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33-476: The neighborhoods of Victorian Flatbush were developed in the early twentieth century from farmland in the former village of Flatbush, in response to the construction of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit line to Coney Island , and are some of the earliest suburbs. Developers including Dean Alvord, Lewis Pounds and particularly Thomas Benton Ackerson sold the new developments as country living, under

66-630: A new five-platform complex at Chambers Street beneath the Manhattan Municipal Building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge on August 4, 1913. In addition to BRT trains, Long Island Railroad (LIRR) commuter trains also used the new Chambers Street station from its opening until 1917. The elevated railroads were operated by a new corporation, the New York Consolidated Railroad . In 1913,

99-629: A number of surface railroads, the earliest of which, the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad or West End Line , opened for passenger service on October 9, 1863, between Fifth Avenue at 36th Street at the then border of Brooklyn City and Bath Beach in the Town of Gravesend, New York . A short piece of surface route of this railroad, near Coney Island Creek , is the oldest existing piece of rapid transit right-of-way in New York City, and in

132-684: A small section turning north after the Crescent Street station. Most of the other surviving structures were either built new or rehabilitated between 1915 and 1922 as part of the Dual Contracts . One piece of structure – the elevated portion of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle , built in 1896 and 1905 – was extensively rebuilt in 1999. Several BRT-era equipment have been preserved. This includes nine BU cars and five AB Standard cars, all which were also operated by

165-712: The BMT Fourth Avenue Line ) service – labeled 3 in 1924 – since it opened in 1916, passing over the Manhattan Bridge and onto the BMT Broadway Line express tracks. In the late 1950s, midday trains were switched to the local Fourth Avenue tracks and through the Montague Street Tunnel , and late night and Sunday service became a shuttle between Coney Island and 36th Street . The express and local services were assigned

198-687: The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation in 1923. The BRT was incorporated January 18, 1896, and took over the bankrupt Long Island Traction Company in early February acquiring the Brooklyn Heights Railroad and the lessee of the Brooklyn City Rail Road . It then acquired the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad leased on July 1, 1898. The BRT took over the property of

231-661: The Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad and the short Van Brunt Street and Erie Basin Railroad remained independent; the former was acquired in 1913 or 1914. BRT opened its first short subway segment, consisting only of an underground terminal at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge at Delancey and Essex Streets in Manhattan on June 16, 1908. This line was extended under Delancey Street and Centre Street to

264-590: The Manhattan Bridge to a junction with the aforementioned Nassau Street Line at Canal Street . The BRT opened the first segment of its Manhattan main line subway, the Broadway Line , as far as 14th Street–Union Square on September 4, 1917. The Broadway Line was completed in 1920. The BRT's only crosstown Manhattan line, the Canarsie Line , opened in 1924. During the beginning of the BRT's existence,

297-427: The 38th Street cut to Ninth Avenue. Then it becomes an elevated structure over New Utrecht Avenue, before subsequently turning through private property near 79th Street into 86th Street. The line then continues over 86th Street to Stillwell Avenue and to the line's terminal at Coney Island. The line was originally a surface excursion railway to Coney Island , called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad , which

330-538: The BMT upon the company's creation in 1923. BMT West End Line The BMT West End Line is a line of the New York City Subway , serving the Brooklyn communities of Sunset Park , Borough Park , New Utrecht , Bensonhurst , Bath Beach and Coney Island . The D train operates local on the entire line at all times. Although there is a center express track and three express stations along

363-600: The BRT subway and Williamsburg Bridge began with the opening of the Chambers Street Station. Both LIRR and BRT motorman were represented by the same union. Today, BRT successor MTA New York City Transit still receives freight deliveries from LIRR freight successor the New York & Atlantic Railroad in Sunset Park and at Linden Yard. World War I and the attendant massive inflation associated with

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396-495: The BRT, through another subsidiary, the New York Municipal Railway , signed the Dual Contracts with the government of New York City , to construct and operate new subways and other rapid transit lines to be built or improved under these contracts. Almost all subsequent BRT lines were built as part of the contracts. The BRT opened its first Brooklyn subway under Fourth Avenue on June 22, 1915, running over

429-688: The Beverley Squares—are now considered part of Ditmas Park. It has also been identified with Midwood. The Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church on 19th Street in the Ditmas Park Historic District, at which Conrad Tillard is since 2018 the Senior Minister, is often used for community meetings. Victorian Flatbush now includes five New York City historic districts, and residents of the sections that have not yet been designated city historic districts are working with

462-621: The Flatbush Development Corporation and the Historic Districts Council to win designation. 40°38′26″N 73°57′39″W  /  40.640449°N 73.960801°W  / 40.640449; -73.960801 Brooklyn Rapid Transit The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate railway lines in Brooklyn and Queens , New York City , United States . It

495-465: The LIRR was a competitor of the BRT for passengers in Brooklyn and Queens. Despite competing with nearby lines, the BRT and its predecessors also hosted LIRR passenger trains via track sharing agreements and interchanged freight with them. LIRR Passenger service to the BRT's Brooklyn Bridge terminal began after an agreement in 1895, utilizing BRT elevated lines. LIRR passenger service to downtown Manhattan via

528-459: The U.S., having opened on June 8, 1864. Initially the surface and elevated railroad lines ran on steam power . Between 1893 and 1900 the lines were converted to electricity operation. An exception was the service on the Brooklyn Bridge . Trains were operated by cables from 1883 to 1896, when they were converted to electric power By 1900, it had acquired virtually all of the rapid transit and streetcar operations in its target area: Only

561-483: The area resembles other parts of the US more than it does the rest of New York. It is one of the largest collections of Victorian houses in the country. There has been rezoning to guard against oversize buildings near Coney Island Avenue . Victorian Flatbush is in the western part of Flatbush, bounded approximately by Prospect Park (Brooklyn) or Church Avenue in the north and Avenue H in the south, and by Flatbush Avenue in

594-509: The designations T and TT in the early 1960s. With the opening of the Chrystie Street Connection in late 1967, the B train from Manhattan was extended to Coney Island, absorbing the T and TT (both ran express on Fourth Avenue). The TT late night and Sunday shuttle survived until 1968, when the B became full-time. It ran local on Fourth Avenue during late night hours, but express at all other times. Late night operation

627-696: The east and Coney Island Avenue in the west. It includes a dozen neighborhoods or enclaves: The earliest development in Victorian Flatbush was the Tennis Court development, planned by Richard Ficken in the 1880s. These homes were bought and razed to build apartment buildings in the 1920s. The only remnants left of it are the eponymous street, and the Knickerbocker Field Club . Many parts of Victorian Flatbush, particularly those centered on Cortelyou Road —Ditmas Park West and

660-481: The financially struggling company, and the BRT filed bankruptcy on December 31, 1918. In 1923 the BRT was restructured and released from bankruptcy as the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). Some of the former elevated system of the BRT, dating to 1885, remains in use today. The largest section is the part of today's BMT Jamaica Line running above Fulton Street from the Alabama Avenue station to

693-475: The line, between the 36th Street station on Fourth Avenue and 62nd Street station, opened on June 24, 1916, with two tracks. On the same date, the line opened three more stations to 18th Avenue, but with only one track in service. The second track between 62nd Street and 18th Avenue opened on July 8, 1916. The line was then extended to 25th Avenue on July 29, 1916. The line opened to and fully opening to Coney Island on July 21, 1917. The original surface right-of-way

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726-641: The line, there is no regular express service. The elevated line, originally mapped as the New Utrecht Avenue Line (though the common name prevailed after construction), replaced the surface West End Line . The following services use part or all of the BMT West End Line: The line begins as a branch of the BMT Fourth Avenue Line south of the 36th Street station, and it extends through a cut described as

759-605: The name "The Village in the City". Utilities and the subway were buried underground, and the area was carefully laid out with tree-lined avenues, including the Flatbush Malls , and country clubs. The detached houses, many of them large and all distinct, were designed in fashionable styles including "Victorian, Queen Anne , shingle style, colonial revival, neo-Tudor, Spanish Mission and Georgian", with porches and columns, and in many cases bay windows, turrets, and stained glass, and

792-468: The only line to serve the terminal and the W was extended full-time into Manhattan, using the local Fourth Avenue tracks and Montague Street Tunnel on weekends and late nights hours. In 2004, the Manhattan Bridge reconstruction project was completed, and the W was replaced with an extended D train, running over the bridge at all hours and express on Fourth Avenue except late nights. D service

825-399: The project, tracks and girders would be repaired, and stations would be rehabilitated. To enable sections of the local tracks to be taken out of service for long periods of time for the work, trains would operate on the center express track and stop at local stations through the use of temporary platforms that would be constructed atop the local track. The West End Line has had an express (on

858-670: The war put New York transit operators in a tough position, since their contracts with the City required a five-cent fare be charged, while inflation made the real value of the fare less than three cents in constant currency value. On November 1, 1918, the Malbone Street wreck , the second worst rapid transit train wreck to occur in the United States, occurred on the BRT's Franklin Avenue/Brighton Beach line, killing at least 93 people. This further destabilized

891-480: Was a prominent corporation and industry leader using the single-letter symbol B on the New York Stock Exchange . It operated both passenger and freight services on its rail rapid transit, elevated and subway network, making it unique among the three companies which built and operated subway lines in New York City. It became insolvent in 1919. It was restructured and released from bankruptcy as

924-530: Was cut back to Chambers Street . It was extended again from 2001–2004 while the Manhattan Bridge was closed for reconstruction. In 2010, as part of a series of MTA budget cuts, rush-hour M service was discontinued. On July 19, 2019, a project to install elevators at the 62nd Street/New Utrecht Avenue station was completed. Starting on September 18, 2021, and continuing until January 3, 2022, southbound D trains terminated at Bay 50th Street so work could be completed to protect Coney Island Yard from flooding. Over

957-476: Was cut back to a shuttle to 36th Street in 1976. In 2001, when reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge north tracks resumed, the B service in Brooklyn was replaced by the new W train, which ran as a shuttle not only to 36th Street during nighttime hours, but also to Atlantic Avenue–Pacific Street on weekends. In 2002, reconstruction of Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue resulted in the West End Line being

990-425: Was established in 1862, but did not reach Coney Island until 1864. Under the Dual Contracts of 1913, an elevated line was built over New Utrecht Avenue, 86th Street and Stillwell Avenue. From 39th Street to Coney Island, the old route was abandoned as a rapid transit line, and it was turned into a surface car line. Surface car operation began on the line once the new elevated service started. The first portion of

1023-610: Was moved to the West End Line instead of returning to the Brighton Line , where it ran on from 1967 to 2001, because West End Line residents from Chinatowns in Brooklyn wanted full-time access to Grand Street , on the Sixth Avenue Line in Manhattan's Chinatown. This also eliminated the need to run late-night and/or weekend shuttles on either the Concourse Line or the West End Line. The other service pattern

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1056-523: Was retained for use by trolley cars to provide local service and protect the company's franchise. As part of an 18-month capital budget that took effect on January 1, 1963, the wooden platforms at the stations on the West End Line were replaced with concrete platforms. On November 13, 1985, the New York City Transit Authority announced that an almost four-year-long renovation of the line would begin in spring 1986. As part of

1089-761: Was the "West End Short Line", a rush-hour local (on Fourth Avenue) service between the BMT Nassau Street Line in Lower Manhattan and 62nd Street or Bay Parkway . It became part of the TT in the early 1960s and was discontinued in 1967. In 1987, the short line service was essentially recreated when the rush-hour M extension to Brooklyn was moved from the BMT Brighton Line to the West End Line terminating at Bay Parkway . It terminated at Ninth Avenue during midday hours until 1995, when it

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