Bergen Street Line

The Bergen Street Line is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, running westbound mostly along Bergen Street, as well as eastbound on Dean Street (as part of a one-way pair), between downtown Brooklyn and Ocean Hill (earlier Red Hook to City Line). Originally a streetcar line, it is now the B65 bus route, operated by the New York City Transit Authority.

History

The South Brooklyn and Bergen Street Railroad was organized under the general railroad law [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Local Legislation, April 18, 1863, page 2] and opened by 1865 from Hamilton Ferry along Sackett Street (including part of the Brooklyn City Rail Road's Furman Street Line), Hoyt Street, and Bergen Street to Classon Avenue. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Police Intelligence, June 27, 1865, page 3] [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Particulars About Our City Rail Roads, August 10, 1865, page 2] The Bergen Street Railroad was merged into the Brooklyn and Canarsie Railroad, [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Meeting of the Committee on Railroads of the Common Council - The Brooklyn and Canarsie Railroad, May 3, 1866] and on September 21, 1866 an extension to Canarsie Landing (where steamboats connected for Rockaway) along Bergen Street, Nostrand Avenue, Clove Road, Little Lane, and Canarsie's main street (the last three partially gone)Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Legal Notices, August 8, 1868, page 4] was opened. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Travel, September 22, 1866, page 4] It was the second line to Canarsie, arriving a year after the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad, and was a failure, being foreclosed on January 13, 1868. The original portion, west of the stables at Bergen Street and Classon Avenue, was sold on February 14, 1868; [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York Supreme Court, January 21, 1868, page 4] the rest was sold on September 15, 1868. None of the extension to Canarsie was ever used again.

The South Brooklyn and Park Railroad acquired the line to Classon Avenue on June 1, 1870, [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Railroad Enterprise, October 7, 1870, page 2] and was again sold on June 19, 1877 [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Supreme Court, June 4, 1877, page 4] as the South Brooklyn Central Railroad. It was authorized in 1878 to build a branch in Bergen Street from Hoyt Street west to Court Street, use the Brooklyn City Railroad trackage in Court Street, and use the Atlantic Avenue Railroad trackage in Atlantic Avenue and Furman Street to the Wall Street Ferry at Montague Street. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Aldermen, April 23, 1878, page 2] The Atlantic Avenue Railroad leased the South Brooklyn Central, then extending to Bergen Street and Albany Avenue, on February 2, 1885. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle, In New Hands, February 2, 1885, page 4] The Atlantic Avenue Railroad laid tracks in Boerum Place from Atlantic Avenue south to Bergen Street to connect the lines, as an extension of its Adams Street and Boerum Place Line.

The line reached Rochester Avenue by 1897. [Rand McNally, .

At some point, the west end was truncated to the intersection of Smith Street and Sackett Street. Buses were substituted for streetcars on July 20, 1947. The B65 bus has been truncated more, only running from downtown east to Ocean Hill; the B12 bus, started by the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation as a new route in 1931, now covers Liberty Avenue out to City Line.

References