Tracks, Looking North from Trolley Pole: Coney Island Terminal (BMT)
Photograph documenting the conditions of the trolley tracks on Brighton Beach in Coney Island on what would later become the BMT Coney Island Terminal. Photo taken for survey purposes before construction. Photo shows tracks, catenary, a roller coaster and an automobile on the road in the distance. Original photographic logbook notation reads: View of tracks, looking north, from New York Consolidated trolley pole number 236. Back of photo, written in pencil, Rte. CIT is the closest route and section to the original trolley line.
New York Transit MuseumTracks on what would later become the BRT (and later BMT) Brighton Beach Line, July 12, 1916.
The Brighton Beach Line opened in 1878, providing service from Prospect Park to Brighton Beach at Coney Island Avenue, near the recently-opened Brighton Beach Hotel. In 1917, the line was extended west toward the Culver Depot, taking over existing trolley tracks.
Today, the line runs on elevated tracks over Brighton Beach Avenue. In this view from July 1916, the Brighton Beach Station — then the terminus of the Brighton Beach Line — is visible at center, in the distance. At right is the Chase Through the Clouds roller coaster, built in 1910 by the Giant Safety Racing Company. The surrounding amusement park burned in a 1919 fire, but parts of the coaster were salvaged and relocated to Coney Island’s Luna Park.
Urban Archive