As many NYC railbuffs (but a decreasing number of them) remember, the last NYC subways grade crossing was way out at the far southeast of Brooklyn in Canarsie, at the East 105th Street station at the now-eliminated Turnbull Avenue, the second to last stop on the L train. It lasted all the way to 1973; after that, the station was placed on a center platform on an embankment, the condition that exists today. I began to ride my bicycle in earnest all over Brooklyn at age 16 in 1974 and I missed seeing it by one year, as Canarsie is fairly easy to reach from Bay Ridge.
OK, then, what was the second-last grade crossing elimination in the NYC subways? You would need to go back to 1908, when the surviving Magaw Lane crossing was eliminated, pictured above looking east toward East 17th Street. Prior to 1908, the Brighton line, running north-south from Prospect Park to Coney Island between East 15th and 16th Streets, ran on level ground with the surrounding roads: “at grade,” as they say in the rail biz. During 1908, as southern Brooklyn was gradually populating, the old farms were sold off and a grid system of streets with businesses and residences were built up. Due to topography, the north end of the Brighton was placed in an open cut trench and the middle and south ends on a raised embankment, crossing major roads on steel trestles. Some of those streets had to be depressed below the grade of the embankment, while others simply ended at the RR and picked up again on the other side.
On this 1900 McLellan Brooklyn map excerpt, I have circled Magaw Lane’s path through property owned by R. Magaw between the Coney Island Plank Road and Flatbush Road, now Flatbush Avenue. It’s approximately where Avenue J runs from west to east today.
In June 1908, the photographer stands on the Brighton Line looking north toward the Magaw Lane crossing.
Standing on Magaw Lane, marked by planks crossing the Brighton Line looking south.
Magaw Lane, looking west toward East 15th Street.
Photos from the collection of Erik Seims on LinkedIn (you may need a LinkedIn account to get past the guardrail).
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11/13/25
3 comments
I believe the Canarsie line had three additional grade crossings beyond E105th St until 1920. They were Rockaway Parkway, Flatlands Ave and Ave L. In 1920 El trains ceased running all the way to Canarsie and were replaced by a trolley shuttle using the same tracks as the El trains used. So I guess you could say that the grade crossings remained until the trolleys ceased using the original right of way in 1942. The Rockaway Parkway trolley provided the service after that.
Brighton Line (formerly the D when I took it) runs between E. 15th and E. 16th, not between E. 16th and E. 17th…Did this get changed early on?
OK–fixed