B66 (New York City bus)

The **B66** was a public transit line, that mostly ran along Court Street, between Downtown Brooklyn and Red Hook. Originally a streetcar route known as the Court Street Line, it was replaced with a bus route, but no longer operated.

## Route description

The B66 began at Cadman Plaza and Tillary Street, headed towards Tillary Street and then made a right to Adams Street. It then continued on Adams Street until it used Joralemon Street to access Court Street, while northbound buses used Cadman Plaza West until it ended at the terminus. It then continued mostly on Court Street until it turned to Hamilton Avenue, and then West 9th Street, and continued on the street until it turned to Columbia Street, and continue on there as well until it ended at Halleck Street. Northbound buses used Lorraine Street to access Court Street.

## History

The Court Street Line opened on August 8, 1854 as a horsecar line, and ran from Fulton Ferry via Fulton, ourt, Church (now West 9th) Streets. and Hamilton Avenue to Hamilton ferry. It was one of the original Brooklyn City Railroad lines. For 32 years, it was known as the Greenwood Line, and was extended via Hamilton and Third Avenues to 36th Street in November 1854 and to the Brooklyn city line at 60th Street the following July.

The Court Street Line was combined with the Myrtle Avenue Line, which had also used the Brooklyn Bridge elevated tracks, to form the Myrtle Avenue and Court Street Line on April 3, 1938. This new route began at Garnett Street and Hamilton Avenue in Gowanus, and ran north on Court Street to Borough Hall and east on Myrtle Avenue to Palmetto Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Ridgewood. In February 1944, service was rerouted via Navy Street, Ashland Place and Willoughby Street instead of Jay Street and Adams Street. On July 27, 1944, service was rerouted in both directions via Adams Street between Willoughby Street and Myrtle Avenue. After elevated railroads stopped operating on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1944, the trolley routes began using the former elevated railroad tracks.

### Bus service

Beginning in the 1920s, many streetcar lines in Queens, Brooklyn, and the rest of the city began to be replaced by buses, particularly after the unification of the city's three primary transit companies (including the BMT) under municipal operations in June 1940. On June 30, 1949, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the full motorization of the Myrtle Avenue and Court Street Line with buses. The line was officially replaced by city-owned buses on July 17, 1949, and the route was split in two. Service along Myrtle Avenue was designated B54 ("B" being the designation for buses based in Brooklyn), and the line along Court Street was designated the B66. The B66 service was provided with eight buses, while the eastern terminal of the B54 was moved to Myrtle Avenue and Palmetto Street, and it western terminal was changed to Myrtle Avenue and Washington Avenue, and was initially provided with ten buses.

On March 8, 1954, a public hearing on the route's proposed discontinuation was held. The route was discontinued on May 1, 1954, when Court Street was converted into a one-way street. It would then be replicated by the B77 bus route, until it was discontinued in 2010 due to a budget crisis, and would be consolidated into the B57 route.