B61 and B62 buses

The Crosstown Line is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, running along Van Brunt Street and Manhattan Avenue between Red Hook and Long Island City, Queens. Originally a streetcar line, it is now the B61 and the B62 bus routes. The northern section, the B62, is operated by MTA New York City Bus' Grand Avenue Depot in Maspeth, Queens, and the southern section is the B61, operated by MTA New York City Bus' Jackie Gleason Depot in Sunset Park. The entire route was a single line, the B61, until January 3, 2010; the B62 was previously a separate, parallel route between Downtown Brooklyn and Greenpoint, now part of the B43 route. The streetcar line, B61 and the original B62 previously operated from the now-closed Crosstown Depot in Greenpoint.

Route description

Streetcar line

The original Crosstown Line began at the Richards Street at the foot of Erie Basin, the portion of the Upper New York Bay immediately south of Red Hook. It ran north on Richards Street to Woodhull Street (now the site of the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel toll plaza), then north on Columbia Street to Atlantic Avenue at Brooklyn's South Ferry landing. The line then ran east along Atlantic Avenue into Downtown Brooklyn, turning north at Court Street and east at Joralemon Street, then east along Willoughby Street, then north on Raymond Street (now Ashland Place). It proceeded east along Park Avenue (occupied today by the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway at this location), then north along Washington Avenue through the Brooklyn Navy Yard and north on Kent Avenue to Broadway Ferry. The route ran east a short distance along Broadway, then ran north along Driggs Avenue (southbound trolleys used Bedford Avenue) through northern Williamsburg, and finally north on Manhattan Avenue to Box Street near the foot of Newtown Creek in Greenpoint.