Brooklyn and Jamaica Rail Road

The Atlantic Avenue Railroad was a company in the U.S. state of New York, with a main line connecting downtown Brooklyn with Jamaica along Atlantic Avenue. It was largely a streetcar company that operated its own trains, but the Long Island Rail Road operated both streetcars and steam trains over its main line. It later became part of the Nassau Electric Railroad, but is now divided between the active Atlantic Branch of the LIRR and the unused Cobble Hill Tunnel, which is preserved in its original state, albeit without service tracks.

The Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad was the first railroad on Long Island, incorporated on April 25, 1832 to build from the East River in Brooklyn to Jamaica. The Long Island Rail Road was chartered in 1834 to extend the line east to Greenport. When the Brooklyn and Jamaica was completed on April 18, 1836, its line was operated by the LIRR under lease. The original line ran from South Ferry on the Brooklyn waterfront east to a depot at the current 158th Street in Jamaica, with a ferry connection to lower Manhattan at South Ferry.

The Brooklyn Central Railroad was incorporated on August 31, 1859 to take over the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, then operated by the Long Island Rail Road as a steam-powered line, for a horse car service once the LIRR completed their new line to Long Island City. This happened soon after the LIRR was authorized to abandon service through the Cobble Hill Tunnel to South Ferry in Brooklyn in exchange for ending steam power in the Brooklyn city limits. The city authorized them on June 6 to lay tracks on Atlantic Avenue west of Boerum Place (where the Brooklyn and Jamaica passed through the Cobble Hill Tunnel); east of there, they would use the Brooklyn and Jamaica trackage. They were also granted on November 28, 1859 the right to build along Furman Street, the waterfront street from Atlantic Avenue north to Old Fulton Street, connecting the South Ferry (Atlantic Avenue) to the Wall Street Ferry (Montague Street) and Fulton Ferry (Old Fulton Street).

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