High Street and Cadman Plaza, undated (after 1935).

This photo by Federal Art Project photographer David Robbins was taken from underneath the platform of the Sands Street BMT station. Sands Street was a two-level station with multiple platforms handling train traffic to and from Park Row, via the Brooklyn Bridge and the BMT Fulton Street, Myrtle Avenue, Fifth Avenue, and Lexington Avenue lines (and other discontinued lines sharing the same elevated tracks).

The station was closed in March, 1944 and demolished shortly thereafter as part of the city’s redevelopment of Cadman Plaza. Widespread subway service in Brooklyn had made continued elevated train service superfluous, while the construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway required the constriction of exit ramps for connecting Brooklyn Bridge traffic.