The Routes Not Taken Read online

  A much different route was originally planned. The Crosstown line was first proposed in 1878, after Brooklyn Mayor James Howell appointed a Rapid Transit Commission. Howell, the other elected officials, and advocates for the development of a transit system, such as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, saw how the first elevated rail line, the 9th Avenue El, would affect New York City.1 An Eagle editorial discussed Brooklyn’s needs:

  Rapid transit is no longer a speculative matter in New York City. It is now a fact accomplished. The first train over the Gilbert Elevated Railroad was run yesterday. The time occupied in going from Trinity Church to Fifty-eighth street was seventeen minutes. It is not necessary to dwell upon the value of this enterprise to people engaged in business down town, and forced by the pressure of commerce upon the city to find homes in the vicinity of Central Park and beyond it. Apart from the accession of manifest comfort which the new road brings to travelers between the extraction of the city, the saving in time to thousands of people will be about two hours daily. In other words, the gain to the home life of those persons amounts to a full day every week. This immense contribution to the means of movement in our sister city must tend to reawaken interest in rapid transit in Brooklyn.2

  The Commission, chaired by Felix Campbell, reported to Howell on June 1, 1878. Much of what they proposed became the lines operated by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company at the start of the twentieth century. They saw the need for a rapid transit system in Brooklyn:

  That rapid transit of some kind in Brooklyn has become even now necessary, admits of no doubt. The outlying districts of Brooklyn can by the scheme of transit, which we shall bring to your notice in a future communication, be brought nearer, in point of time, economy of transportation and convenience to the business part of New York City, by way of the bridge, than can the upper part of the island on Manhattan by the steam transit road now being inaugurated there [the 9th Avenue Elevated]. But to effect this there should be a feeling on the part of our authorities that this consummation is most desirable, and toward which, in the material interest of their constituencies and the prosperity of the whole city, they should labor.3

  The Commission proposed a route running from Myrtle Avenue to Newtown Creek along Franklin, Wythe, and Manhattan Avenues and Commercial Street and Avenue in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The Eagle called this route the Crosstown line, most likely giving the line its name.4 Another line running through this area was planned to operate between Fulton Street and Broadway via Nostrand and Lexington Avenues. The Fulton Street Elevated was the main component of the 1878 plan, running from East New York to the Brooklyn Bridge, then five years away from opening.

  There was opposition from Brooklyn’s business community. “There is such a thing as the defacement of a city,” said W. C. DeWitt, a representative of Fulton Street property owners:

  It would occur if an elevated railroad were put on the Strand, London, or the chief boulevard in Paris, or Broadway and Fifth Avenue, New York or Fulton Street, Brooklyn …

  … The business of the [Fulton Street] stores is not distant, but in the vicinage. It is not transported, it is local. New York [Manhattan] lies upon a long tongue of land and with remote commercial relations, the customers of her stores demand rapid transit to overcome long distances. Brooklyn is spread out like a fan, and the home customers of her stores do not need the appliances of elevated railroads. Hence, the leading merchants in Brooklyn oppose elevated railroads on Fulton Street. The entire business of elevated railroads in Brooklyn will consist in transporting people to and from New York; such railways will, therefore be an unmitigated evil to the abuttor.5

  The Kings County Elevated Railway and Brooklyn and Long Island City Railway Companies were among those making proposals to operate lines. Commissions appointed by Howell and his successors, Seth Low, Daniel D. Whitney, and Alfred C. Chapin, evaluated routes. The Fulton Street and Myrtle Avenue lines were approved on December 26, 1885.

  Travel patterns in and out of Brooklyn forever changed when the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883. The bridge did make it easier to get to New York City, but what DeWitt didn’t foresee was how easy it became to get to Brooklyn, resulting in a major change and expansion of that city’s residential and business communities.

  The Fifth Rapid Transit Commission identified more routes in March 1886, including the Crosstown line and the 5th Avenue and Broadway–Brooklyn elevated lines. These lines were adopted on April 13; the Brooklyn Board of Aldermen gave approval for the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad Company, one of the BRT’s predecessors, to begin construction work on the lines on July 7.

  Protests stopped the Crosstown line. Greenpoint business owners and Rev. Patrick O’Hare, the pastor of St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, met with Mayor Whitney on August 3. They claimed that Greenpoint’s main street, Manhattan Avenue, was too narrow for an elevated line and that the construction of such a line would harm businesses and private properties.6 These objections were echoed at a meeting of Franklin, Wythe, and Division Avenues property owners on September 17. The New York State Supreme Court did allow a commission to be established to condemn land along Franklin and Wythe Avenues for construction work.

  A hearing was held on October 12. Several people spoke in opposition, claiming that the noise and smoke from the trains would depreciate the value of the adjoining land.7 They felt that surface lines provided enough service. Rev. O’Hare said trains passing his church would interrupt services and prevent clergymen from resting after night calls. George Palmer, a real estate agent, spoke against moving the line closer to the waterfront on Kent Avenue; he thought it would interfere with the operation of the manufacturing plants in the area.8

  The hearing continued on October 20. General George W. Wingate,9 representing the railroad, presented its organizational papers. A reporter, Timothy J. Dyson of the Brooklyn Union, spoke for the line, stating that it would improve property values in the surrounding area and keep businesses from leaving Brooklyn. There was little support provided beyond this testimony.10

  The Rapid Transit Commission approved the 5th Avenue El in January 1887. This route would run from Fulton Ferry to Sunset Park. It would later be extended to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge and south to Bay Ridge along 3rd Avenue.11 The Commission and the railroad had no enthusiasm for building the Crosstown line due to the opposition it attracted.12

  The Kings County Elevated Railway appealed the awarding of the Fulton Street El’s franchise to the Court of Appeals, winning the rights on March 23, 1887. Brooklyn Union wanted to build the Crosstown line, but given the opposition they experienced, they wouldn’t specify the exact route. Kings County had no interest.13

  The Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad Company conceded nothing. “The Court holds as to the other routes substantially to build on Fulton Street, according to the papers that were laid before the Court,” Wingate said. “So without desiring to commit myself to any positive action, I should say that the decision has taken away from us the right to built on Fulton Street. I am not prepared to say just what our company will do, except that we shall build wherever we can.”14

  Francis Kernan, a referee appointed by the State Supreme Court on June 15, supported Wingate. Brooklyn Union retained the right to build the remaining routes. At the end of his term, Whitney was asked to appoint another Rapid Transit Commission; he deferred to his successor, Alfred C. Chapin, who appointed the members on February 4, 1888. This commission wanted to focus on the Fulton Street, Myrtle Avenue, and Crosstown lines. In view of the earlier opposition, it stepped back from building the Crosstown line on Wythe Avenue, beginning a process to determine a more acceptable route.15

  Figure 2-1. The 1888 plan for the Crosstown Elevated.

  The route of the Crosstown line changed, with a significant part running on Kent Avenue, one block to the west of Wythe Avenue, closer to the industrial part of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Nostrand Avenue was considered for the route’s southern leg, but this plan experienced opposition from area
residents and businesspeople.

  The Myrtle Avenue line began service on April 10, 1888. The Commission supported building both the Crosstown line, operating between Myrtle Avenue and Newtown Creek on Kent Avenue and Franklin and Commercial Streets, and the Broadway–Brooklyn line.

  The Fulton Elevated Railroad Company filed incorporation papers on July 7 identifying station locations. Brooklyn Union maintained interest in the Crosstown line, still wanting to use Wythe Avenue as the main part of the route. They also wanted to use Franklin Avenue, a significant part of most proposals for the next three decades, as part of the route.

  The Board of Aldermen’s Railroad Committee issued a report on December 11 that favored granting the franchise for the two routes under study to Fulton Elevated. The route appeared set, but it still experienced opposition. Opponents of the plan testified at a hearing of the Commission on January 10, 1890, set up by the State Supreme Court to evaluate Fulton Elevated’s proposal. William Jay Gaynor, later mayor of New York City,16 objected because the Crosstown and Myrtle Avenue lines would be run by two different companies, not allowing for connections between the lines. He presented a petition from property owners on Kent Avenue and Franklin Street and a statement from both the DeCastro and Donner and the F. W. Wurster sugar refining companies.17

  A week later, representatives of the sugar refining plants along the East River discussed the difficulty their companies would experience in shipping and receiving goods if an elevated line was built along Kent Avenue.18 At a third hearing, on January 25, Gaynor presented petitions and a copy of the original Brooklyn Union plan to show that there was little difference between the current one and what was so strongly rejected three years earlier. No one spoke for the plan.19

  The Supreme Court’s Commission ruled against the Fulton Elevated plans on February 8. The arguments about the lack of connections with other lines and the impact the Crosstown line would have had on the operation of the manufacturing district were telling.

  There was little interest in the Crosstown line for many years. The Ninth Rapid Transit Commission’s report in March 1890 created the network of elevated lines extending from the Brooklyn Bridge that would be operating when the first subway lines opened. More parts of Brooklyn were now open for development, setting an example for communities in other parts of New York City of how rapid transit could influence their own development.

  Brooklyn was one of New York City’s five boroughs in a new century when the Crosstown line was again considered. In May 1902, the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners authorized Chief Engineer William Barclay Parsons to prepare plans for new lines. Writing to Seth Low, once Brooklyn’s mayor, now mayor of Greater New York, Commission President Alexander E. Orr noted:

  It was not the intention that the plan should be prepared for immediate execution; but it was the expectation that if a general scheme was wisely prepared, rapid transit construction would proceed upon the lines so laid down as rapidly as the needs of the city and the amount of private capital ready for such investments would permit …

  … The necessity for undertaking this general study of the rapid transit situation in the city was made all the more evident by the fact of the enormous increase in passenger travel on all existing lines in the year 1903. The statistics clearly indicate that when the present subway system now under construction from Brooklyn to the Bronx is completed, it will almost be immediately congested, so that no great amount of permanent relief can be counted on from that source. In order to meet the growing and immediate demands for increased facilities it is evident to the Board that new lines should be laid out and put under construction as soon as possible.20

  Parsons and George S. Rice, his successor, both proposed new versions of the Crosstown line as part of a network of lines covering Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, and Bedford–Stuyvesant that led to the creation of the 14th Street–Canarsie line.

  Parsons’s plan extended the Crosstown line into Queens as an elevated spur of the Brighton Beach line from its connection with the Fulton Street El at Franklin Avenue,21 operating along Franklin Avenue, Wallabout, Gwinnett, and Lorimer Streets, and Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn, and Vernon and Jackson Avenues in Queens to the Blackwell’s Island Bridge. A northern extension would run along Debevoise Street (now 31st Street) to the Long Island Sound.22 Rice didn’t include the Franklin Avenue connection—running from the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza to the Blackwell’s Island Bridge via Driggs and Manhattan Avenues in Brooklyn and Jackson Avenue in Queens—as a subway.

  Rice incorporated the lower section of Parsons’s route into a line with a component of the Crosstown line built in the 1930s. The Brooklyn and Manhattan Loop line would run on Centre and William Streets in Manhattan, and Cranberry, Pineapple, or Montague Streets to Willoughby Street, then Flatbush Avenue to Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. Rice wanted to use Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene and Bedford–Stuyvesant as a trunk route running to Bushwick, with lines branching out in either direction. The line would use Lafayette Avenue to reach Bedford Avenue, turn toward Broadway, and connect with the elevated line there for the return trip to Manhattan over the Williamsburg Bridge.

  Area property owners wouldn’t consent to the northern extension of the route to Queens, as required by the New York State Rapid Transit Law. The New York State Public Service Commission, which succeeded the RTC as the governing body for transit planning and construction, won a court order to allow work to proceed in March 1907

  The Crosstown line wasn’t in the PSC’s Tri-Borough Plan, but that plan did incorporate the part of Rice’s planned line that ran along Lafayette Avenue from Flatbush Avenue23 to Broadway. When planning began for the Dual Systems Contracts, it included the Crosstown line as a BRT elevated route from Fulton Street to Queensboro Plaza, connecting with the BRT’s Brighton Beach line on the south and the IRT and BRT at the Queensboro Plaza station.

  Figure 2-2. A plan for the extension of subway service to central and northern Brooklyn.

  The BRT would build the Crosstown line with their own money; they had support in Brooklyn and Queens. The Crosstown Rapid Transit Committee of Brooklyn and Queens, with members representing civic and business groups, had been formed. The Queens Borough Chamber of Commerce advocated for the line. Mayor William Jay Gaynor supported it, as did the Board of Estimate’s Subway Committee, chaired by Manhattan Borough President George A. McAneny.24

  Opposition to an elevated line from community and religious groups along the route was as strong and vocal in 1913 as it was decades earlier. Despite the BRT’s and PSC’s claim that there was no money to build a subway, to these community groups it would be a subway or nothing. Brooklyn’s newspapers were filled with articles and advertisements about the efforts of supporters and opponents of the Crosstown line throughout 1912 and into 1913. The BRT ran an extensive advertising campaign to show the benefits of building an elevated.

  The BRT gave the Crosstown line lyrical names like “The Sound to Ocean Line” or “The Sound to Shore Line.” One advertisement showed how Brooklyn would benefit by the rapid transit network that would develop with the Crosstown line’s connections with existing lines and those in the Dual Contracts. Another countered the argument that elevated lines lowered property values by showing the positive impact of el construction in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. They sponsored a poll showing support for an elevated line, although the Brooklyn Daily Times ran a different poll to elicit support for a subway instead of an el.

  The opposing groups weren’t buying. The language became stronger as the Dual Contracts approached approval by the PSC and the Board of Estimate, and a series of rallies and meetings took place.

  Rev. O’Hare was a strong part of the opposition to the Crosstown line in 1886. The leaders of the churches along the route played a similar role in 1913. At a meeting at the Central Congregational Church in Bedford25 on March 22, 1912, its pastor, Rev. S. Parkes Cadman,26 said, “We are by no means so provincial as to stand in the way of rapid transi
t. We want something in the nature of an up-to-date method, such as a tunnel properly built and equipped and not an archaic structure which has long ago been criticized by the public in general.”27

  Figure 2-3. Rev. S. Parkes Cadman. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 13, 1936)

  Colonel Timothy S. Williams of the BRT responded:

  Of the value of the line projected there is no doubt whatsoever. It seems to me that it would be a good thing for Dr. Cadman’s church [located by Franklin Avenue] inasmuch as it would make it much more easier living on the general parallel from the river to get there. Against the complaint that there should be no more elevated roads all I can say is that the traffic would not warrant the building of a subway at $5,000,00028 a mile, for that is what it would cost, and furthermore, would not support it if built. We think a line of some sort very necessary, and an elevated appeals to us as the sensible plan.29

  The area’s elected officials joined the pastors. State Senator Eugene M. Travis protested the BRT’s advertising:

  The advertisement is the result of a vivid imagination and deliberate attempt to mislead the public. The BRT wants only a connection between the Lexington Avenue and Fulton Street roads, and, through Franklin Avenue, so as to carry the crowds to the new ball grounds and to Coney Island, and is indifferent of the ruin that it will bring to my constituents …

  … People are advocating beautiful Brooklyn, and committees are appointed to bring it about. Meanwhile, we are told by the Public Service Commission that we may expect a lovely, pretty elevated line through built-up parts of the borough. Consistent, aren’t we?30

  Senator Travis was not the only one to refer to Ebbets Field, then under construction. At a rally at the Bedford branch of the YMCA on May 27, its chairman, Brooklyn Young Republican Club President Darwin R. James, Jr., said, “Some time ago we were surprised to hear that the baseball interests had bought quite a strip of property near [Prospect Park]. That led to the inquiry as to how they were to get people to the baseball field. Those on the inside gave out the tip that there was to be a connecting line between the Lexington Avenue line and the Brighton Beach. There was not much attention paid, because it was generally shown that this was not contemplated, yet it shows what was clearly in the minds of those in favor of an elevated structure.”31