Manhattan Beach Branch

Manhattan Beach Branch
1878 map, including the short-lived Prospect Park Division
Overview
System	Long Island Rail Road
Status	Abandoned
Locale	Brooklyn, New York, USA
Termini	Myrtle Avenue Manhattan Beach
Stations	8
Operation
Opened	1877
Closed	1930s
Owner	Long Island Rail Road
Operator(s)	Long Island Rail Road
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

The Manhattan Beach Branch, Manhattan Beach Line, or Manhattan Beach Division was a line of the Long Island Rail Road, running from Fresh Pond, Queens south to Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York City, United States. It opened in 1877 and 1878 as the main line of the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway. The tracks from Flatbush south to Manhattan Beach were removed from 1938 to 1941, while most of the rest is now the freight-only Bay Ridge Branch.

At Manhattan Beach, the line extended east to Oriental Beach, and a branch to the Sheepshead Bay Race Track was provided north of Sheepshead Bay. Other lines in the Manhattan Beach Division included the West Brighton Beach Division (Culver Line),Bay Ridge Branch, and Evergreen Branch.

Planning for a line to Bay Ridge began in 1870 by the New York and Hempstead Plains Railroad (which built the Southern Hempstead Branch from Valley Stream to Hempstead). By 1873, the line was to run from Bay Ridge to East New York, where it would join the LIRR's Atlantic Avenue Division to Jamaica. The panic of 1873 struck after much work had been done in grading the new line.

The New York, Bay Ridge and Jamaica Railroad was incorporated on November 20, 1875 to complete the work and operate the line to Jamaica, using the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad (Canarsie Line) from New Lots to East New York and the LIRR Atlantic Avenue Division to Jamaica. The first piece, from the Bay Ridge Ferry (to South Ferry, Manhattan) to the crossing of the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad (West End Line) at New Utrecht, opened on August 23, 1876. Trains were operated over the BB&CI to Coney Island via trackage rights from this junction. Banker Austin Corbin incorporated the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway on October 24, 1876 to build a branch of this line to Manhattan Beach and extend it beyond East New York to Greenpoint and Hunter's Point. Corbin gained control of the New York, Bay Ridge and Jamaica Railroad on November 15, 1876. The NY&MB bought the eastern half of Coney Island from the town of Gravesend and renamed it Manhattan Beach.