23-425: The Myrtle Avenue Line , also called the Myrtle Avenue Elevated , is a fully elevated line of the New York City Subway as part of the BMT division. The line is the last surviving remnant of one of the original Brooklyn elevated railroads. The remnant line operates as a spur branch from the Jamaica Line to Bushwick , Ridgewood , and Middle Village , terminating at its original eastern terminal across
46-458: A suspension railway . Elevated railways are normally found in urban areas where there would otherwise be multiple level crossings . Usually, the tracks of elevated railways that run on steel viaducts can be seen from street level. The earliest elevated railway was the London and Greenwich Railway on a brick viaduct of 878 arches, built between 1836 and 1838. The first 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of
69-421: A bumper just south of Seneca Avenue . The only switches were at the southern end so the center track could only be used for layups (parking). It was never used in revenue service and was removed by 1946. In Fiscal Year 1930, the platforms at Seneca Avenue were lengthened to accommodate an eight-car train of Standard subway cars. On March 5, 1944, the line west of Bridge–Jay Streets was closed coincident with
92-707: A private right-of-way , eventually joining an elevated structure above Palmetto Street in Ridgewood and Myrtle Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick . Just before reaching Broadway (on which the BMT Jamaica Line operates), the line curves to the left and merges into the Jamaica Line tracks just east of the Myrtle Avenue station. The still-existing upper level of the station , which
115-794: A ramp to the Lutheran Cemetery Line , a former steam dummy line to Metropolitan Avenue that had opened on September 3, 1881. That section was elevated as part of the Dual Contracts on February 22, 1915. On July 29, 1914, the connection to the Broadway-Brooklyn Line was opened, allowing Myrtle Avenue Line trains to operate via the Williamsburg Bridge . Construction on this connection began in August 1913. This service became BMT 10 in 1924, and
138-501: A steel canopy supported by black and green columns in the center. To the northeast ( railroad south ) of the station, the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line curves east to leave the street grid and continue as an elevated structure over the former grade level steam dummy Lutheran Cemetery Line. Southwest of the station, there is space for a center track. The station's only entrance/exit is an elevated wooden mezzanine beneath
161-989: Is Tokyo's driverless Yurikamome line, opened in 1995. Most monorails are elevated railways, such as the Disneyland Monorail System (1959), the Tokyo Monorail (1964), the Sydney Monorail (1988–2013), the KL Monorail , the Las Vegas Monorail , the Seattle Center Monorail and the São Paulo Monorail . Most maglev railways are also elevated. During the 1890s there was some interest in suspension railways , particularly in Germany, with
184-485: Is a type of driverless grade-separated, mass-transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems that serve as loops or feeder systems, but is sometimes applied to considerably more complex automated systems. Similar to monorails, Bombardier Innovia APM technology uses only one rail to guide the vehicle along the guideway. APMs are common at airports and effective at helping passengers quickly reach their gates. Several elevated APM systems at airports including
207-579: Is served by the M train at all times. The station opened in 1915 as part of the Dual Contracts . This station opened on February 22, 1915, by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company as part of a project to elevate a portion of the Myrtle Avenue Line, which had run at street level. This work was completed as part of the Dual Contracts . This elevated station has two tracks and an island platform . The platform has
230-704: The Berlin Stadtbahn (1882) and the Vienna Stadtbahn (1898) are also mainly elevated. The first electric elevated railway was the Liverpool Overhead Railway , which operated through Liverpool docks from 1893 until 1956. In London, the Docklands Light Railway is a modern elevated railway that opened in 1987 and has since expanded. The trains are driverless and automatic. Another modern elevated railway
253-508: The London and Blackwall Railway (1840) was also built on a viaduct. During the 1840s there were other plans for elevated railways in London that never came to fruition. From the late 1860s onward, elevated railways became popular in US cities. New York's West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway opened in 1868 as a cable-hauled elevated railway and was operated using locomotives after 1871, when it
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#1732780969590276-803: The PHX Sky Train at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport; AeroTrain at Kuala Lumpur International Airport; and the Tracked Shuttle System at London Gatwick Airport , United Kingdom. Seneca Avenue (BMT Myrtle Avenue Line) [REDACTED] The Seneca Avenue station is a station on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line of the New York City Subway . Located at the intersection of Palmetto Street and Seneca Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens , it
299-650: The Schwebebahn Dresden , (1891–) and the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (1901). H-Bahn suspension railways were built in Dortmund and Düsseldorf airport , 1975. The Memphis Suspension Railway opened in 1982. Suspension railways are usually monorail; Shonan Monorail and Chiba Urban Monorail in Japan, despite their names, are suspension railways. People mover or automated people mover (APM)
322-713: The end of elevated service over the Brooklyn Bridge. On January 21, 1953, the Grand Avenue station was closed so that it could be torn down and therefore complete the demolition of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line . The rest of the line from Broadway to Jay Street closed on October 4, 1969, and was demolished soon afterward, ending the MJ service. A free transfer to the B54 bus replaced the MJ, and service
345-616: The line joined the Broadway Elevated , and then along Broadway to East New York . On September 1, 1888, the line was extended westward along Adams Street and Sands Street, to a terminal at Washington Street for the Brooklyn Bridge. On April 27, 1889, the line was extended east along Myrtle Avenue to Broadway, and to Wyckoff Avenue (at the Brooklyn/Queens border) on July 20, 1889. However, the station at Knickerbocker Avenue did not open until August 15, 1889. The west end of
368-554: The line was extended north along Adams Street to an elevated station over Sands Street and High Street in 1896. The connection to the Brooklyn Bridge tracks opened on June 18, 1898, along a private right-of-way halfway between Concord Street and Cathedral Place. The first trains to use it came from the Fifth Avenue Elevated (using the Myrtle Avenue El west of Hudson Avenue). In 1906 the el was connected via
391-450: The original Myrtle Avenue Line service to Park Row became BMT 11 , later referred to as M and MJ (although the MJ designation never appeared on any equipment used on the line). As part of the Dual Contracts rebuilding of the Myrtle Avenue El, a third track was installed north of Myrtle Avenue . This track started from a point south of Central Avenue through Myrtle – Wyckoff Avenues to
414-706: The plans. In July 2017, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority started rebuilding two parts of the Myrtle Avenue Line, the 310-foot-long (94 m) approaches to the junction with the BMT Jamaica Line (which lasted until April 2018, requiring suspension of service between Wyckoff and Myrtle Avenues), and the Fresh Pond Bridge over the Montauk Branch in Queens (which lasted from July to September 2017). This work
437-761: The street from Lutheran Cemetery. Until 1969, the line continued west into Downtown Brooklyn and, until 1944, over the Brooklyn Bridge to the Park Row Terminal in Manhattan . The following services use part or all of the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line: The Myrtle Avenue Line is served by the M service. The line begins at Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village, Queens . It heads southwest along
460-667: Was called "Broadway", opened in 1889 and closed on October 4, 1969. The first section of the line ran over Myrtle Avenue from Johnson and Adams Streets to a junction with what was then known as the Main Line at Grand Avenue. It opened on April 10, 1888, by the Union Elevated Railroad Company, which was leased to the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad for its operation. Trains continued along Grand Avenue and Lexington Avenue to Broadway, where
483-494: Was increased on that bus. The free transfer at Jay Street was also replaced with a bus transfer. In 1986, the New York City Transit Authority launched a study to determine whether to close 79 stations on 11 routes, including the remaining portion of the Myrtle Avenue Line, due to low ridership and high repair costs. Numerous figures, including New York City Council member Carol Greitzer , criticized
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#1732780969590506-819: Was renamed the New York Elevated Railroad. This was followed in 1875 by the Manhattan Railway Company , which took over the New York Elevated Railroad. Other early elevated systems in the US included the Chicago "L" , which was built by multiple competing companies beginning in 1892, as well as the Boston Elevated Railway in 1901 and the Market–Frankford Line in Philadelphia in 1907. Globally,
529-703: Was undertaken in preparation for a reconstruction of the BMT Canarsie Line tunnels under the East River , which took place between 2019 and 2020. Regular service resumed on April 30, 2018. Elevated railroad An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) is a railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks). The railway may be broad-gauge , standard-gauge or narrow-gauge railway, light rail , monorail , or
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