Dumbo Streetscapes

IMG: From The Flickr Pool, Tracks

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From the DumboNYC Flickr Photo pool, a nice shot from EspressoMaker.

“the world’s shortest rail line from the 19th century to the 1950s carried tobacco from the docks near the Brooklyn Bridge to warehouses along Jay St. Remnants of the tracks are still embedded in the cobblestones of my neighborhood in NYC, DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) “ (Photo by EspressoMaker)

10 Comment

  • Gary

    That’s my pic! Hey, thanks for posting it! 🙂

    Reply
  • Gary

    That’s my pic! Hey, thanks for posting it! 🙂

    Reply
  • Gary

    By the way, I corrected some of the caption after additional research. The Jay Street Connecting Railroad is the source of the tracks in DUMBO and it ran from 1904 to 1959, transporting coffee from Old Dock St (under the bridge, near river cafe) to Jay St, and John St. warehouses. The whole line was only a half mile long and was one of the shortest railroads in the US. I always thought it would be supercool to repair the track and run a trolleycar along the streets of DUMBO.

    More info here, it’s really neat: http://nypress.com/16/16/news%26columns/oldsmoke.cfm

    Reply
  • Gary

    By the way, I corrected some of the caption after additional research. The Jay Street Connecting Railroad is the source of the tracks in DUMBO and it ran from 1904 to 1959, transporting coffee from Old Dock St (under the bridge, near river cafe) to Jay St, and John St. warehouses. The whole line was only a half mile long and was one of the shortest railroads in the US. I always thought it would be supercool to repair the track and run a trolleycar along the streets of DUMBO.

    More info here, it’s really neat: http://nypress.com/16/16/news%26columns/oldsmoke.cfm

    Reply
  • Andrew Porter

    The line was actually part of the line that went along Furman Street below the Promenade and had a train storage building at the corner of Furman Street and Joralemon. The tracks are still visible in places, like behind the warehouse buildings to the left of Old Fulton Street. The actual line extends down into Red Hook, then along Furman Street, past the old half-submerged dock that brought rail barges from New Jersey, then connecting to the rail lines into DUMBO. So as regards the possibility of its being the world’s shortest rail line, I serious doubt this.

    Reply
  • Andrew Porter

    The line was actually part of the line that went along Furman Street below the Promenade and had a train storage building at the corner of Furman Street and Joralemon. The tracks are still visible in places, like behind the warehouse buildings to the left of Old Fulton Street. The actual line extends down into Red Hook, then along Furman Street, past the old half-submerged dock that brought rail barges from New Jersey, then connecting to the rail lines into DUMBO. So as regards the possibility of its being the world’s shortest rail line, I serious doubt this.

    Reply
  • loose stool

    Here is the definitive site for the Jay Street Connecting Railroad. great pictures

    http://members.aol.com/captncarfloat/jst.html

    Reply
  • loose stool

    Here is the definitive site for the Jay Street Connecting Railroad. great pictures

    http://members.aol.com/captncarfloat/jst.html

    Reply
  • Jeff

    The Jay St. line carried goods for various customers. One being a munitions factory that was next to one of the Arbuckle coffee warehouses. During WW1 they manufactured torpedos!
    BTW, Arbuckle coffee was better known for their YUBAN brand coffee.

    Reply
  • Jeff

    The Jay St. line carried goods for various customers. One being a munitions factory that was next to one of the Arbuckle coffee warehouses. During WW1 they manufactured torpedos!
    BTW, Arbuckle coffee was better known for their YUBAN brand coffee.

    Reply
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