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TheCulver Line,Gravesend Avenue Line, orMcDonald Avenue Line was a surfacepublic transit line inBrooklyn,New York City,United States, running alongMcDonald Avenue and built by theProspect Park and Coney Island Railroad. Most of its main line has been essentially replaced by theIND Culver Line of theNew York City Subway.
The company originally owned astreetcar line - theVanderbilt Avenue Line - from Prospect Park north todowntown Brooklyn.
The original surfacesteam railroad opened in 1875 from Greenwood Depot on the eastern side ofGreen-wood Cemetery at current Prospect Park West (9th Avenue) and 20th Street in the then-City of Brooklyn where transfer could be made to horse-drawnstreetcars to downtown Brooklyn. As the Culver Line was built on a nearly straight path from terminal to terminal, it was a popular choice for travelers to theAtlantic Ocean shore at Coney Island.[citation needed] Service to Neck Road opened June 19, and Coney Island June 27. In 1880 service began on the line to Union Station at 5th Avenue and 36th Street.
On January 6, 1886, it was reported by the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad that the fare on the Culver line was set at 25 cents for adults; 15 cents for children between five and 12 years; and free for children under five.[1]
The Culver Line was owned by theLong Island Rail Road from 1895 to 1899 and for a time both before (by interline agreements) and throughout that period, used the Culver Line in whole or in part for a variety of services in combination with itsNew York and Manhattan Beach Railway lines to provide services variously connecting downtown Brooklyn via theFifth Avenue Elevated, the 39th Street Ferry and the 65th Street Ferry on the one hand, and theSheepshead Bay Race Track, West Brighton andManhattan Beach, the latter two on Coney Island, on the other hand.
The Culver Line built a connection to theSouth Brooklyn Railway, which had built a line to gain access toferry connections at 39th Street and the waterfront. When this branch, parallel to Brooklyn 37th Street, was electrified withtrolley wire elevated trains from the Fifth Avenue Line were able to use the Culver Line to reach Coney Island directly fromPark Row inLower Manhattan to Coney Island. Under theBrooklyn Rapid Transit Company, the Culver became the primary service on the Fifth Avenue El.
In 1891, theConey Island and Brooklyn Railroad electrified its Coney Island Avenue Streetcar Line and breached its agreement to run its cars to the Culver's Greenwood Cemetery terminal in favor of connecting its own Smith Street Streetcar Line to its formerhorsecar line. In retaliation, the Culver Line, after electrifying its own line, interoperated with theNassau Electric Railroad's Vanderbilt Avenue Streetcar Line to downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan via theBrooklyn Bridge.
From this start, the Culver Line became a major trolley route in addition to its excursion and elevated railway traffic, accepting connections from a variety of other streetcar lines. After the ca. 1900 consolidation of most streetcar lines in Brooklyn under theBrooklyn Rapid Transit Company, many summer services were operated from other lines onto the Culver toConey Island. These included:[2][3]
Streetcar operations on the surface Culver Line continued to the very end of Brooklyn streetcar operations on October 30, 1956.[4][5] The final services were the McDonald Avenue Streetcar Line (formerly known as Gravesend Avenue Line) and the 16th Avenue Branch of the Church Avenue Streetcar (formerly known as Gravesend–Church). The McDonald Avenue Line traced the entire route of the original Culver Line, except at its very southern end, where it rather ironically ended at theWest 5th Street Depot of its former rival, theConey Island and Brooklyn Railroad.
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