Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal

subway station. Underground terminal The trolley terminal is located under the south side of Delancey Street between Clinton Street to the east and Norfolk Street to the west, one block east of Essex Street. The terminal is adjacent to the Brooklyn-bound subway track of the Essex Street subway station. The terminal consisted of eight balloon loops which fed directly into and out of the trolley tracks on the south side of the Williamsburg Bridge, allowing trolleys running over the bridge to reverse direction and return to Brooklyn. The loops were numbered 1 through 8 from west to east. Each loop was assigned to at most two streetcar services. In between the loops were seven low-level island platforms, slightly raised from track level. Each platform had 12 foot-wide staircases leading to the street. Each loop could hold two trolley cars, with a trolley stopping at the west end of the platform to discharge Manhattan-bound passengers, then moving up to the east end to pick up Brooklyn-bound passengers. ==History==

The Williamsburg Bridge opened on December 19, 1903. In March 1904, it was determined that Brooklyn streetcars operated by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) would cross the bridge and terminate at Delancey Street, while the Manhattan trolleys of the New York Railways Company would terminate at Washington Plaza in Williamsburg. On November 6, 1904, BRT streetcars including the Reid Avenue Line began crossing the bridge to Lower Manhattan. In 1905, it was decided to build a permanent underground terminal for Brooklyn surface cars and future elevated cars coming from the BRT's Broadway elevated; this station would eventually become the first stop of the BMT Nassau Street Line. The Essex Street trolley terminal was constructed along with the adjoining subway station, but was delayed due to changes in the plans for the subway station. The new terminal allowed the BRT to double the capacity of its streetcar operations over the bridge. Construction of a Centre Street Subway Loop to connect the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges was begun. It was never completed but rather was incorporated into the BMT Nassau Street Line. On December 1, 1923, service on the now-Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) lines over the Williamsburg Bridge ended, due to decreasing profits and a dispute with the city over tolls. BMT service was truncated to Washington Plaza in Williamsburg, and bridge service was replaced with municipal shuttle service. On February 15, 1931, BMT streetcars once again began running to Manhattan after municipal shuttle service ended. Only the Nostrand, Ralph, Reid, and Tompkins lines resumed traveling over the bridge, while the remaining lines continued to terminate in Brooklyn. On December 6, 1948, the last of the streetcar lines to run over the bridge, the "Williamsburg Bridge Local" shuttle between the Manhattan and Brooklyn trolley terminals, was converted into the bus route. Afterwards, the Essex Street terminal was closed, and the kiosks to the terminal and subway station were removed from Delancey Street. ==References==