Past and Present: Atlantic/Flatbush Junction

A look at Brooklyn, then and now.

What a difference a hundred years makes. The photo on the left was taken in 1910, and shows the 1908 Heins and LaFarge subway kiosk on the left and, behind the elevated tracks, with the arched entryways, the original LIRR terminal, which opened in 1907. The elevated train was the 5th Avenue Line, which came up from the Myrtle Avenue El, up Hudson Avenue, stopped here at the junction of Atlantic and Flatbush, and then continued along 5th Avenue to 3rd Avenue and 65th Street. It was torn down in 1941, done in by the underground subway system — in this case, the N/R line, which runs along 4th Avenue to Bay Ridge. The LIRR station was torn down in 1988, and replaced by nothing for almost 30 years. Now, in 2011, we still have the subway kiosk, now an architectural art installation, and a new LIRR terminal, which opened in 2010, and the Atlantic Terminal Mall. GMAP

(Originally posted 03/25/11)