: "New Brooklyn to New York Via Brooklyn Bridge", 1899 Initially, all lines reached the bridge by way of the
Brooklyn Heights Railroad's
Graham Avenue Line tracks in Sands Street. Cars could enter Sands Street to the west at
Fulton Street (many Brooklyn Heights lines) or to the east at Washington Street (
Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad's
DeKalb Avenue Line) or Adams Street (
Nassau Electric Railroad's
Adams Street and Boerum Place Line). From Washington Street, tracks ran east on High Street to the CI&B's
Smith Street Line, Concord Street on the Nassau Electric's
Park Avenue Line and
Vanderbilt Avenue Line, and Myrtle Avenue on the Brooklyn Heights's
Myrtle Avenue Line. The first line across the bridge was the
Graham Avenue Line, a minor line approaching downtown from the east on Sands Street. This line was chosen because of its half-hour headway, and its cars began crossing the bridge on January 23, 1898. tracks in this 1936 photo. A new elevated trolley line on the Brooklyn end of the bridge opened on September 28, 1908, taking trolleys bound for Fulton Street through the
Sands Street station of the
elevated railways and underneath the connection to the
Fulton Street Elevated. This eliminated congestion caused by the crossing of the bridge-bound cars from Fulton Street and the Brooklyn-bound cars to eastbound Sands Street. The
Court Street Line,
Flatbush Avenue Line,
Fulton Street Line,
Gates Avenue Line,
Myrtle Avenue Line,
Putnam Avenue Line, and
Union Street Line were moved to this route. On January 26, 1908,
Brooklyn Bridge Local trolley service between the two ends of the bridge was introduced. The
cable cars of the
New York and Brooklyn Bridge Railway, on whose tracks the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was providing through
elevated railway service, were discontinued the next day. ==References==