Myrtle Ave EL July 2008

The last EL, the Myrtle Ave EL (or in that unnamed New York vernacular that one seldom hears any more, the Moydle Ave EL), was torn down in 1969. But not all of it, contrary to popular belief. A stub with about 8 stations remains. This operates as a shuttle on weekends and enters the J line through a semicircular loop on weekdays. I don't know why they tore most of the EL down. It offered the only direct access to downtown Brooklyn from this area. Now you would have to take a train all the way into Manhattan and thence to downtown Brooklyn (or walk). I suspect that tearing down the EL was the end product of a feeding frenzy that led to the destruction of all the EL's. I don't think that the Bronx has gained from the destruction of what was left of the Third Ave EL there in 1973. Yeah, they replaced it with a bus line but you know how slow those are. I miss the sparks and noise of the Third Ave EL, of passing within inches of tenements and looking into people's open windows as we passed by.

Myrtle Ave EL, July 2008