WHILE riding on the B35 bus on Church Avenue in Kensington in the 1960s (my parents and I would take bus rides on all the local lines when I was a kid from age 6-9 in the 1960s) even back then, I was mystified why Church Avenue gains considerable width between East 5th and 7th Streets, crossing Ocean Parkway.
The answer was simple. There was a trolley crossunder there, allowing trolley cars on the #35 route to go beneath Ocean Parkway without having to bother with the considerable traffic. Church Avenue is the point where the Prospect Expressway (built from 1954-1960) becomes Ocean Parkway, which would have added to the traffic the last couple of years the trolley was running. The Church Avenue line was the final regular trolley line in service, as it survived until 1956; only the Queensboro Bridge shuttle trolley lasted longer.
Ocean Parkway predated the trolley by many years, having been suggested by Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and built from Prospect Park to Coney Island from 1874 to 1876.
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Photo from Al Ponte’s Time Machine – New York in Facebook.
10/16/22
14 comments
Great flash back to my days growing up in Williamsburg. Trollys on Lee Ave to Williamsburg Bridge. My grand father would take me when he went to Broadway @ the wiilyby to shop. Then City went to electric buses. Great time to be a young kid. Enjoy visits to your site daily. Thanks for your hard work.
Very interesting!
From what I’ve gathered the tunnel was completely filled in, so there’s no empty space underground.
This link has some great old film footage of the Brooklyn Trolly lines as well as early Brooklyn street scenery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcXY0h_ZGPA
This 1950s film footage shows trolleys entering and leaving the tunnel.
I remember my folks taking us kids to Coney Island in the early 1950’s. We’d get on the McDonald Ave. trolley at Ave. I. Even though the “D” train ran overhead, it was less effort to board at street level than to drag a stroller up the stairs. During those days, McDonald Ave. featured cars, trolleys, and even freight trains. Quite a combination!
I think the story was that rail tracks were not allowed to destroy the peace and beauty of Ocean Parkway, so the trolley line had to tunnel under.
I had wondered why Church Avenue widened there too.
I don’t know for sure, but I figured this tunnel is part of the reason why the Prospect Expressway starts & ends here, rather than somewhere further south.
I read of later plans to extend the expressway, but happily, none of this plans came close to happening.
I remember the tunnel but I was never on the trolley on this section of Church Av. (I lived at Utica and Church). I always wondered what went on down in that tunnel. Well, I was a young kid at the time and my imagination ran wild. I thought there were stores down there!
Similar to what was done on the Concourse in The Bronx.
My experience with old streetcars over in Europe was that the whip that contacted the
overhead wire would sometimes sizzle,hiss and throw off sparks and leave that old
electric motor smell in the air,what Jean Shepherd called a Ozone smell.I think Jean
Shepherd was full of B.S. sometimes.
“I think Jean Shepherd was full of B.S. sometimes.”
Probably, but he told some good stories – Right?
If my memory serves me correct, when the line shut down and before the tunnel was filled in the rails were acquire ny The Branford (Shore Line) Trolley museum.
I’m surprised that the city did not preserve this trolley underpass for automobiles.