BROADWAY, Brooklyn

by Kevin Walsh

A couple of interesting things going on with this view of Brooklyn’s Broadway just west of Havemeyer Street: here the elevated train veers off Broadway to ascend a ramp onto the Williamsburg Bridge, but behind the billboard is a stub end of a former elevated extension to the waterfront at Kent Avenue, where there had been a ferry. That portion of the el had been torn down by 1940, leaving it the only portion of Broadway with full sunshine.

Also, there’s a former bank at the corner of Broadway and Havemeyer Street now home to an Echo Drug store and a legal services office. Its former status as a bank is clear, since its old neon Chase Manhattan Bank sign is still on the roof. Chemical later absorbed Chase and Manufacturers Hanover and the bank is now JP Morgan Chase.

10/10/15

5 comments

Steve October 10, 2015 - 6:39 pm

Is there still a theater on Broadway? We never went there since we lived a block from the L and could be in the East Village in 5 minutes.

Reply
Larry October 11, 2015 - 11:32 am

There was small movie theater on Broadway right under the Marcy Ave station in the 50’s. it was a revival house in my day…I believe it was called The Williamsburg

Reply
Andy October 12, 2015 - 12:21 am

The stub was actually the original main route of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit’s (BRT) Broadway El, opened between 1885 and 1888 between the waterfront and East New York. As noted a ferry carried el passengers across the East River. The Williamsburg Bridge opened in 1903, and in 1908 the ramp was built to allow Broadway El trains to cross the bridge into Manhattan. Immediately, the original route became a shuttle between Marcy Ave. and the old waterfront terminal, but by 1916 the BRT stopped revenue train service on the stub but it remained in use for storage tracks. In 1940, when the BRT’s successor (Brooklyn Manhattan Transit or BMT) was bought by NY City, the old spur was removed. The current J route still operates between here and Jamaica, Queens, making the Broadway El the oldest portion of New York’s current subway/elevated network. It predates the first subway (the IRT of 1904) by nearly twenty years.

Reply
Larry October 14, 2015 - 8:08 am

Did the ferry service stop running in 1916 also? and did the old El trains go over the Bridge as far as Essex Street sta. before the Dual Contracts built Chambers Street terminal?

Reply
steven October 16, 2015 - 7:12 am

Thats right in front of our hat store. I’ve been staring at that sign for a long time. I cant remember how many different things have been advertised there.

Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.