BQX - NYC Streetcars: 1956 - Brooklyn's Last Trolleys

[@martyjewell5683]

Swell video, takes me back in time. I grew up (till age seven) on 39th Street in Brooklyn. We had a trolley that ran up 39th Street to 13th Ave where it turned and squiggled under the elevated Culver Line trains (past the Bocce ball courts) and onto Church Ave. I loved going through the Trolley tunnels (under the intersections) and recall at least three tunnels. We moved in mid 1950's and I ain't rid a Brooklyn trolley since. On July 4th adults would lay bottle rockets in the trolley tracks and light'em. The rockets would scoot along in the track grooves, it was boss.

[@futfut1]

I grew up on 13th and 44th in the 70s/80s. There used to be a Woolworth on 13th. It closed in teh 80s. I saw "Rocky" at the Beverly theatre. The bank on Mcdonald and Church is still there. The Culver line was taken down and is now new housing.

[@martyjewell5683]

@@futfut1- far out. Not terribly far from Sunset Park. I remember 13th Ave being a mostly Jewish neighborhood going out towards Maimonides hospital. Contrasting Sunset Parks mostly Puerto Rican residents. Woolworth's was boss. I hung at the 10th Street/5th Ave and 86th Street/5th Ave Woolworths in early and mid 1960's. A banana split cost .39 cents back then. Brooklyn was an ethnically divided borough. After military service I settled in Bay Ridge (predominately Norwegian) for the 1970's/80's. Thanks paesan.

[@johnsilva9139]

I haven't heard the term "boss" used in almost 60 years. Not sure if it was just used in Brooklyn or all of New York (or all of the country). I grew up in Bay Ridge in the 1950's and 60's.

[@martyjewell5683]

@@johnsilva9139- oops, showin' my age. I grew up in Sunset Park in the 1950's/60's. Started hangin' with friends in Bay Ridge in mid 1960's. Had a few friends livin' in Flag Court. Whatta difference from Sunset Park. I knew Bay Ridge well from 69th St to 101st and from 5th Ave to Shore Road. Also had friends in Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst. Man-o-Manischewitz, Bay Ridge was the place to live in the 60's/70's. Hung out in Triangle Park by Dyker Beach Golf Course across from Mitchell's Drive In. The golf course was a swell make-out place at night.

[@hornet6969]

As a kid (60s) they had already stopped running. They covered the tracks with a thin layer of asphalt. But, I used to see portions of the trolley tracks poking up through the asphalt all the time.

[@bowtrolley]

Presence of the old tracks depends on whether the City "repaved" or "reconstructed" the streets in question. If "reconstructed", the tracks were removed. However, if only "repaved", then the tracks would more than likely remain. A high sensitivity metal detector might help:-)

[@GeOsmomGina]

The tracks are still there on Flatbush and Nostrand. Going towards Glenwood Rd. Pretty, amazing.

[@rolex4524]

I was born in Brooklyn in 1952. By the time I was old enough to travel with mom & dad on public transportation (around 1956) most of the trolleys were gone in Brooklyn, and the streets were paved over EXCEPT much of McDonald Avenue. My mom and I would travel on that street in the family car (with the original Culver train line above us), and I'd always ask her what those "train tracks" were for on the street itself. Long, long gone...

[@Sleazball_]

I would NEVER believed that there were like over head or raised transit before I was born that went back as far as ur day and back in the late 1800 which blew me away when I seen it on KZbin I thought everyone got around by horse n carriage lol smh

[@albertbenajam4751]

By that time MacDonald was a FREIGHT ONLY line. Electric locomotives operating to docks on Brooklyn piers would take them to rails in New Jersey snd/or Long Island RR that could interchange in Long Island City to New England. This operation was called South Brooklyn Rail Road. It was until around 1970 by small electric locomotes, but dewired for diesel switchers. Still carries some trsffic in teens.

[@ZAKAR777]

@@Sleazball_ you was shocked i was too when i seen that steam engine on the el on Myrtle ave i was born and raised in Fort green housing and my mom and pop use to tell me about the el when i was lil and my mom use to call the area The Wall about is a weird name but the history of the area is super ancient

[@NeoNitty]

The culver shuttle? You remember it? If so, then wow, that’s pretty cool. Lol I was always a train buff (like so many kids) so I know all about the system..

[@NeoNitty]

I’m watching this footage now in 2019, in awe like wow, look at the neighborhood...ocean n church...McDonald ave...🤦🏻‍♂️ I literally just drove these blocks today...I love vintage footage of yesteryears

[@Sleazball_]

Seriously I used to think that their days were primitive but they weren’t they had trolleys and raised transit way before us back in the late 1800 which BLEW MY MIND I thought they got around horse and buggy style lol how wrong I was they had more ingenuity than we ever will have

[@NeoNitty]

@@Sleazball_ indeed. Which is why you’ll always hear the elders speak on those days with that glimmer in their eyes. “The good ole days”. And I believe them.

[@romanrat5613]

I like vintage footage, but I myself prefer modern footage of new and existing streetcars! It's time to bring them back! Full swing!

[@freddirecto9032]

Used to take Jay st. Trolley to Fulton St. Abraham and Strauss. All the movie theaters. The Automat. Nedicks. Woolworth. We left in 1949. Sands st. Between Jay and Bridge sts. Was our world. Happy to have had it.

[@NeoNitty]

I remember A&S as a kiddo…wow, cool story to share.

[@jpolar394]

Ain't those trolleys look just beautiful, not even one word of advertising on them. 👍

[@leezaslofsky3918]

We had these streetcars in Toronto until about 20 years ago. They were painted dark red instead of green. They were replaced by a new model that worked for about 20 years. Now we have the third generation of streetcars. Toronto's streetcars operate on some of the major streets, and carry millions of people every year. We call them the "red rockets".

[@Mathin3D]

Brooklyn has always ruled!

[@odemata87]

East Flatbush Brooklyn..i couldn't imagine how they would run on congested Church Ave now

[@robertsawa3407]

PCC cars still running in Boston on the Mattapan Trolly line in 2020.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

They operated out to Watertown Square (A Train) until 1969, and from Heath Street to Arborway (E Train) until 1986. In 1987 they were all replaced with the Type 7 trolleys on the rest of the Green Line. If NYC still had streetcars there would have been a joint purchase for sure!

[@joeharvey3873]

nice camara work, have travel these streets many times, two blocks from east 98 street i have seen track come out of ground on some streets.

[@dr.spectre9697]

What a beautiful elegant mode of transport! So much better than the garbage, ugly, noisy & smelly buses we have clogging up modern NYC streets!

[@None-zc5vg]

@@samanli-tw3id More like a victim of kickbacks from the likes of GM who wanted to sell their buses (and succeeded, as they did in L.A.). The vastly-rich GM chief, Alfred Sloan, even opposed the fitting of safety-glass into cars because it would hit profits, just as Ford would spend $5 extra per car on the 'Pinto' model to stop passengers being burned alive after a collision. The capitalists' greed was as extreme 'back then' as it is today.

[@rogerlambert9316]

You can't stop progress.

[@guymandudely324]

@@rogerlambert9316 And how ironic that in cities across America streetcars are being re-installed.

[@AlbertBenajam-ww1db]

​@@None-zc5vgThere was a CONSPIRIÇY of GENERAL MOTORS & FIRESTONE TIRE & PHILLIPS PEYROLEUM 5o by streetcar companies and substitute

[@heru-deshet359]

Unfortunately trolleys were before my time in Brooklyn. I did get to ride on the old subway cars with the cane seats for two years as a teenager before they also got rid of them.

[@joepasquarello1273]

I remember them well. My grandmother used to take me from Bensonhurst to Coney Island. I think the fare for her was a nickle and mine was free.

[@NeoNitty]

Wowww, crazy at the thought

[@usbraf4]

7:57 I was in the Beverly theater.

[@NeoNitty]

I love my borough...it’s a love/hate relationship but overall,there’s no place like Brooklyn and I’m proud to be a Brooklynite

[@rolex4524]

It was a hell of a place to grow up. I would see people, places & things that were known all over the world, but as a child, it was just "my town". That's the main reason I've never been "thrilled to meet" or "idolize" show-biz celebrities, sports heroes or famous politicians...they were all part of "living in the big city".

[@feddi7693]

💯

[@ivyc3500]

I was born in Brooklyn & I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. Never looked back.

[@NeoNitty]

@@rolex4524 YOU , my friend, sound like me. All seriousness, I see “celebs” every other day in bklyn or the city (I’m good with faces, always was). And not to knock them one bit, but, it just doesn’t move me or anything.

[@NeoNitty]

@@ivyc3500 why?

[@dennisdriscoll7830]

The Coney Ave line?

[@MyREDTAIL]

I rode them every Dat going to my Baseball playing Games at Prospect Parks Parade Grounds only a 15 cents Ride relaxing all the way to and from the games Days long gone, But not Forgotten, Etc.

[@GeOsmomGina]

It is 2023, and I'm watching this. The Narrator voice is wonderful. Look at the Beverly movie theater. Wow!

[@cathyfrasier5616]

Our neighbor Dan ORourke worked at the terminal near Utica Ave and Flatbush.

[@bowtrolley]

About 2017, under Adam Giambrone's leadership, NYC EDC began looking into re- routing the BQX streetcar into Central Brooklyn, and right down Utica Ave to Kings Plaza- then across into Bay Ridge, and back around again to downtown, via Sunset Park and Red Hook. The City wasn't really serious about any of it though.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

Fiorello LaGuardia really hated private transit companies didn't he? He built the IND to replace the IRT elevated railways did he not? And Robert Moses who never saw a plan to generate more auto traffic he didn't like. They made such a beautiful pair!! And I can tell in the 1956 film there were areas of Brooklyn that were already decrepitating and being torn down thanks to the automobile.

[@ALEGATOR-pw2tl]

Born in 1947, remember mom taking me & my brother to visit out cousins on McDonald Ave, we’d get on at E. 39th St & Church Ave and get off at McDonald & Church Ave.

[@DDELE7]

The legendary Chuch Avenue Trolley’s, the predecessor of today’s B35 bus.

[@MyREDTAIL]

As a kid in 56; we use to put Pennies down on the Trolly tracks and watch them get flatened out ade even joined together fum back then years later I watched the same roads and trolly tracks being covered up with smelly hot Tar, For the buses and cars etc.

[@azul8811]

Yeah, and do you remember how as the street wore down... the tracks poked up through the tar?

[@madeinczech]

This is a great video

[@paulcontursi5982]

When I was very little, I remember that my mom took me for a ride on one of these lines because she knew their days were numbered.

[@valeriedflaum4217]

I know the Street names and locations but don't remember much. My Grandparents lived on Ditmas Avenue or Dorchester Road on the next street. I remember Ebingers and Macy's and the plushness of the movies which played Cinderfeller with Jerry Lewis.

[@hilaryapril7043]

I was born in 1949...we lived at 1640 and 2330 ocean ave. I remember the trolley cars....Don't recall ever riding in one. I remember Ebingers...do you remember dubrows. Abraham and Strauss store downtown. The roller rink by Ebbets Field...the carousel at Prospect Park. Wish I had a time machine...life today is like never ending twilight zone episode !

[@MyREDTAIL]

Who remembers the Free Passess you asked the drivers for so you can transfer from one Trolly to another for free later on the buses had that also etc.

[@Eliana0423]

This was the year & place my dad was born!

[@paulhacker5169]

This shows a conglomeration of different times. While I did see one movie of a 1955 Chrysler, most of the cars shown appear to be prewar and immediate postwar cars, dating the action to the late 1940s.

[@London1064]

Great film

[@LatinSith]

How did these trolleys operate in rain and in snow? I was born 15 years after the trolleys.

[@shortliner68]

Rain didn't affect their operation any more than it does electric engines on railroads. Ice storms are another matter altogether! In Baltimore we had sweeper cars to clear the tracks of snow in the Winter. They had a large rotating brush on the front angled so as to move the snow off to the side. I was born in 1950, so remember when Baltimore's PCC cars were still running.

[@LetticiaRosado]

My favorite line - The B35!

[@tracksofnyc]

Amazing!

[@johnrobinsoniii4028]

I have never been on a streetcar in Brooklyn nor have I ever seen one in operation-we called them “trolley cars” (I either have not been born yet or I was too young). The closest thing to a streetcar for me were the “electric buses” that ran ran up and down Flushing Avenue,Nostrand Avenue,Lee Avenue, and Tompkins Avenue.

[@LatinSith]

What happened to that underpass at Ocean Parkway?

[@epg65]

I understand the 'Little Flower' was a major General Motors stockholder.

[@None-zc5vg]

What else could you expect of ANY politician ?

[@edwardmiessner6502]

Figures.

[@sneadh1]

Everything about the PCCs was wonderful, except the very small bus-like seats.

[@stickynorth]

Time to rebuild NYC's extensive trolley network with modern trams!

[@guymandudely324]

My older sister got to ride the Church Avenue streetcar before it was decommissioned. So sad that this fully functional infrastructure was dismantled by misinformation from the automobile industry in cities across America. I still remember the streetcar tracks would be exposed periodically at Church and Flatbush avenues since the tracks were covered over and not torn up.

[@arthuradonizio7762]

I remember that tunnel at Ocean parkway. I wish the trolleys were still here. I hate buses.

[@tracybland9886]

Just wondered what Brooklyn looked like before I was born.

[@theglen43]

Sad to see Bob Diamond's dream fade. He had such exuberance for the project. Alas all his trolleys were stolen from the Navy Yards and even the Red Hook line was ripped out almost before it began. However DeBlasio's BQX line may still happen which would be a good thing for Brooklyn and Queens

[@bowtrolley]

I'll be back:-)

[@MyREDTAIL]

I remember riding the Trollys to Coney Island and SheepsheadBay to go fishing back then etc 1956 Wish I had a Time Machine

[@mikejones741]

Bring back the bqx

[@iseegoodandbad6758]

The funny thing is that new yorkers back then owned tonnes of cars unlike now where they have to walk. In the plus side the bmi of new yorkers have dropped!

[@melcooperman2073]

Everything looked so nice back then...clean streets, nice looking cars and normal looking people decently dressed walking without their face in a phone. Compare that with the decay we have today.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

Still not as bad as the decay from the 1960s through early 1980s.

[@713davidh42]

It's hard to believe there would have been second hand buses available for NYC (or anyone else) to purchase after World War II unless they were buses purchased by the U.S. government during the war. The only major exchange involving modern buses after WW II that I know of was Omaha swapped forty GM TDH 4507s and TDH 4008s to Oakland (Key System) and Cincinnati for postwar Twin Coaches.

[@Slapjabber]

Back when the letters P + C were cool.

[@haroldbregman2102]

What a shame .They were great for the environment No emissions

[@NathanThePrezPretlow]

Wow 1956 my late father was 18 years old, we came a long ways since trolleys I guess with these gas prices of today they wisg they kelpt using electric.

[@johnadams9044]

Amazing how dirty and filthy Brooklyn was. Still is a cess pool today.

[@sanitman1488]

Biggest mistake City of New York ever did !

[@arifakyuz7673]

Moral of the story: Screw lobbying, screw the car companies, and screw Moses!

[@arifakyuz7673]

@Alex McCaffery I like cars. I don't like some of the manufacturers, especially the American ones.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

Cars belong in a museum of national mistakes!

[@dreponds8193]

When I say Brooklyn is the most important and best borough and nyc rhis is wjat I mean as well it’s where all the transportation started

[@valeriedflaum4217]

Movie Theatres

[@romanrat5613]

Never forget what they took from us

[@mccuenoirfilms]

And then big oil decided to ruin it all.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

They and GM.

[@bananafishmusic]

Solar powered trolleys...the perfect solution.