Brooklyn City Railroad - Misplaced Pages

The Brooklyn City Railroad (BCRR) was the oldest and one of the largest operators of streetcars (horsecars and later trolleys) in the City of Brooklyn, New York, continuing in that role when Brooklyn became a borough of New York City in 1898.

Incorporation and first line

The BCRR was incorporated on December 17, 1853, with capital of $2,500,000, a large sum in those days. Its first line, the Myrtle Avenue Line, was the first horsecar line in Brooklyn, and opened on July 3, 1854. The line operated from Fulton Ferry via Fulton Street and Myrtle Avenue to the former stagecoach stables at Marcy Avenue. The New York State Legislature permitted it to reduce its capital to $1,000,000 in 1855.

List of lines

The following lines were operated by the BCRR at the time of its 1893 lease to the BHRR:

Court Street Line, Brooklyn Bridge to Red Hook
Flatbush Avenue Line, Fulton Ferry to Flatbush
Fulton Street Line, Fulton Ferry to East New York
Furman Street Line, Fulton Ferry to Hamilton Avenue Ferry
Gates Avenue Line, Fulton Ferry to Ridgewood
Graham Avenue Line, Fulton Ferry to Greenpoint Ferry
Greenpoint Line, Fulton Ferry to Greenpoint
Hamilton Avenue Line, Hamilton Avenue Ferry to Greenwood Cemetery
Myrtle Avenue Line, Fulton Ferry to Bushwick
Putnam Avenue Line, Fulton Ferry to Ocean Hill
Third Avenue Line, Fulton Ferry to Fort Hamilton

Built after the consolidations began

Bowery Bay Line, Ridgewood to North Beach
Corona Line, Ridgewood to Corona
Flatbush Avenue Line, Flatbush to Flatlands
Flushing Avenue Line, Bushwick to Maspeth
Richmond Hill Line, Ridgewood to Richmond Hill
Union Avenue Line, Greenpoint to Ridgewood

From the Bushwick Railroad, leased July 26, 1888

From the Brooklyn Crosstown Railroad and its leased Calvary Cemetery, Greenpoint and Brooklyn Railroad, leased July 30, 1889

From the New Williamsburgh and Flatbush Railroad and its leased Greenpoint and Lorimer Street Railroad, leased July 31, 1889

From the Grand Street and Newtown Railroad, leased April 29, 1890

Grand Street Line, Williamsburg to Maspeth
Meeker Avenue Line, Williamsburg to Penny Bridge

From the South Brooklyn Street Railway, leased April 24, 1891

Second Avenue Line, Sunset Park to Gravesend

Leased to Brooklyn Heights Railroad

In 1893, the Long Island Traction Company (LIT), a holding company, acquired the Brooklyn Heights Railroad (BHRR), operator of a short cable car line on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights and used this latter company as its operating arm. The BHRR obtained a 999-year operating lease on the Brooklyn City the same year. By this time the Brooklyn City operated 27 streetcar lines.

Part of Brooklyn Rapid Transit System

The LIT was foreclosed and reorganized in 1895 as the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT), which soon acquired, through lease or stock ownership, most of the trolley and rapid transit lines in Brooklyn.

The BRT (also known as "the rapid transit company" during its years of acquisition) became the public face of transportation in Brooklyn. Nevertheless, the BRT operated all of its lines through its operating companies, some of which were created just for that purpose, and others that were leased or subsidiaries, such as the Brooklyn City. Patrons may have noticed this in subtle ways, such as that streetcar transfers had the letters "B.C.R.R." imprinted on their face.

Company revival

In 1919, the BRT went into receivership as the result of a number of factors, such as the serious inflation of World War I, and not helped by the Malbone Street Wreck on the Brighton Line, which killed at least 93 people on November 1, 1918.

Though the BRT was bankrupt, the Brooklyn City was declared solvent, and its charter and separate corporate existence were resumed. The lease by the Brooklyn Heights was ended and the lines the BCRR controlled in 1893 and more became its lines again on October 19, 1919. The BCRR had its own crews, cars and carbarns, and even purchased new equipment in its own name, though the overall planning and management was still effectively with the BRT. A negative consequence for passengers was that BCRR lines no longer issued transfers to the lines still with the BRT, and vice versa.

When the BRT was reorganized as the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) in 1923, the former BRT companies gradually were brought out of receivership. Nevertheless, the Brooklyn City did not become part of the BMT, but remained a separate company until June 1, 1929, when the BMT formed the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation to consolidate all of its surface operations in one operating company, which finally ended the corporate existence of the Brooklyn City.

References

The Brooklyn City and Kings County Record: A Budget of General Information : with a Map of the City, an Almanac, and an Appendix, Containing the New City Charter. Compiled and published by William H. Smith. 1855. p. 87.
Report of the Special Committee of the Assembly Appointed to Investigate the Causes of the Strike of the Surface Railroads in the City of Brooklyn, 1895, pages 33-34

New York metropolitan area streetcar transit

Former streetcar
operators

New York	BRT/BQT LICEC LIRR IRT Second Avenue Railroad Third Avenue Railway Sixth Avenue Railroad Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railway Eighth and Ninth Avenues Railway 14th Street Central Crosstown (17th & 18th Street Lines) 23rd Street 34th Street Crosstown 42nd Street & Grand Street Ferry 86th Street Babylon Railroad Bleecker Street & Fulton Ferry Bridge Operating Company BHRR NYR Brooklyn & North River Brooklyn, Queens County & Suburban Danbury & Harlem Fort George & Eleventh Avenue Grand Street and Newtown Greenpoint and Williamsburgh Hudson Avenue Houston, West Street & Pavonia Ferry Huntington Railroad/Traction Company Jamaica Central Railways Lenox Avenue Long Island Electric Railway Long Island Traction Company Manhattan Bridge 3¢ Manhattan & Queens Traction Nassau Railroad Nassau Electric Railroad New York Railways Company New York & Harlem Railroad New York & Long Island Traction New York & North Shore Traction New York and Queens County Railway New York and Queens Transit Corporation New York Interborough (IRT) Northport Traction Company Ocean Electric Railway Oscar City Railway Ossining Electric Railway Peekskill Lighting and Railroad Pelham Park and City Island Railway Putnam & Westchester Queensboro Bridge Richmond Light & Railroad Staten Island Electric Railroad Staten Island Horse Railroad Staten Island Midland Railway/Railroad Staten Island Traction Company Steinway Railway Suffolk Traction Union Railway (Bronx) Union Railroad (Brooklyn) West Farms & Westchester Westchester Electric Westchester Street Yonkers Railroad
New Jersey	North Hudson County Railway Public Service Coordinated Transport/Transport of New Jersey
Connecticut	Connecticut Company Consolidated Railway Bridgeport Traction Connecticut Railway & Lighting Danbury and Bethel Street Railway Greenwich Tramway Company New York and Stamford Railway

Current operations

New Jersey	Hudson–Bergen Light Rail Newark Light Rail River Line

Proposed operations

New York	Red Hook Staten Island 42nd Street Brooklyn–Queens Waterfront Lower Montauk
New Jersey	HBLR Northern Branch
Connecticut	New Haven

Streetcar lists

New York	Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Long Island Westchester
Nearby states	New Jersey (PSR lines) Connecticut

Other

Carhouses	New York City Bus garages MTA Bus garages Long Island Bus garages
Other	Other New York City transit

Companies and predecessors of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation

Elevated railroads
and subways

Streetcars and
cable cars

Buses