Graham Avenue Line
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The Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line were two
public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...
lines in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
,
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with the Graham Avenue Line running mainly along Graham Avenue and Manhattan Avenue and the Tompkins Avenue Line running mainly along Tompkins Avenue. The Graham Avenue line ran between
Downtown Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn is the third-largest central business district in New York City (after Midtown Manhattan, Midtown and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighb ...
and Greenpoint and the Tompkins Avenue Line ran between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and
Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...
. Originally streetcar lines, they were replaced by the B47 and B62 bus routes which were then combined to form the B43 route which currently operates between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Greenpoint. The line is dispatched from Jackie Gleason Depot in
Sunset Park, Brooklyn Sunset Park is a neighborhoods of Brooklyn, neighborhood in the western part of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, bounded by Park Slope and Green-Wood Cemetery to the north, Borough Park, Brooklyn, Borough Park t ...
.


Route description

The B43 bus route runs between Lincoln Road near Ocean Avenue and the
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subway station in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Manhattan Avenue and Box Street in Greenpoint via Manhattan Avenue, Graham Avenue, and Tompkins Avenue at all times. The B43 begins at the Prospect Park station and runs on Ocean Avenue until it becomes Empire Boulevard, running on Empire Boulevard until Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues.It runs southbound on Brooklyn Avenue and northbound on Kingston Avenue until Fulton Street, where it switches to Tompkins and Throop Avenues, respectively. It runs on Tompkins and Throop Avenues until Flushing Avenue. It runs on Flushing Avenue until Graham Avenue, which it runs on until Engert and Driggs Avenues until Manhattan Avenue. It then runs up Manhattan Avenue until Box Street, where it terminates.


History


Trolley service

The
Brooklyn City Railroad 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. In ...
opened the line, as the Flushing Avenue Line, in July 1854 as a branch of the Fulton Street Line continuing east along Flushing Avenue to Throop Avenue with an extension to Division Avenue (present-day Broadway) in April 1855. It was later extended north along Graham Avenue to North Second Street (present-day Metropolitan Avenue) in 1867 and to Van Cott Avenue (present-day Driggs Avenue) in October 1872. On April 27, 1890, Brooklyn City opened new trackage on Flushing Avenue from Graham Avenue east to Metropolitan Avenue, with the service operating on it becoming the new Flushing Avenue Line, and the old Flushing Avenue Line being renamed the Flushing and Graham Avenues Line and afterwards, the Graham Avenue Line.


Bus service

Streetcars on the Tompkins Avenue Line were replaced by buses on August 24, 1947. Buses on the Graham Avenue Line were substituted for streetcars on December 11, 1949, and the route was renumbered the B62. The B47 trolley was replaced with electric trolley buses and ran on Kingston Avenue in both directions (it was a two-way street) to Williamsburg Bridge Plaza via Tompkins, Division, and Lee Avenues. During the heavy snowfalls in the 1950s, the electric buses had difficulty making it up the Kingston Avenue hill, and were seen backed up on Empire Boulevard in columns. When the north-south avenues in Brooklyn were converted to one way in the early 1960s, the B47 went north on Kingston Avenue and south on Brooklyn Avenue until Empire Boulevard. The electric trolleybuses were replaced first with “old look” GMC buses, and later with “new-look” GMC buses. On September 10, 1995, the B62 was merged with the B47 to form the present-day B43 route.''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''
Coming Transit Reductions: What They Mean for You
August 20, 1995, section 13, page 10
The B47 had replaced the Tompkins Avenue Line running between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Williamsburg along Empire Boulevard, Kingston Avenue, Tompkins Avenue, and Harrison Avenue. When the routes were combined, the Harrison Avenue portion of the B47 was removed, along with the Flushing Avenue section of the B62. The B43 was moved to the Grand Avenue Depot when it opened in 2008, but was moved back to the Jackie Gleason Depot by early 2011. On December 1, 2022, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Brooklyn bus network. As part of the redesign, southbound service in Bedford–Stuyvesant would be rerouted along Albany Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard to serve areas without existing bus service. Closely spaced stops would also be eliminated.


See also

* Greenpoint and Williamsburgh Railroad * Crosstown Line (Brooklyn surface)


References

{{Brooklyn bus routes Streetcar lines in Brooklyn B043 B043