TheNEW YORK DIVISION BULLETIN - JUNE, 2008 Bulletin New York Division, Electric Railroaders’ Association Vol. 51, No. 6 June, 2008 The Bulletin BROOKLYN BRIDGE “L” SERVICE FROM BROOKLYN Published by the New TO MANHATTAN BEGAN 110 YEARS AGO York Division, Electric TO MANHATTAN BEGAN 110 YEARS AGO Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated, PO Box For 15 years, passengers riding cable cars June 3, 1898 and through service across the 3001, New York, New across the Brooklyn Bridge were transported bridge started on June 18 in conjunction with York 10008-3001. only as far as Sands Street, where they the Long Island Rail Road and the Prospect transferred to elevated trains or horse cars. Park & Coney Island Railroad. The first train, For general inquiries, Through service across the bridge started a five-car special train with 300 passengers, contact us at nydiv@ operating 110 years ago, June 18, 1898. most of whom were railroad and public offi- electricrailroaders.org When the Brooklyn elevated trains started cials, departed from Park Row at 11:30 AM. or by phone at (212) running in the late 1880s, they could not op- The train was pulled by one motor car at 986-4482 (voice mail erate across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was Park Row, by cable across the bridge, and by available). ERA’s website is not strong enough to support steam engines, a locomotive in Brooklyn. The train was www.electricrailroaders. whose brakes were unreliable. Therefore, the routed via the Fifth Avenue “L” and the Culver org. Bridge Trustees chose the technology of the Line to Parkville. Then the train operated via 1880s — a cable railway that the bridge the Long Island Rail Road tracks to Manhat- Editorial Staff: Editor-in-Chief: could support and whose speed on the steep tan Beach for a banquet. This non-stop train Bernard Linder grades could be controlled by the cable. made the trip in 37 minutes 50 seconds. News Editor: After Frank Sprague perfected electric trac- Regular trains, running until 6 PM, made the Randy Glucksman tion and George Westinghouse invented the trip in 50 minutes. Contributing Editor: air brake, it was obvious that electric trains The next day, Sunday, trains running on a Jeffrey Erlitz could provide through service across the ten-minute headway were jammed to the Production Manager: Brooklyn Bridge. doors. During the first weekday, Fifth Avenue David Ross A February, 1897 engineer’s report recom- trains ran on a ten-minute headway until 3 mended running through elevated service PM, when service was increased to a six- across the bridge. A contract signed August minute headway for the evening rush. Bridge 23, 1897 between the bridge trustees and shuttles continued operating frequently. several Brooklyn trolley and elevated compa- Trolley cars started operating across the ©2008 New York nies provided for through service across the bridge on January 23, 1898. Because they Division, Electric bridge. The Brooklyn Elevated Railroad Com- provided through service to many Brooklyn Railroaders’ Association, pany was required to complete its work in six neighborhoods, the bridge cable railway lost Incorporated months, while Kings County Elevated was 13,000 to 15,000 daily passengers to the trol- allowed one year. The latter was also re- ley cars. After through elevated trains started In This Issue: quired to electrify the entire line at a cost of running to Park Row, riding increased rapidly. Brooklyn City $1.5 million. The companies were charged a On June 22, trolley cars had empty seats in Merged with 12½-cent toll for each elevated car operated the evening rush and the elevated trains’ loss across the bridge. The cars were required to of passengers was reduced to 2,000. BMT...Page 2 have center doors, cable grips, and the same The 310 bridge employees were dismissed braking system as the bridge cars, in addition on June 30 and about 200 were rehired by to one motor car in each train. the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad Company, The Brooklyn Elevated made a trial trip on (Continued on page 20) NEXT TRIP — SCRANTON (STEAMTOWN1 /ELECTRIC CITY TROLLEY), JULY 18 NEWNEW YORK YORK DIVISION DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN OCTOBER, - JUNE, 2008 2000 BROOKLYN CITY MERGED WITH BMT by Bernard Linder In the December, 2007 Bulletin, we revealed that ers and the Transit Commission. Previous bus propos- Brooklyn Rapid Transit was ordered to turn back 26 trol- als failed because of Brooklyn City’s objection to bus ley lines to the Brooklyn City Railroad Company and to competition. To pacify the company, all bus routes north run them as a separate organization because BRT was of Fulton Street were deleted. unable to pay the rent. In October, 1919, Brooklyn City The company officials approved the merger, but they started operating its own lines, which were profitable. could not proceed until the Legislature authorized it. On But the other subsidiaries operated by BRT and its suc- April 18, 1929, New York’s Governor, Franklin D. Roo- cessor, Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit, were losing money. sevelt, signed two bills to remove legal obstacles in the Several years later, the city started planning Unifica- way of acquisition by the new corporation of securities tion, purchase of BMT and IRT rapid transit lines. Man- of subsidiary trolley lines whose shares were owned by agement believed that Unification excluding surface still other lines, which in turn were controlled by one or lines would leave BMT with non-paying trolley lines. In the other of the two corporations included in the merger. February, 1929, BMT officials concluded that Brooklyn On April 21, 1929, the company revealed that the City and other subsidiaries (or all trolley and bus lines) merger could not take place until the Superintendent of would have to be merged to put surface lines on a pay- Insurance gave consent to insurance companies hold- ing basis. ing large blocks of Brooklyn City stock. It was expected On February 8, 1929, the company revealed that ne- that consent would be obtained in a few days. gotiations for a merger of Brooklyn City and BMT At a hearing held at the Transit Commission on May reached a successful conclusion. A new operating com- 23, 1929, BMT President William Menden predicted a pany, which would be set up, would take over both sys- $500,000 saving in rerouting and consolidating shop tems and would issue stock for Brooklyn City and the facilities. Brooklyn & Queens Transit Corporation ex- other subsidiaries. Large corporations held most Brook- pected to acquire South Brooklyn Railway’s capital lyn City stocks, but BMT owned most of the other trolley stock. subsidiaries’ stocks. On May 26, the company announced that Clinton E. The new organization would be an operating com- Morgan, who came to Brooklyn City in 1919, would not pany, not a holding company, and would also take over be retained. He pulled the company out of bankruptcy. the buses. It would be under the supervision of the Since 1921, he was General Manager, Vice President, Transit Commission. The proposal still had to be ac- and Director. cepted by several corporations that held large blocks of On June 4, 1929, Brooklyn City’s stockholders ap- securities. Brooklyn Trust objected at first, but the ob- proved the merger. This action was made a part of re- jections were overcome. cord at a Transit Commission hearing. At a special This merger paved the way for direct negotiations for hearing held on June 7, the Transit Commission ap- a bus franchise and also aided pending Unification ne- proved the Brooklyn City merger. The old Board of Di- gotiations. If consolidation of all trolley lines and a bus rectors was ordered to settle the business and dissolve franchise could create a profitable surface system, BMT permanently. The new Board, which had already been would agree to exclude surface lines from the Unifica- named, elected officers and applied to the Board of Es- tion plan. The city was not anxious to buy the Brooklyn timate for transfer of certain minor franchises that could trolley lines and the Transit Commission did not favor not be transferred without city consent. the plan. Brooklyn City went out of existence at midnight June Gerhard Dahl of BMT said that BMT would not con- 30, 1929 and the Brooklyn & Queens Transit Corpora- sent to Unification unless Brooklyn City and the other tion started operating the trolley lines on July 1. B&QT subsidiaries were merged and it were protected against operated 500 miles of track on 235 route miles. There bus competition. BMT would have liked the city to aban- were no additional transfer privileges between the for- don all bus plans and build additional trolley lines, but mer Brooklyn City lines and the other subsidiaries’ lines. the city refused. The administration believed that buses Menden was the President and Dahl was the Chairman were the easiest and most mobile forms of transporta- of the Board. tion, and made so many bus promises that it would The new management proceeded to operate an effi- have been politically unsafe to abandon buses. cient and reliable surface line system. DeKalb Shop On February 13, 1929, the company revealed that the was closed as an operating depot on January 12, 1931 new corporation would issue stock, which would be and was rebuilt as a heavy repair shop for the entire used to purchase stock of the subsidiaries and Brooklyn fleet. City. The directors of BMT and Brooklyn City authorized During the Depression, riding declined and the num- the merger, which had to be approved by the stockhold- (Continued on page 3) 2 NEW YORK DIVISION BULLETIN - JUNE, 2008 Brooklyn City Merged with BMT 5100s, which were center entrance and exit cars and had no front doors, were rebuilt by Brill in 1931-3.