RIDGEWOOD’S PHANTOM RAILROAD

by Kevin Walsh

A recent topic thread in Subchat, the subway blog, made me revisit one of FNY’s long-cherished talismans, the remainders of the old Long Island Rail Road’s “Evergreen” branch, which was a one-track freight line that ceased operation, I believe, sometime in the 1980s. In the long ago and far away, it was a ctually a passenger line that ran from the Greenpoint waterfront through Greenpoint and Bushwick, eventually making a connection with the Bay Ridge Branch, another defunct passenger line that has been converted to freight.

Long after even freight service to local Ridgewood businesses vanished on the Evergreen, defunct tracks stretched for a couple of miles just south of Wyckoff Avenue, making life easy for auto mechanics by wrecking shock absorbers. By the mid-2000s most of these remaining tracks had been removed.

Two railroad crossing X-sign ghosts remained on Hancock Street (title card) and Cornelia Street (above), warning motorists about locomotives that would never show up. Photos: Bob Andersen (title), gp38/R42 of Subchat (above).

Page completed February 19, 2009

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