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 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.

Extent and service

The following services use part or all of the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line:

{| class="wikitable"

!  

! Time period

! Section of line

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| align=center |

| All times

| Metropolitan Avenue to west of Central Avenue

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The Myrtle Avenue Line is served by the service. The line begins at Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village, Queens. It heads southwest along 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 was called "Broadway", opened in 1889 and closed on October 4, 1969.

History

Opening

thumb|right|Myrtle Avenue Line stub at Lewis Avenue and Myrtle Avenue, left standing after the line's western portion was demolished in October 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 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.

The west end of 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 eastern end of the el was connected via a ramp to the Lutheran Cemetery Line, a former steam dummy line to Metropolitan Avenue that had opened on September 3, 1881. On August 1, 1888, the Brooklyn City Railroad took over the Bushwick Railroad Company and on August 3, 1895 they converted the Lutheran Line to electric trolley cars which were less expensive to operate. This section was elevated as part of the Dual Contracts on February 22, 1915.

Connection to the Broadway Line

On July 29, 1914, the connection to the Broadway-Brooklyn Line was opened, allowing Myrtle Avenue Line trains to operate via the Williamsburg Bridge.

Truncation and later years

On March 5, 1944, the line west of Bridge–Jay Streets was closed coincident with the end of elevated service over the Brooklyn Bridge. 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 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 the plans.

In July 2017, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority started rebuilding two parts of the Myrtle Avenue Line, the 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 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. The MTA began removing lead paint from the Myrtle Avenue Line viaduct in 2025.

Station listing

{|class="wikitable"

!Neighborhood<br />(approximate)

!

!Station

!Services

!Opened

!Transfers and notes

|-

| align=center colspan=6 | Queens

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|Middle Village

|

|nowrap|

|

|October 1, 1906

|Service extended to pre-existing Lutheran Line station, which opened in 1881.<br />Current station is ~100 feet west of the 1906 one.

|-

|rowspan=4|Ridgewood

!colspan=5 style="background-color: silver;"|connecting track to Fresh Pond Yard

|-

|

|

|

|February 22, 1915

|

|-

|

|

|

|February 22, 1915

|

|-

|

|

|

|February 22, 1915

|

|-

| align=center colspan=6 | Brooklyn

|-

| rowspan="5" |Bushwick

|

|

|

|July 20, 1889

|BMT Canarsie Line ()<br>Station rebuilt to 3 tracks July 29, 1914; center track subsequently removed.

|-

|

|

|

|August 15, 1889 It closed on May 3, 1917.

|-

!colspan=5 style="background-color: silver;"|merges into BMT Jamaica Line just east of Myrtle Avenue (connector added July 29, 1914)

|-

!colspan=6 style="background-color: silver;"|Closed section

|-

|rowspan=6|Bedford–Stuyvesant

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|style="background-color: silver;"|Broadway

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|April 27, 1889

|Station still in place; tracks removed; closed October 4, 1969

|Closed October 4, 1969

|Closed March 5, 1944

|-

|

|style="background-color: silver;"|

|

|September 1, 1888

|Closed March 5, 1944

|-

!colspan=6 style="background-color: silver;"|Brooklyn Bridge

|-

|Civic Center

|

|style="background-color: silver;"|

|

|June 18, 1898

|Closed March 5, 1944

|}

References

Further reading

  • "The New Road Opened", The New York Times, April 11, 1888, page 8
  • "City and Suburban News", The New York Times, April 28, 1889, page 6
  • "New of the Railroads", The New York Times, January 9, 1896, page 15
  • "Park Row to Sheepshead Bay", The New York Times, June 19, 1898, page 5
  • "1,200 on Last Trip on Myrtle Ave. El; Cars Are Stripped", The New York Times, October 4, 1969, page 23
  • "Brooklyn Elevated", James Clifford Greller, Xplorer Press, 2017
  • NYCsubway.org&nbsp;– BMT Myrtle Branch
  • "Myrtle Ave El, Oct. 1969, plus a few earlier shots"