Brooklyn Bridge Walkway & Elevated Trains
This magic lantern slide view of the Brooklyn Bridge is from around 1890.
On the right is a train and on the left we can get a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge shuttle station. Trolleys and horse drawn vehicles are on the outer roadways as pedestrians cross the span on the bridge’s central walkway.
At first I was unsure if this image was reversed. The steam engine’s smoke is visible in the foreground. Would a steam engine be pulling into a station on the right side? Unusual. But it is possible.
Looking closer, there is a policeman nearby. His badge is correctly on the left side of his coat. Also I mistakenly thought this was the New York side of the bridge looking towards Brooklyn. But examining other photographs from this period I did not see a station platform on the New York side of the bridge.
In addition, the New York side of the bridge has a much longer approach to the tower and roadway than seen in the view. So, this is definitely the Brooklyn side of the bridge with a somewhat hazy New York in the background.
If I am not mistaken, the bridge els were at first dedicated to bridge use. They just went back and forth from the bridge platform in Brooklyn across the bridge to the first stop on the NY side, one north and one south depending on which one you were on.
Greg – Thank you for pointing this out. You are absolutely correct. The original train service was a simple shuttle connecting the two ends of the Brooklyn Bridge. The two Brooklyn elevated companies; the Brooklyn and Union, and the Kings County, did not cross the Brooklyn Bridge from their existing elevated tracks in Brooklyn. Each company’s terminus was near the bridge.
According to the June 27, 1898 Brooklyn Eagle, the first El trains began running over the bridge on June 18 1898, via the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad Company.