Opening The first section of the line ran over Myrtle Avenue from Johnson and Adams Streets to a junction with what was then known as the Main Line at Grand Avenue. It opened on April 10, 1888, by the Union Elevated Railroad Company, which was leased to the
Brooklyn Elevated Railroad for its operation. Trains continued along Grand Avenue and Lexington Avenue to Broadway, where the line joined the
Broadway Elevated, and then along Broadway to
East New York. On September 1, 1888, the line was extended westward along Adams Street and Sands Street, to a terminal at Washington Street for the Brooklyn Bridge. On April 27, 1889, the line was extended east along Myrtle Avenue to Broadway, and to Wyckoff Avenue (at the Brooklyn/Queens border) on July 20, 1889. The west end of the line was extended north along Adams Street to an elevated station over Sands Street and High Street in 1896. The connection to the Brooklyn Bridge tracks opened on June 18, 1898, along a private right-of-way halfway between Concord Street and Cathedral Place. The first trains to use it came from the
Fifth Avenue Elevated (using the Myrtle Avenue El west of Hudson Avenue). In 1906 the eastern end of the el was connected via a ramp to the
Lutheran Cemetery Line, a former
steam dummy line to Metropolitan Avenue that had opened on September 3, 1881. On August 1, 1888, the Brooklyn City Railroad took over the Bushwick Railroad Company and on August 3, 1895 they converted the Lutheran Line to electric trolley cars which were less expensive to operate. This section was elevated as part of the
Dual Contracts on February 22, 1915.
Connection to the Broadway Line On July 29, 1914, the connection to the
Broadway-Brooklyn Line was opened, allowing Myrtle Avenue Line trains to operate via the
Williamsburg Bridge.
Truncation and later years On March 5, 1944, the line west of
Bridge–Jay Streets was closed coincident with the end of elevated service over the Brooklyn Bridge. The rest of the line from Broadway to Jay Street closed on October 4, 1969, and was demolished soon afterward, ending the
MJ service. A free transfer to the
B54 bus replaced the
MJ, and service was increased on that bus. The free transfer at Jay Street was also replaced with a bus transfer. In 1986, the
New York City Transit Authority launched a study to determine whether to close 79 stations on 11 routes, including the remaining portion of the Myrtle Avenue Line, due to low ridership and high repair costs. Numerous figures, including New York City Council member
Carol Greitzer, criticized the plans. In July 2017, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority started rebuilding two parts of the Myrtle Avenue Line, the approaches to the junction with the
BMT Jamaica Line (which lasted until April 2018, requiring suspension of service between Wyckoff and Myrtle Avenues), and the Fresh Pond Bridge over the
Montauk Branch in Queens (which lasted from July to September 2017). This work was undertaken in preparation for a reconstruction of the
BMT Canarsie Line tunnels under the
East River, which took place between 2019 and 2020. Regular service resumed on April 30, 2018. The MTA began removing lead paint from the Myrtle Avenue Line viaduct in 2025. ==Station listing==