32 TIMES • JULY16, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com old timer When METROPOLITAN AVENUE aTURNPIKE If you have any memories and photos that you’d like to share about “Our Neighborhood: e Way it Was,” write to e Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 62-70 Fresh Pond Rd., Ridgewood, NY 11385, or send an email to [email protected]. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned upon request. ong before the New York State Thruway and the New Jersey Turnpike, one of the tri-state area’s most important toll roads ran right through our neighborhood. It’s called Metropolitan Avenue today, and it’s free for anyone to travel. But more than 200 years ago, it was known as the Williamsburgh-Jamaica Turnpike, a private dirt toll road created in the early 1800s by the Masters brothers, Stephen and Samuel. The 7-mile-long railroad ran from what is now the intersection of Van Wyck Expressway and Jamaica Avenue to the western end of Newtown Creek near present-day Morgan Avenue. Before the advent of the railroad, fl attened turnpikes lined the area to allow horse-drawn wagons to travel through with ease. In the case of the Williamsburgh- Jamaica Turnpike, the road was designed to shorten the distance that Long Island farmers had to travel to deliver produce to the Catherine Street Market in Manhattan. The Williamsburgh-Jamaica Turnpike opened in September 1816; toll gates were erected at each end. A wagon pulled by two horses paid 1 1/2 cents per mile, while a single horse and rider paid a half-cent per mile. Farmers heading west toward Manhattan used the turnpike to reach streets in Williamsburgh accessible to the Grand Street ferry landing on the East River. From there, the horse-drawn wagons boarded ferries to take them across the river into lower Manhattan. Why were they called turnpikes? The toll gates were built on pikes that operators turned upon receiving tolls from customers. Over the years, the Williamsburgh- Jamaica Turnpike helped boost Queens’ population. This led to the birth in 1840 of Middle Village, a town named for its location at the midway point on the turnpike between Williamsburgh and Jamaica. Because horse-drawn travel wasn’t exactly the fastest way to get around, a number of hotels and inns sprung up along the turnpike for farmers to rest. These included Samuel Way’s Brick Tavern, erected on the north side of the turnpike near what is now 78th Street. Another was Niederstein’s Inn and Restaurant, which opened in the latter half of the 1800s near present-day 70th Street and remained in operation until 2005. The advent of rail technology combined with the growth of Middle Village as a community led to the creation of the area’s fi rst public transit system. The North Second Street and Middle Village Railroad began with horse-drawn passenger cars on steel rails from the East River ferry landing to Dry Harbor Road (present-day 80th Street). Between 24 and 30 passengers were able to ride in the car each trip. With tolls long removed, the Williamsburgh-Jamaica Turnpike was renamed in 1885 as Metropolitan Avenue, and the horse-drawn cars were eventually replaced in the 20th century with electric trolley cars along a nowpaved roadway. was a This 1912 photo shows a parade of firemen along Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village. Note the trolley tracks in the middle of the roadbed. Niederstein’s, shown in this 1939 photo, was one of the many inns that developed along what was then known as the Williamsburgh-Jamaica Turnpike during the 19th century.
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