brooklyn Historic Railway Association)

By the turn of the century, the railway was making big business in Brooklyn and expanding even more. Around the city, new streetcar expansion and maintenance helped give the locals job security and helped others find work outside the city with competent service to always get them home. The BRT eventually connected across the East River into Manhattan thanks to the "East River Bridge" (now the Williamsburg Bridge) in 1903, which was designed with four streetcar tracks and two rapid transit/subway tracks in mind. This was the BRT's golden age, and with a golden age came many legendary destinations.

A 1930 map of the Brooklyn streetcar system, when it became the
Brooklyn & Queens Transit Surface Divison of the BMT, detailed below.
(Brooklyn Historical Railway Association)

Notable Services and Destinations

The original streetcar terminal at the
north end of the Williamsburg Bridge.
(Vanshookenraggen.com)

The BRT's status as a local syndicate helped endear it to its residents as not only a tool of industry and growth, but as a fact of life. If one had a map of the system, they could see their entire professional and private lives written out along the trolley lines. Here's just a taste: The Bushwick Avenue Line from Williamsburg to Ridgewood helped move new German immigrants to newer, larger rowhouses in Ridgewood and gave them a comfy picnic spot for the spring and summers. The Jamaica Line helped connected the historically-black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant with the diverse middle-class neighborhood of Jamaica, providing increased work opportunities around the city. Finally, the Metropolitan Avenue Line between Jamaica and Williamsburg provided steady commuter traffic between the dense, working-class Williamsburg and the middle-class Jamaica communities.

A BRT streetcar stops over at Coney Island, offloading
more revelers and animals to the amusement parks.
(Coney Island History Project)

It wasn't just all commuter traffic either, as residents gladly used the BRT for their recreation as well. The most popular line in the summer was the two streetcar lines on Surf Avenue and Gravesend Avenue that went out to what was then popularly called "Sodom by the Sea." Yes, that's right: It's Coney Island. Despite the belief of New York City Architect Frederick Law Olmstead that a good walk through nature would help cure society's ills (hence Central Park, which he designed), many streetcars packed with rowdy daytrippers eagerly patroned the beaches, brothels, and amusements of Coney Island helped give "Sodom By the Sea" its seedy reputation. (More information can be found in this Defunctland video.) Other popular destinations for the BRT included Flushing Meadows - Corona Park (site of the 1939 and 1964 Worlds Fairs, more information via Defunctland) and Ebbets Fields, a popular baseball stadium.

"Anyone for Dodge-Ems?"

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how a certain Brooklyn-now-Los Angeles baseball team got its name on our trolley blog, especially considering they just won (as of this writing) the Major League title. When the Great American Game hit Brooklyn in 1883, the first team nickname was the Brooklyn Grays. Following this, they had many interesting names like the Bridegrooms and the Superbas. Can you even imagine supporting a team called the Brooklyn Bridegrooms with a straight face? (And to those who read "Superbras", shame on you.) As their name kept changing through the 1890s, so did the fields they played at, originally at two different locations of Washington Park, Eastern Park (which had no trolley lines nearby) and out at Ridgewood, both reachable by streetcars.

Two newspaper cartoons of the late 1890s showing off Brooklyn's reputation for "dodging trolleys".

(The Evening World, 2/27/1895, 12/17/1894)

The grim reality: plenty of trolleys to dodge as they line the streets of Brooklyn.
(Sports Team History)

Unfortunately, their most popular name came from a not-so-popular (or hilarious) fact. During the electrification period of the early 1890s, many pedestrians were not so used to the high speeds of the cars going down the street. By the end of 1895, well over 130 people died and over 500 were maimed in various electric streetcar accidents. As these were well-common whenever the "home" games would let out and the attendees (and players) would find their way home by streetcars, coupled with the general strike that brought down the Long Island Transit Company, the public quickly nicknamed the team the "Trolley Dodgers". The team officially adopted this nickname between 1911 and 1912, then shortened to the "Dodgers" from 1913 to 1957 (with the name changed to "Robins" between 1914 and 1931). When the team moved to Los Angeles in 1957, they still had trolleys to dodge as popular LA Railway services brought rabid baseball fans out to their initial home field of LA Memorial Coliseum. 

Notable Rolling Stock

Twelve-Window "Coney Island" Car No. 4558 rests at Brooklyn Yard, 1948.
(Don Ross)

Among the first electrified cars for Brooklyn were
these open-air summer cars in 1890.
(Brooklyn Historic Railway Association)

Back to the trolleys themselves. Prior to the advent of "Standard" car designs, the BRT invested in 8-, 10-, and 12-window convertible cars from the J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia, PA. The 12-window convertibles were especially noteworthy, as they featured removable whole carsides to make an open-air car perfect for taking tourists out to Coney Island. These antiquated cars served long into BRT service, with some lasting as late as 1948 before retirement. By 1912, new superseding designs reduced these cars to limited local service and some were rebuilt as work cars, prolonging their working lives until the very end.

B&QT Peter Witt No. 8149 works the Ocean Ave. Line.
(Brooklyn Historic Railway Association)

The first standard car designs arrived on Brooklyn's streets in 1912, courtesy of the new "Peter Witt" streetcar from J.G. Brill. Cars 5000-5099 were outshopped to Brooklyn in 1912 and remained the steady workhorses of the fleet for many years, with an additional 6000-6199 class built by Brill and Osgood-Bradley of Worcester, MA, between 1929 and 1931. These were also the BRT's first "Pay As You Enter" cars, with a front entrance and center exist assisting in rapid boarding. In 1925, car 5099 was subjected to an experimental rebuild that made it the only double-ended streetcar in the fleet. The cars were originally finished in a handsome green with silver window lines, but were later finished in a striking carmine-and-cream scheme.

The first and the last, for the last time. A grubby 1001 and 1099 stand
testament with a rather joyous motorwoman near the end of service
in the late 1950s.
(Trolley Museum of New York)

Brooklyn PCC No. 1001, in its original red-stripe
livery upon delivery in 1936.
(Branford Electric Railway Association)

The successors to the Peter Witts came in 1931, by which time the BRT was now reorganized into the Brooklyn & Queens Transit (B&QT), a subsidiary of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). As the B&QT, the company was heavily involved in the Presidents Conference Committee meetings of America's street railway executives to create a car that would save the railways from the menace of the automobile. When the first production cars from St. Louis Car Company became available in 1935, the B&QT purchased 100 of them. Cars 1001-1099 were all delivered in 1936 and, oddly, B&QT never went back for more.

 

PCC No. 1000 in the later silver-and-green scheme,
quite the odd duck.
(BMT Archives, Joseph D. Korman)

Car 1000, another PCC, was purchased concurrently with the St. Louis Car Order, but for some reason was not built by them. Instead, the unique car was constructed by the Clark Equipment Company of Buchanan, Michigan, out of aluminum instead of steel. Despite being close to the original PCC design with its split destination boards, canted windscreen, and even using the same GE motors and controls, the car was so much more backwards and forward-thinking as well. Due to the aluminum construction, No. 1000 was riveted instead of welded which all other steel PCCs were. Interestingly it was also outshopped with standee windows above the normal ones. PCCs wouldn't get this feature until after World War II with the third generation cars. Nevertheless, the car fit in well with the other ninety-nine sisters and remained operating until 1956.

Judge Doom Takes a Bite of the Big Apple

The Board of Transportation branding on an Interborough rapid transit car.
(New York Metropolitan Transit Authority)

Despite the variety of cars and popular services to all sorts of tourist and commuter destinations, the BRT was left stuck for much of its golden age. Passengers often rebelled when the streetcars tried to raise the fares (such as in Gravesend where a one-cent hike from 2 to 3 cents with no transfers caused much concern) and with the advent of the subways across the East River Bridge, streetcars were starting to lose their importance. When the B&QT took over operations in 1929 following the local syndicate's collapse in the Great Depression and spending the 1920s in financial hell, the fare was raised to 5 cents without fuss. By WWII, the New York City Board of Transportation (NYBT) supervised the system's return to popularity as gas rationing and wartime labor made travel by streetcar absolutely important, but after the war, there was trouble brewing.

Robert Moses, visionary and villain
of New York City.

In 1946, then-Mayor William O'Dwyer named Robert Moses New York's representative in Washington, DC. Moses, said to be the "Master Builder" of New York City, had little patience for charming anachronisms like Coney Island and the streetcars, and he certainly had little patience for poor people. Once in power, Moses influenced legislature that allowed expanded freeway development all over the United States, especially in cities like New York. Aiding this expansion was National City Lines (NCL), a transit holding company that was funded (and run) by companies like General Motors, Firestone Tires, Standard Oil, and Phillips Petroleum. Despite the Brooklyn streetcars being run by the city, NCL moved in as a potential operator contractor and the city could hardly say "no" to a good bribe.

Between 1949 and 1956, all of the B&QT's streetcar lines were systematically closed and replaced by buses. Line closures were nothing new, as the lines out to Fort Hamilton and Bensonhurst were closed well before wartime, but now it was becoming noticeable. As the streetcar lines closed, Moses' freeways went up and cars began populating where trolleys once rolled. By Halloween 1956, the last three lines shut down, with the very last being the Church Avenue streetcar. After that, the wires came down and the cars and infrastructure were sent for scrap. There were no more trolleys left to dodge.

A National Railway Historical Society Special charters a Brill 10-window car in 1940
on the Bensonhurst line, just before it closed. 
(Associated Press)

Survivors, Artifacts, and What's Next?

Brooklyn No. 1000 comes home to Kingston in 1991.
(Trolley Museum of New York)

Thankfully, the memories of Brooklyn's old streetcars live on in plenty of surviving cars as well as the occasional track left paved over rather than removed. Of the original BRT fleet, 12 pieces of rolling stock are extant with 9 of them being streetcars. Both PCCs 1000 and 1001 have survived into preservation, with PCC 1000 undergoing extensive restoration at the Trolley Museum of New York in Kingston, NY, while No. 1001 can be seen operating at the Branford Electric Railway Association's (BERA) Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, CT. The oldest car to survive, No. 1792, was built in 1899 by the Laclede Car Company for the Nassau Electric Railway, one of the BRT's original constituent companies. Incredibly, the car lasted in service until 1952, after which it was preserved by the BERA. 

Remnants of old street tracks on Delancey and Essex.
Thanks to Twitter user Aklemphotos for pointing it out.
(Google Images)

In the city itself, a piece of street track was made visible by aging pavement on the intersection of Delancey and Essex Streets on New York's Lower East Side, just off the Williamsburg Bridge. This wide thoroughfare on Delancey Street was originally the Northern terminus of the BRT, with a loop located right at the end of the bridge. Today, this center thoroughfare is a bike lane, but if you know where to look, you'll still see the tracks today, just creeping out of the cracking pavement. Another couple sections reappeared at Surf Avenue and West 17th Street in Coney Island as of 2019.

Finally, there are still ongoing attempt to bring the streetcars back to Brooklyn. One of these is the Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, an 11-mile streetcar line running from Astoria Park in Queens to Red Hook via Williamsburg and downtown Brooklyn, east of the East River. At an estimated cost of 2.7 billion, it definitely isn't cheap, but if it is built it will provide an easy and convenient riverside railway with a stop every half-mile. With the current events, however, an anxiety is that the connect, once built, may already well be out of date if it doesn't update with a new plan now to meet all of its proposed service's wants and needs.

A preliminary map of the Brooklyn-Queens Connector.
(Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector)

Vintage trolleys line the water's edge of Red Hook in 1999.
(Bob Diamond)

Another plan to bring back streetcars to Brooklyn is being made by the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association (BRHA), but in a more vintage fashion. Originally formed in 1979 after discovering the once-thought-lost Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, the BHRA once operated a small riverside trolley in Red Hook with a 16-car carbarn with ex-MBTA PCCs providing the ride. Despite being a nostalgic transit, the BHRA had serious plans to connect itself to Downtown Brooklyn with major transit connections and possible transfers, blending a heritage streetcar with an actual transit system. Unfortunately, this all came to an end in 2003 when the Department of Transportation revoked any possibility of running on public streets.  Today, the BHRA is still hopeful it can bring streetcars back to Brooklyn.

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you dodge a streetcar! My resources today included an article on the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a brief history on streetcars from the Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, the Trolley Museum of New York, and the Branford Electric Railway Association. On Thursday, we go across the East River into Manhattan to look at the New York Street Railways. For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!