How the R Train Impacted Bay Ridge

 One of the greatest ways to make the past relevant to younger generations is to create connections between their surroundings to the past. Teachers and educators can take what students have in their immediate surroundings, and help them make comparisons to the past. The teacher can provide activities such as Venn diagrams, where the students can learn to compare and contrast topics. In doing practices like this, the students can work on their comparison skills and help connect the past to their present day experiences. When the teacher is able to guide the students in the right direction, and they can make the connection or comparison themselves, higher order thinking skills can be achieved. 

A way that teachers can help foster the connection of past to present would be to take students on a field trip of their local train station, or the  New York Transit Museum. The New York Transit Museum has a wide range of exhibits that show students how the train cars have changed over time. This field trip would greatly enhance the students learning of the past, as they will be able to actually see what it looked like, as well as view various artifacts from the various time periods of transit history. While COVID-19 is preventing school trips, the Transit Museum is offering virtual tours. 

Another idea for a field trip, or a suggestion of travel to the New York Transit Museum would be to take the subway! While this trip would best be suited for students in a higher age range, (7th-12th graders ideally) can actually take the subway and experience what it is like. It might be a surprise to see how many students have never taken the train before, and be providing hands-on experience, it will greatly benefit the students. According to A Review of Research on School Field Trips and Their Value in Education by Marc Behrendt and Teresa Franklin of Ohio University, 

 "Students on field trips sharpen their skills of observation and perception by utilizing all their senses (Nabors et al., 2009). Students develop a positive attitude for learning, motivating them to develop connections between the theoretical concepts in the classroom and what has been experienced (Falk, Martin,&Balling, 1978; Hudak, 2003)...When on a field trip, the venue is not the only location that affects students, they also gain knowledge and understanding about their neighborhoods and communities as they travelfrom the school to the field trip venue (Nabors et al., 2009)"

By having this understanding of field trips, and how vital they are to student learning, it can really help increase student interest and understanding into the local history being taught. It is also worth noting that the travel from the school to the venue of the field trip is important, as the students get a chance to understand the surrounding neighborhoods!

A great real life example of this would be to take a group of students to the New York Transit Museum on the R train. Students would board the train from either the 95th or 86th street station in Bay Ridge, and travel on the R Train to the Jay Street - Metro Tech station. This experience would not only allow for students to experience the same ride that thousands of people have taken before them, but also provide hands-on experience on one of the most important modes of transportation in Bay Ridge. 

This image shows a map of the route via the R Train getting from the 86th Street Station to the New York Transit Museum, located in Brooklyn, New York. 

Bay Ridge started out as a small rural farming village that slowly began to grow. As the city of Brooklyn was added to the City of New York in 1898, more people began to settle into the borough. With the new arrival of people, land developers were able to build blocks and blocks of homes to accommodate the newcomers. As many left the bustle of the city to live in the suburban neighborhood of Bay Ridge, the only issue they faced was transportation. It could take hours to get to Manhattan, so there was a need for easy access to the city. The solution to this issue was to add a subway line through Brooklyn that connected the edge of Bay Ridge to Chambers Street in Manhattan.

The construction for the subway began on October 26, 1912. It was a grand sight to see, with many politicians and schoolchildren who celebrated the groundbreaking of the project. 

This image was accessed by Hey Ridge via the New York Tribune

Many locals had a difficult time adjusting to the new subway line as the construction was disruptive. The construction tore up all of Fourth Avenue, and many were opposed to the noise as well as disruption to the neighborhood. Despite the pushback from locals, the construction continued with the line ending at 85th/86th Street and 4th Avenue. Eventually the line would be extending to 95th street as residents requested the line go into the Fort Hamilton area.

The construction was completed in 1915, and the line was official opened on June 19th of that year. There was an even larger patriotic celebration for the opening of the line. With various patriotic plays retelling the beginning of the United States, as well as performances by local children it, was a big affair. The celebration was so grand because the people were excited to now be connected to the city as well as the rest of Brooklyn. This connection allowed for travel to be accessible to all, and allowed for residents to travel to places like Coney Island to visit the beach and amusement park. There was a great celebration and pride in the newfound freedom that the R train brought to the people of Bay Ridge. 

This image was assessed by Hey Ridge via the Brooklyn Eagle

As the subway line of the R train connected Bay Ridge to the city, and therefore the greater metropolitan area, more people started to move to Bay Ridge. Businessmen could buy a house in the Bay Ridge area and make it to work in midtown in an hour. The appeal to move to Bay Ridge was immense, and greatly helped the small neighborhood become a prominent place in Brooklyn. 

Sources for this article come from Behrendt, Marc, and Teresa Franklin. "A review of research on school field trips and their value in education." International Journal of Environmental and Science Education 9, no. 3 (2014): 235-245. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1031445.pdf  Henry. "Crappy 100th Birthday, R Train! Love, Bay Ridge." Hey Ridge. March 09, 2018. https://www.heyridge.com/2016/01/crappy-100th-birthday-bay-ridge-subway/.
https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/BMT_4th_Avenue_Line#77th_Street