The high tension current was carried over a transmission line from the powerhouse to the substations. This line was carried in underground ducts from the power-house to Dutch Kills Street. From here to Whitepot it was carried on lattice steel poles along the railroad right-of-way. At Whitepot it left the tracks and went across the fields on a private right-of-way (now the Glendale Cut-off) to Glendale junction, thence again along the tracks to Woodhaven junction Substation. Woodhaven junction Substation No. 3 was the largest and most important substation. Here it was stepped down to 625 volts direct current and fed to the third rail. No feeders were employed, the high conductivity of the rails themselves being relied upon. From Woodhaven junction, the transmission line was carried westward in underground ducts to Substation No. 1, at Grand Avenue, and eastward in ducts to Dunton. From Dunton to Substation No. 4 at Rockaway junction (just west of Hillside Station), the line was again carried on steel poles.
     At this time the Atlantic Division from Flatbush Avenue to Atkins Avenue, East New York, was freed of all grade crossings. From the terminal to Bedford Avenue a tunnel was built. From here to Ralph Avenue a strong steel elevated structure was built. The line then went down into a tunnel and emerged to the ground level again just before East New York Station. Again it ran over an elevated structure to Atkins Avenue, where it joined the old grade.     

The entire Manhattan Beach Division, together with the Evergreen and Bushwick Branches, forms a belt around the southern and eastern edges of the Borough of Brooklyn, serving the industries of the great city with its yards and sidings. At Bay Ridge are car floats and a car ferry, interchanging freight with all the Trunk Line railroads terminating on the Jersey shore, just across the Bay. Yards at Bay Ridge, Blythebourne, Parkville, Manhattan Beach junction, Vanderveer Park, Paerdegat, New Lots, East New York, Fresh Pond and Bushwick have a combined car capacity of over thirty-six hundred freight cars. A depressed freight yard at Vanderbilt Avenue, right in the heart of Brooklyn, has a capacity of over one hundred cars.
     The Long Island Railroad invested a tremendous sum of money in these facilities, but was not able to make full use of them until the Hell Gate Bridge was completed in 1917. To care for the increased freight business in the entire Metropolitan District, new freight yards had to be constructed on other branches and older yards enlarged and reconstructed, until to-day the Long Island has a total freight yard capacity of over five thousand cars in the Metropolitan District.

The Era of Electrification--Plans were being laid for the electrification of the Flatbush Avenue Terminal and the nearby suburban lines. In 1903 the actual construction was started. It was the original intention to electrify from Flatbush Avenue over the Atlantic Division to Belmont Park, from Woodhaven junction to Rockaway Park, and from Jamaica through Locust Avenue to Valley Stream, Far Rockaway, and back to Hammels. The big power-house designed to supply power for the Long Island and Pennsylvania Railroads was located between Third and Fourth Streets on the East River in Long Island City. It was necessary to drive 9,500 piles for the foundation. It is entirely steam turbine driven, supplying 11,000-volt 25-cycle, three-phase alternating current to the transmission lines. The ground was broken in October, 1903.

"Old Long Island Hogger" Engine 6 was a 4-4-0 American type locomotive. Its versatile design, with four leading wheels and four large driving wheels was popular in the era of railroad expansion.

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