Photograph of Cobble Hill Tunnel — Photograph by Vlad Rud, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Atlantic Avenue Tunnel

Built in 1844. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.

From the record

“The Cobble Hill Tunnel is an abandoned Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, running through the neighborhoods of Downtown Brooklyn and Cobble Hill. When open, it ran for about 2,517 feet (767 m) between Columbia Street and Boerum Place.”
Wikipedia article Cobble Hill Tunnel, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 207 National Register listings published here for Kings County · listed in 1989 · category: Structure · built in 1844.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Below Atlantic Ave. between Boerum Pl. and Columbia St., New York City, 11201
When was it listed? September 1989
Category. structure
Borough. Brooklyn
When was it built? 1844
National Register reference number. 89001388 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1889 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 106 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, surveyed 1889

Fires near this property

1,473 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,473 fires within 5 miles of Atlantic Avenue Tunnel between 2002 and 2020, burning about 421 acres in total. 90 started naturally. 122 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	969
Arson/incendiarism	122
Natural	90
Smoking	85
Debris and open burning	62
Equipment and vehicle use	55
Misuse of fire by a minor	35
Fireworks	30
Recreation and ceremony	10
Railroad operations and maintenance	9
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Other causes	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 September 2014	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
7 September 2016	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A

Every fire recorded in Kings County

Mines and quarries near this property

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Atlantic Avenue Tunnel: 5 unknowns, 4 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Graphite, Manganese. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
49th St & 1st Ave Beryl Deposit	Beryllium	Occurrence
Dixon Crucible/ Jersey City, N.J.	Graphite	Unknown
General Metallic Oxides/Jersey City	Manganese	Unknown
Manhattan Island Occurrence	Molybdenum	Occurrence
N L Industries/ Brooklyn. N.Y.	Lead	Unknown
Roosevelt Metal/ Brooklyn, N.Y.	Lead	Unknown
2nd St & 4th Ave Siderite Deposit	Iron	Occurrence
55th/56th Sts & 3rd Ave Deposit	Iron	Occurrence
D Smith Steel/ Brooklyn, N.Y.	Iron	Unknown

Every working recorded in Kings County

Maps showing this location

16 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1889 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1891 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1897 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1898 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1900 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 11 printings
1947 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1956 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1967 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1995 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Friends Meetinghouse and School	under 500 feet	1982
State Street Houses	0.2 miles	1980
Gage and Tollner Restaurant	0.2 miles	1982
Borough Hall Subway Station (IRT)	0.2 miles	2004
Brooklyn Borough Hall	0.3 miles	1980
Cuyler Presbyterian Church	0.3 miles	2001

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 89001388 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kings County	All 207 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.