This is the end of the line for the L train in Canarsie. It’s anchored by Armando Piazza, just out of the picture on the left. When I was a teenager and living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Canarsie, a far-flung outpost for many, was easily reachable by bicycle: all I needed to do was go east, through Bensonhurst, Midwood, and East Flatbush and so I found myself in Canarsie relatively frequently. I woudl primarily use Glenwood Road or Flatlands Avenue. This station is on Rockaway Parkway just north of Glenwood.
It’s always been an intermodal station. Buses en route to distant Brooklyn locales can be boarded here, and until the 1940s this was also a trolley station; buses use the old yards and rights of way now. A trolley traveled in a right of way along East 96th Street to Jamaica Bay, where for many years there was an amusement park. Even today, abandoned iron trolley poles can be seen; Coney Island lost its collection of trolley remnants a few years ago.
Originally, the Canarsie Line was a steam railroad that branched off the Long Island RR at Atlantic Avenue. It was placed on an elevated trestle in 1906, but a grade crossing remained at East 105th until 1973. From 1924-1928, the BMT built a subway under East 14th Street, traveling through Williamsburg and Bushwick to connect the original Canarsie Line with Manhattan. It was extended west to 8th Avenue in 1931.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
3/10/21