What to See at the End of the Q train, Which Runs from the Upper East Side to Coney Island - Page 4 of 5 - Untapped New York (2024)

Riding the Line – Brooklyn

After crossing the bridge and heading down into the tunnels below, the Q train travels a bit further into the borough before making its first stop at DeKalb Avenue, where transfers to the B, D, and R trains are available. The station is nestled on the corner of both Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene and is a commonly used station for students commuting to and from Long Island University and Brooklyn Technical High School. The neighborhood of Fort Greene was named after Nathanael Greene, who supervised the construction of a Revolutionary War-era fortress that was built in the area in 1776. Downtown Brooklyn, on the other hand, has undergone an extensive amount of rezoning since the start of the 21st century.

The next stop in Brooklyn is Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center. The station is a key commercial and transportation hub for commuters traveling around the borough and for those coming from Long Island. Connections are available to the 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, and R trains, as well as the Long Island Rail Road. The commuter rail station opened up in the early 1900s, but was renovated in 2010 to accompany the building of the Barclays Center, which was completed in 2012. The arena is used for concerts and conventions, but it serves primarily as the home venue for both the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty basketball teams. The roof of the Barclays Center is covered in a flowering plant called sedum, which engineers put in place to help reduce the amount of noise that emanates from the stadium during games and concerts.

The next station at 7th Avenue sits midway down the borderline of Prospect Heights. The interior section of the neighborhood is regarded for its brownstones built as far back as the 1890s. This is why most of the neighborhood is designated as the fifth-largest historic district in the entire city. The neighborhood’s layout and grid design is also uncharacteristic because of the Native American trails and farm boundaries that existed on the land prior to its development. For instance, the section of land between Underhill and Washington Avenues contains certain streets which angle in ways that counter the traditional grid system used by city planners.

Riding under Grand Army Plaza down Flatbush Avenue, the Q veers slightly to the right to make stops at the Prospect Park and Parkside Avenue stations. These are the first stations below street level, but still in open-air. The first of the two stops offers transfers to the B and Shuttle train, linking riders with the A and C line further north at Franklin Avenue. Both stations offer passengers access to Prospect Park, which opened to the public in 1859 and is the second-largest park in the entire borough behind Marine Park. The park’s construction focused on natural aesthetics and was intended to replicate the kind of ideals that were expressed in contemporary paintings. More than eight million people visit the urban park every year and come to paddle on the pond, ice skate at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, or take in the many monuments, boathouses, footbridges, and flower gardens.

The next five stations on the Q train initiate the rest of the line’s trip above ground as it runs through the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. The Church Avenue and Newkirk Avenue stops provide a transfer to the B train that runs on the express track alongside the local Q. Beverley Road and Cortelyou Road are the stops in between while Avenue H comes after Newkirk Plaza.

Flatbush got its name from the Dutch translation for “flat woodland” or “wooded plain” and consists of multiple subsections such as Kensington and Midwood. Housing, along with the culture, varies distinctly from street to street. For instance, buildings along Avenue H are made up of townhouses and Victorian homes until the intersections at Ocean Avenue and Ocean Parkway, where pre-war co-ops and apartment buildings are more common. Almost 50% of the population living in Flatbush are Black, many of whom are immigrants or second-generation descendants from the Caribbean. Despite this, subsections of the neighborhood are quite evenly distributed demographically and aren’t necessarily sectionalized. Mexicans, Kenyans, Guyanese, Pakistani, Italian, and Irish residents make up a small portion of the many different ethnicities found throughout the neighborhood.

The following stations at Avenue J, Avenue M, and Kings Highway are situated in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. A large percentage of the people that live here are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who came from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and ’80s. Midwood was going through a revamp at that time after many of its original residents chose to move out of the city and into suburban neighborhoods on Long Island or in New Jersey. Kings Highway, one of the express stops for the B, was close to a family-owned restaurant chain called Dubrow’s Cafeteria. The owners were of Belarusian descent and were popular enough that John F. Kennedy came out to the location on Kings Highway to host a rally for his presidential campaign.

Avenue U, Neck Road, and Sheepshead Bay are the next three stops along the Q train route before it crosses over the Belt Parkway and makes a turn onto Brighton Beach Avenue. Sheepshead Bay was named after a common species of fish called “sheepshead” found in the nearby bay. It was originally a fishing and farming community before it started to transition into a getaway beach destination for New Yorkers in the 1840s. Farmland was divvied up to make way for resorts, hotels, and restaurants while the construction of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track led to a peak in tourist visitation. After the establishment of amusem*nt parks in nearby Coney Island, the area lost its appeal and eventually became the residential neighborhood that it is today. Much like Midwood, Sheepshead Bay saw a high population of Russian, Central Asian, and Jewish immigrants in the latter part of the 20th century.

Brighton Beach and Ocean Parkway are the next stops on the Q train in the Brighton Beach section of the line. Views of the beach and the Atlantic Ocean are now clearly visible to passengers on the train as it winds closer towards the last stop in Coney Island. The neighborhood is a popular summer destination for city residents and is separated from the more crowded portion of the beach and boardwalk further to the west. Russian-speaking immigrants are also common in the area, as well as Georgians and Azerbaijanis.

Ocean Parkway and West 8th Street-NY Aquarium are the two final stops before the Q train terminates its service in Brooklyn. The aquarium’s original location was in Battery Park before it was moved out to Coney Island in 1957. Like much of the surrounding area, the facility was hit hard during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 but managed to preserve most of the plants and animals living there.

Now, finally onto Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue!