The Elevated Railways of Brooklyn and the BMT Subway

Book excerpt: During the hot summer months, people wanted to get to the beaches quickly and the fastest way to get anywhere in the 1860s and 1870s was by steam train. What would become the BMT subway and elevated lines began with these steam train operations.Most of the subway and elevated lines in Brooklyn today owe their origins to steam railroads constructed in the late 19th century. If one looks at a steam railway map from that period, it partially resembles a present-day subway map. These steam railways, which operated on both elevated structures and along streets, would eventually evolve to become the lines of the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit (BMT) system. Although the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. (IRT) and the city owned Independent (IND) would also construct their own lines in Brooklyn, this publication will primarily focus on the BRT/BMT system. Coney Island was the major reason most of the steam railroads were built. All of today's subway lines that terminate in Coney Island were once steam railroads that operated all of their mileage on the streets of Kings County.