Fresh Pond Depot

Fresh Pond Depot

The Fresh Pond Depot is located at 66-99 Fresh Pond Road, on the east side of Fresh Pond Road south of Madison Street in Ridgewood, Queens (40°42′23″N73°53′46″W / 40.706400°N 73.896111°W / 40.706400; -73.896111 (Fresh Pond Depot)), west of the adjacent Fresh Pond Yard of the New York City Subway. It was the site of a trolley depot called the Fresh Pond trolley yard, which was opened in 1907 by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT). In addition to repair shops, the barn hosted a "trolley car school" where new motormen were trained using a mockup of a streetcar's driver cabin. The trolley barn was acquired by the city in 1940, and was closed after the final trolley route from the depot, the Richmond Hill Line (today's Q55 bus), was motorized into trolley bus service on April 26, 1950. The barn was razed in 1957. Construction of the current bus depot by the Transit Authority began in March 1959. In June 1959, a contract was awarded to rebuild the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line to provide adequate clearance for the passage of buses underneath to the depot. The new depot opened on July 27, 1960, at the cost of $2 million. The new depot was built to be 250 feet (76 m) wide by 500 feet (150 m) long. The initial capacity of the depot was 185 buses. The construction of the depot was required due to the loss of the West 5th Street Depot. In addition, the new depot replaced the Maspeth Trackless Trolley Depot, and Bergen Street depots located in Brooklyn. The new garage featured automatic fueling and washing facilities. The depot is currently assigned around 200 buses, but has been assigned as many as 262 in the past.