Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line

The Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line were two public transit lines in Brooklyn, New York City with the Graham Avenue Line running mainly along Graham Avenue, and Manhattan Avenue and the Tompkins Avenue Line running mainly along Tompkins Avenue. The Graham Avenue line ran between Downtown Brooklyn and Greenpoint and the Tompkins Avenue Line ran between Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Williamsburg. Originally streetcar lines, they were replaced by the B47 and B62 bus routes which were then combined to form the B43 route which continues to operate presently between Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Greenpoint.

B43 bus route

The present-day B43 route is a combination of the then discontinued B47 (although the route number is still used today for a different service) and B62 routes. The B47 route replaced the Tompkins Avenue Line running between Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Williamsburg along Empire Boulevard, Kingston Avenue, Tompkins Avenue, and Harrison Avenue, and the B62 route replaced the Graham Avenue line running between Downtown Brooklyn and Greenpoint along Flushing Avenue, Manhattan Avenue and Graham Avenue. On September 10, 1995,New York Times, [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60614FF39540C738EDDA10894DD494D81 Coming Transit Reductions: What They Mean for You] , August 20, 1995, section 13, page 10] ] the B47 and B62 were combined to form the present-day B43 route. When the routes were combined, the Harrison Avenue portion of the B47 was removed along with the Flushing Avenue section of the B62.

The B43 bus route runs between the Prospect Park subway station at Lincoln Road and Flatbush Avenue in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Manhattan Avenue and Box Street in Greenpoint via Manhattan Avenue, Graham Avenue, and Tompkins Avenue. The route serves Prospect Park, the Jewish Children's Museum, Brower Park, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, Restoration Plaza, the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, and McCarren Park. It also connects with the B13, B15 to JFK Airport, B16, B24, B25, B26, B38, B41 Limited, B44 Limited, B45, B46 Limited, B47, B48, B49 Limited, B52, B54, B57, B60, B61, B65, Q54, and Q59 bus routes and the following subway stations:
* Prospect Park on the BMT Brighton Line (NYCS Prospect Park|time=show)
* Sterling Street on the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line (NYCS Nostrand|time=show)
* Kingston Avenue on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line (NYCS Eastern center local|time=show)
* Kingston-Throop Avenues on the IND Fulton Street Line (NYCS Fulton local|time=show)
* Flushing Avenue on the BMT Jamaica Line (NYCS Jamaica west local|time=show)
* Graham Avenue on the BMT Canarsie Line (NYCS Canarsie|time=show)
* Nassau Avenue on the IND Crosstown Line (NYCS Crosstown|time=show)
* Greenpoint Avenue on the IND Crosstown Line (NYCS Crosstown|time=show)

History of the Graham Avenue Line

The Brooklyn City Railroad opened the line, as the Flushing Avenue Line, in July 1854 as a branch of the Fulton Street Line continuing east along Flushing Avenue to Throop Avenue with an extension to Division Avenue (present-day Broadway) in April 1855. [John Homer French, [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC02310217&id=R_zHwh4xByQC Gazetteer of the State of New York] , 1860, pages 66 and 67] It was later extended north along Graham Avenue to North Second Street (present-day Metropolitan Avenue) in 1867 [cite BDE|title=Railroad Enterprise|md=December 19|y=1867|page=2] [cite BDE|title=The Lufaner Inquest Continued|md=January 25|y=1868|page=2] and to Van Cott Avenue (present-day Driggs Avenue) in October 1872. [cite BDE|title=City Railroad Extension|md=October 7|y=1872|page=11]

On April 27, 1890, Brooklyn City opened new trackage on Flushing Avenue from Graham Avenue east to Metropolitan Avenue, with the service operating on it becoming the new Flushing Avenue Line, [cite BDE|title=City Railroad Changes|md=April 25|y=1890|page=1] and the old Flushing Avenue Line being renamed the Flushing and Graham Avenues Line and afterwards, the Graham Avenue Line. The Graham Avenue Line was later extended north along existing trackage on Driggs Avenue and Manhattan Avenue to Hunters Point.Fact|date=February 2007 Buses were substituted for streetcars on December 21, 1948.Fact|date=February 2007

ee also

Greenpoint and Williamsburgh Railroad

References