Continuing our journey, we walk along the rail road service road and see the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch tracks to the south, and the Sea Beach tracks in the distance.  The Sea Beach tracks no longer reside above the cement retaining wall, as they are now at surface level (albeit still a level above the LIRR tracks).



Is this a subway through the environs of New York City?  This picture could easily be mistaken for a picture of a LIRR train out somewhere in Long Island!



Looking west, to see how far we have already traveled.  An easy walk so far, right?  Well... the railroad service road makes traveling fairly easy, but unfortunately the service road doesn't run the entire length of the ROW.  Pretty soon one has to start walking on uneven ground and mud.



On the south side of the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch ROW and the Sea Beach subway line, one can see the second-floor tops of apartment buildings in the residential neighborhood Dyker Heights.

I'm pretty sure these people would have disliked having their residences overlooking a trenched eight-lane expressway.   The subway and once-in-a-while rambling of freight trains are tranquil compared to the noise that would have been generated by cars and trucks in a walled-in expressway trench.



A view looking up from the Bay Ridge Branch trench.  The telephone pole, wires, and streetlights - integrated with the plant life in the trench, give this area a rural feel to it.

This would have been all ripped-out in favor of steel and concrete for the Cross-Brooklyn Expressway.



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