Bedford, Brooklyn

Bedford is a community in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, centered approximately at the corner of modern-day Fulton Street and Franklin Avenue.

Its name is better known today as part of the larger community of Bedford-Stuyvesant. See that entry for a description of the contemporary neighborhood.

Bedford, in pre-American Revolutionary War times, was the first major settlement to the east of the then-Village of Brooklyn on the Brooklyn & Jamaica Turnpike to Jamaica, Queens and the rest of Long Island. It formed a major crossroads with roads to Williamsburg to the north and Flatbush to the south.

The advent of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in 1836 early established Bedford as a major railroad town as well and, in 1878, the building of a terminal and junction with the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway made Bedford an important gateway to Coney Island.

The LIRR continues to operate on its original route, though it is now in a tunnel under Atlantic Avenue west of Bedford Avenue and on an elevated structure east of that point. Bedford Station, originally west of Franklin Avenue, is now located two blocks east on the structure and is known as Nostrand Avenue Station. The BF&CI is now part of the BMT Franklin Avenue Line subway and its station is now located at the corner of Fulton and Franklin.