The Bergen Street Line is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, running westbound mostly along Bergen Street, as well as eastbound on Dean Street (as part of a one-way pair), between downtown Brooklyn and Ocean Hill (earlier Red Hook to City Line). Originally a streetcar line, it is now the B65 bus route, operated by the New York City Transit Authority.
The South Brooklyn and Bergen Street Railroad was organized under the general railroad law[1] and opened by 1865 from Hamilton Ferry along Sackett Street (including part of the Brooklyn City Rail Road's Furman Street Line), Hoyt Street, and Bergen Street to Classon Avenue.[2][3] The Bergen Street Railroad was merged into the Brooklyn and Canarsie Railroad,[4] and on September 21, 1866 an extension to Canarsie Landing (where steamboats connected for Rockaway) along Bergen Street, Nostrand Avenue, Clove Road, Little Lane, and Canarsie's main street (the last three partially gone)[5] was opened.[6] It was the second line to Canarsie, arriving a year after the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad, and was a failure, being foreclosed on January 13, 1868. The original portion, west of the stables at Bergen Street and Classon Avenue, was sold on February 14, 1868;[7] the rest was sold on September 15, 1868.[5] None of the extension to Canarsie was ever used again.
The South Brooklyn and Park Railroad acquired the line to Classon Avenue on June 1, 1870,[8] and was again sold on June 19, 1877[9] as the South Brooklyn Central Railroad. It was authorized in 1878 to build a branch in Bergen Street from Hoyt Street west to Court Street, use the Brooklyn City Railroad trackage in Court Street, and use the Atlantic Avenue Railroad trackage in Atlantic Avenue and Furman Street to the Wall Street Ferry at Montague Street.[10] The Atlantic Avenue Railroad leased the South Brooklyn Central, then extending to Bergen Street and Albany Avenue, on February 2, 1885.[11] The Atlantic Avenue Railroad laid tracks in Boerum Place from Atlantic Avenue south to Bergen Street to connect the lines, as an extension of its Adams Street and Boerum Place Line.
The line reached Rochester Avenue by 1897.[12] Eventually the Bergen Street Line cars turned south on Buffalo Avenue, east on the St. Johns Place Line trackage along St. Johns Place and East New York Avenue, and east along Liberty Avenue to City Line.
At some point, the west end was truncated to the intersection of Smith Street and Sackett Street. Buses were substituted for streetcars on July 20, 1947. The B65 bus has been truncated more, only running from downtown east to Ocean Hill; the B12 bus, started by the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation as a new route in 1931, later covered Liberty Avenue out to City Line until it was truncated to Broadway Junction in 2010.
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