Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad

BMT Canarsie Line
Services that use the BMT Canarsie Line through Manhattan have been colored gray since 1979.
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
System	New York City Subway
Termini	Eighth Avenue Rockaway Parkway
Stations	27 (3 demolished)
Daily ridership	566,997
Operation
Opened	1865-1931
Owner	City of New York
Operator(s)	New York City Transit Authority
Character	At-grade (Wilson Avenue, East 105th Street, and Rockaway Parkway) Elevated Underground (West of Broadway Jct.)
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Electrification	600V DC third rail

The Canarsie Line (sometimes referred to as the 14th Street–Eastern Line) is a rapid transit line of the BMT Division of the New York City Subway system, named after its terminus in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. It is served by the L train at all times, which is shown in the color light slate gray on the NYC Subway map and on station signs.

The line is part of the BMT Eastern Division, and is occasionally referred to as the Eastern District Line. This refers to Williamsburg, which was described as Brooklyn's "Eastern District" when the City of Williamsburg was annexed by the former City of Brooklyn. This was the location where the original Brooklyn subway portions of the line were laid out. Only later was the line connected to the tracks leading to Canarsie. Eastern District High School, near the line's Grand Street station, had preserved this toponym until it was closed in 1996, later reopened as Grand Street Educational Campus.

Services that use the Canarsie Line are colored light slate gray. The following services use part or all of the Canarsie Line:

The Canarsie Line runs from Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan to Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie, Brooklyn. It is double-tracked along its entire length, except for short stretches of layup track in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The current line is a two-track subway from its Manhattan terminal to Broadway Junction in the East New York section of Brooklyn, with the exception of a short stretch at Wilson Avenue where it is a double-decked structure with the southbound track outdoors directly above the indoor, ground-level northbound track. Although the northbound track appears to be underground, it is in fact outdoors at ground-level for there are no stairs leading from the northbound platform to the station entrance at the dead-end of Wilson Avenue, southeast of Moffat Street. This is due to the line being pressed directly against the New York Connecting Railroad, which is pressed directly against the border of Trinity Cemetery. There are no express tracks on the Canarsie line; thus, all trains run local service throughout their route. However, in the past, express service has been run between Lorimer Street and Myrtle Avenue by skipping stops via the local tracks. This last operated in August 1956.