The Union Avenue Line was a

public transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

line in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, running mostly along

Myrtle Avenue Myrtle Avenue is a street that runs from Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, in New York City, United States. Route description Queens Myrtle Avenue has been a major thoroughfare since the early ...

, Knickerbocker Avenue,

Flushing Avenue Flushing Avenue is a street running through northern Brooklyn and western Queens, beginning at Nassau Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and ending at Grand Avenue in Maspeth. It divides the neighborhood of Williamsburg from Clinton Hill an ...

, Throop Avenue, and Union Avenue from

Ridgewood, Queens Ridgewood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It borders the neighborhoods of Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick and East Williamsburg. Historically, the neighborhood s ...

northwest to

Greenpoint, Brooklyn Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn� ...

History

The Calvary Cemetery, Greenpoint and Brooklyn Railroad began operating the

Calvary Cemetery Line Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

on Greenpoint Avenue, from Greenpoint Ferry in Brooklyn east across the Blissville Bridge over

Newtown Creek Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. Channelization made it one of the most heavily-used bodies of water in the Port of N ...

to Calvary Cemetery in Queens, in the mid-1880s. This route ran along part of the Bushwick Railroad's

Bushwick Avenue Line The Bushwick Avenue Line or Bushwick Line was a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, running mostly along Bushwick Avenue and Myrtle Avenue between Williamsburg and Ridgewood, Queens. History The Bushwick Railroad ope ...

west of Manhattan Avenue. On April 21, 1887, the Brooklyn Crosstown Railroad, which operated on Manhattan Avenue, bought the company, which was not profitable. The Crosstown soon began building the rest of the CCG&B's proposed system, from the Crosstown's

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

s on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint east on Ash Street, south on

McGuinness Boulevard McGuinness Boulevard is a boulevard in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It runs between Interstate 278 (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) in the south and the Pulaski Bridge in the north, which connects to Queens an ...

, west on Driggs Avenue, and south on Union Avenue, Broadway, and Throop Avenue to a terminus at Park Avenue. This included some trackage of the Bushwick Railroad's

and the Crosstown's Crosstown Line on Driggs Avenue. Plans were also made to continue the line south past Park Avenue to Prospect Park, but were not carried through. The Park Avenue Line, a

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** Bi ...

line, ran from Fulton Ferry east to

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; East New York and the cemeteries of Highland Par ...

, including a stretch of Crosstown trackage on Park Avenue between Navy Street and Washington Avenue. It had been built by the

Atlantic Avenue Railroad The Atlantic Avenue Railroad was a company in the U.S. state of New York, with a main line connecting downtown Brooklyn with Jamaica along Atlantic Avenue. It was largely a streetcar company that operated its own trains, but the Long Island Rai ...

and leased to a cable company. The line was a failure, and the lessee transferred the lease to the Crosstown in July 1887, giving the Crosstown access to downtown and an outlet for the Union Avenue Line. Horse cars replaced Park Avenue cable cars on July 16, and Union Avenue cars began running to the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...

around then. The

Brooklyn City Rail Road 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. I ...

leased the Crosstown on August 1, 1889, and on August 2 it truncated the Union Avenue route to Park Avenue; about a month later the original owner - the

- began operating the Park Avenue Line with horse cars. On April 27, 1890, the Brooklyn City opened new trackage on

from Graham Avenue east to Metropolitan Avenue, and on Knickerbocker Avenue from Flushing Avenue southeast to

. In addition to introducing a new Flushing Avenue Line (the existing line on Flushing Avenue was the

Graham Avenue Line The Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line were two public transit lines in Brooklyn, New York City with the Graham Avenue Line running mainly along Graham Avenue and Manhattan Avenue and the Tompkins Avenue Line running mainly along Tompk ...

), it rerouted the Union Avenue Line to run from Ridgewood to Greenpoint Ferry. This new route used Myrtle Avenue, Knickerbocker Avenue, Flushing Avenue, Throop Avenue, Union Avenue, Driggs Avenue, Manhattan Avenue, and Greenpoint Avenue.

References

{{Brooklyn surface Streetcar lines in Brooklyn Streetcar lines in Queens, New York