norton

Once upon a time, trolleys clang-clanged their way through the streets of Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx and even parts of Queens and Staten Island. Trolleys ruled to the degree that the thin peninsula of Coney Island could boast not one but two east-west trolley routes! One of them ran down Surf Avenue from West 37th Street east till it joined up with the trolley that ran on Gravesend (McDonald) Avenue.

The other, known as the Nortons Point line, ran in a right of way between Surf and Mermaid Avenues from a terminal at the Stillwell Avenue elevated complex west into the private community of Sea Gate. Two trolley lines on virtually the same route, though, finally proved redundant and service ended in December 1948. For a few years, the old right of way was kept open as a street named Railroad Avenue, but this too was soon closed and for the last forty years the old route has been made nearly invisible by new construction. But... if you know where to look, a trace or two of the Nortons Point line is still there!

This 1938 Geographia map shows Coney Island with the Nortons Point line visible as a dotted line between Mermaid and Surf Avenues.

Nortons Point is the westernmost tip of Coney Island. It is accessible only through the private community of Sea Gate, which is protected by a security agency at its entrance at Surf Avenue and West 37 Street. Once you're through the gate, and you walk up Surf Avenue a short way, you find some interesting objects.

Grooves in the paved roadbed at Oceanic and Surf Avenues reveal the path of the Nortons Point trolley line.

Although there are no rails remaining visible in the road from the trolley line, there is a visible sign of the line embedded in the dirt here...