Church Avenue Line (surface)

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The Church Avenue Line is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, running mostly along 39th Street and Church Avenue between Sunset Park and Brownsville. Originally a streetcar line, it is now the B35 Church Avenue/39 Street bus route, operated by the New York City Transit Authority.

[edit] B35 bus

The B35 bus route begins at the foot of 39th Street, and heads east through Sunset Park and Borough Park. It uses 14th Avenue (eastbound) and 13th Avenue (westbound) to reach Church Avenue, which it follows through Kensington, Flatbush, and East Flatbush to Remsen Village. There buses turn southeast on 98th Street and east on Hegeman Avenue through Brownsville, turning around at a loop at Mother Gaston Boulevard and New Lots Avenue. Subway passengers can transfer to the B35 at Ninth Avenue (BMT West End Line), Church Avenue (IND Culver Line), Church Avenue (BMT Brighton Line), and Church Avenue (IRT Nostrand Avenue Line). Limited-stop service is provided during the day, only stopping at designated points east of McDonald Avenue in Kensington, at which time local buses are truncated to McDonald Avenue.

[edit] History

The line was built after 1897,^[1] connecting the 39th Street Ferry to Canarsie Depot at Hegeman Avenue and Rockaway Avenue, including a tunnel under Ocean Parkway. Buses were substituted for streetcars on October 31, 1956.

The Gravesend and Church Avenues Line ("Gravesend-Church") was essentially a short-turn variant, running from the 16th Avenue Loop on McDonald Avenue (formerly Gravesend Avenue) in Kensington north to Church Avenue and then east to Canarsie Depot. Operation as a separate line ("13-Gravesend-Church") ended on June 1, 1949 but essentially the same service was continued as a branch of the renumbered 35-Church Avenue Line (renumbered from "8-Church") until the end of Brooklyn streetcar operations. Service on the McDonald Avenue portion of the line was covered by a free transfer to the extended B69 Vanderbilt Avenue bus route. This service is now covered by an extension of the B67-Seventh Avenue bus route.

[edit] References

1. ^ Rand McNally, Brooklyn and vicinity, 1897 Atlas of the World