Old New York

Sands street terminal was a huge one that is no longer

Ben

Great photos of Sand Street. This facility was built before the turn of the century and was the hub of BRT/BMT operations across the Brooklyn Bridge for more than 40 years. Around the turn of the century, lines of the BRT including the Sea Beach, West End, Culver line5th Ave line, Brighton Line , Fulton street line, Lexington Ave Line and Myrtle Ave line used this facility to access the Brooklyn Bridge route to Park Row in Manhattan. There were also more than a dozen Street car routes that went through her ,over the Bridge and to Park Row. The Sea beach and West End were the first to be rerouted when the 4th ave subway opened in Brooklyn with these lines reaching downtown Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge. The Brighton line was rerouted in 1920 when the tunnel under Prospect park opened . Remaining lines used the complex up until 1940 when the City took over with the Board of Transportation . Initial actions undertaken by the Board were to close the Fulton Street elevated and the 5th ave Elevated lines. Culver line trains had been rerouted to Manhattan previously via the Montague street tunnel. Sand street continued to be used until 1944 when the Myrtle Ave and Lexington Ave Lines were cut back to Bridge and Jay Street. Sands street was closed and demolished at that time. The facilities at Sand Street allowed trains of all the routes to be routed through Sand Street to Manhattan or terminate at the station using the double loop from Adams street on the upper level. It had to be an interesting place in its day.

Bens photos show the small layup yard just east of the station. There were three storage tracks here and I would think they used these to hold rush hour equipment for over the bridge service only.

The second photo is on the Northwest side of the station. It is dated 1941 so Fulton and Fifth Ave service operates here. The tracks in the photo were from the original Myrtle Ave El which were used to access the upper level loops. There was a similar setup a block east of the location in the photo to bring the loops back to the Myrtle Ave el. Not sure how this was used at this time to 1944 .Perhaps some Lexington Ave and Myrtle Ave el trains turned around at Sands Street using these loops. When the Fulton Street El was closed to Rockaway Ave in 1940, The BMT continued to Operate a Rush Hour Fulton Street el service over the Brooklyn Bridge though Sand Street. These trains left Atlantic ave and joined the Broadway Line at Eastern Parkway, travelling west to Gates avenue onto the Lexington Ave Line , onto the Myrtle Ave Line at Navy Street and through Sands street to Manhattan. This service lasted to 1944 when the Brooklyn Bridge BMT lines were eliminated.  

The third photo shows the structure for the trolley wire for tracks used by BMT trolleys through the station.

The fourth photo shows us the connection on the right from the Myrtle venue El for service from these lines operating over the bridge. The other tracks were for the Fulton Street elevated trains and the Brighton Line through 1920.

So some additional Photos.

This one I believe was made when the sand street station was being built before 1900. It shows the area at the West end of the new station.

One the South Side, we can see the double loops on the upper level. There island platforms on two sides of the loop to expedite loading and unloading and maximize the number of trains using the upper loops. In the foreground we can see the stub terminal for the Fulton El at Sands Street as well as the spur that continued west to the Fulton Ferry.

Here is a view of the Bridge line leaving the station. we see a BMT El Train and a trolley both on their way to Park Row. I am surmising that this photo was made in 1944 as both the train cars and the trolley appear to have notices about a service change in the windows. It looks like a white rectangular paper sign in the windows. This was a usual method of publicizing coming service changes in he day.

On the East Side of the station. Not sure when this photo was made but it might be early. Could be a Fulton Train

 A Little further east and later in time, we see a Fulton El Train of C Type articulateds approaching Sands street from the Fulton Street El. Their was an S curve connector here at about Tillary Street. The C Types were the BMT's initial adventure into Articulated train sets . They were home made from el cars and Preceded the BMT articulated designs as the D Types, the Multis and the experimentals.

SIRT

That looks like an Atlantic City car in your photo.

Ref: Sands street terminal pics...

Those trolley-wire supports seem rather overbuilt. Any reason the wire is mounted onto lattice beams throughout the terminal area (and onto the bridge)?

---PCJ

Yup, parked in the S.I. YARD.

Museum bound cars were often seen there awaiting final destination.

From A French Modeling Site

Wow  There are some great pics on that French forum

saw these on that site of the Beatrice Bush

@ EBT Jim Wow! It is hard to believe the NYC freight terminals ever existed there. What a complex, 21 stall roundhouse and all. Thank you for sharing that area is part of  the NYPD 18PCT. where my son works.

EBT Jim, I do not remember thos NYC yards along the Hudson.  Note that the last picture shows the West Side elevated highway, which doesn't appear in the top picture or the sketch.

LIRR Steamer:  Thanks for the pix of the Tug.  Wanting to learn more, I googled its name and came up with a reail fans web site that had hundreds of picture of the Bush Terminal RR locos.

Amazing what you can learn about your home town on the OGR Forum

is this the lift bridge to staten island?

Yes, good eye!

1959, The first S.I.R.T. guys across the bridge.

Came across this photo off a 3 car set of ex Staten Island Rapid Transit cars working on the Culver Shuttle . Interesting as the three tracks of the Culver line were still in service in this photo.

Similar, not the same.

Those are not former SIRT cars. The number details are different along with the blocked out first window. Also the first car has the round BMT logo. They are lacking headlamps as well.

Those cars in the previous photo and shown below never made it to or from S.I. Non FRA.

S.

Another history lesson - 

The city acquired 25 motors from the SIRT in the 1950s. Most were rebuilt for ise on the BMT division, primarily the Culver shuttle  and Franklin ave shuttles. Some were retained for use as work cars and yard offices. The cars that ran on the two shuttles had the center headlight removed as part of the rebuild and after the rebuild, they were repainted and had the new logo. Here are a few more photos. You can see where the center headlight was removed as there still are what look like the base of a bracket which held the light

You can see in the photo below the details to mount the center headlight

On the Franklin ave shuttle

Here is a shot in the 36th st yard in 1954 before the BMT rebuild. Center headlight is there and the cars letterboard say Staten Island.

Just out of the shop after rebuild and ready for Culver service

On the CulverShuttle after rebuild

The file attachment is a roster of BMT retired cars . the last line has cars nos. 2900 to 2924 and references them as SIRT motors.