The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system that serves four of the five boroughs of New York City in the U.S. state of New York: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. Operated by the New York City Transit Authority under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, the New York City Subway is the busiest rapid transit system in the United States and the seventh busiest in the world, with 5.225 million daily riders. The system's 472 stations qualifies it to have the largest number of rapid transit stations in the world.
Three rapid transit companies merged in 1940 to create the present New York City Subway system: the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), and the Independent Subway System (IND). All three former systems are present in Brooklyn.
History
editThe vast majority of current subway lines in Brooklyn trace their lineage back to the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit (BMT) and Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT), as well as earlier predecessors. The oldest right-of-way in the entire subway system is that of the West End Line. Its right-of-way began passenger service on October 9, 1863, as a surface steam railroad called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island.[1][2] It was later rebuilt under the Dual Contracts, opening as the current elevated road on June 24, 1916.[3] The West End line is not the oldest elevated in Brooklyn. That honor goes to the BMT Jamaica Line with the section from Gates Avenue to Van Siclen Avenue to an opening on May 13, 1885.[4] The oldest un-rebuilt section still in use, is from Alabama Avenue to Cypress Hills. That section opened between September 5, 1885, and May 30, 1893.[5][6] Both segments were originally part of the demolished BMT Lexington Avenue Line. The rest of the line from Marcy Avenue to Broadway Junction was rebuilt during the Dual Contracts. It was also extended past Cypress Hills towards Jamaica, Queens during that time.
Similar histories to the BMT West End Line can be found with the BMT Sea Beach Line (New York and Sea Beach Railroad), and BMT Culver Line (Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad). Other truncated lines dating back to the same period as the Jamaica and Lexington Els are the Myrtle Avenue and BMT Fulton Street Lines.
Both the BMT Franklin Avenue Line and BMT Brighton Line began as another excursion railroad to Coney Island called the Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway. Originating on July 2, 1878, the BF&CI ran from the former Bedford Station on the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, to Brighton Beach. It also had a spur to the Sheepshead Bay Race Track southeast of Neck Road. Losing their connection to the LIRR in 1893, the railroad almost collapsed until it was acquired by the Kings County Elevated Railway in 1896, which electrified the line by 1899 for both rapid transit and streetcar lines, and itself became part of Brooklyn Rapid Transit in 1900. Grade elimination projects took place during the mid-1900s and late-1910s. A subway connection between Prospect Park and DeKalb Avenue on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line was completed by 1920.
The BMT Canarsie Line began on October 21, 1865, as the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad, a surface steam excursion railroad line for beachgoers. Once acquired by the BRT in 1906, it was split between a mostly elevated rapid transit line from Rockaway Boulevard and Broadway Junction, and the Canarsie Shuttle streetcar line south of Rockaway Boulevard to Jamaica Bay by 1920. A subway extension to Manhattan from Broadway Junction known as the "14th Street–Eastern District Line" was built in 1928. The Liberty Avenue extension of the Fulton Street Elevated opened on September 25, 1915, and the extension of the Jamaica Avenue Elevated to Walnut Street opened on May 28, 1917. A further extension of the latter line opened to Cliffside Avenue on July 2, 1918.[7]
Also on June 22, 1915, the BRT opened the Fourth Avenue Subway from Myrtle Avenue to 59th Street as well as the BMT Sea Beach Line, which provided service to Coney Island. The Fourth Avenue Line was then extended the line south to 86th Street in Bay Ridge on January 15, 1916. The West End Line opened in stages. The line opened from Ninth Avenue to 18th Avenue on June 24, 1916, to 25th Avenue on July 29, 1916, and to Coney Island on July 21, 1917. Culver Line service was inaugurated on March 16, 1919, to Kings Highway. Service was extended to Avenue X on May 10, 1919, before running through to Coney Island on May 1, 1920. The Montague Street Tunnel opened on August 1, 1920, connecting Brooklyn directly to Lower Manhattan. On the same date, the connection between the Brighton Line connection between Prospect Park and DeKalb Avenue was opened.[7] Two additional stations along the Fourth Avenue Line were opened at a later date by the BMT. An in-fill station, Lawrence Street, was opened in Downtown Brooklyn on June 11, 1924, and the line was extended to its new terminal at 95th Street in Fort Hamilton on October 31, 1925. The Fourth Avenue Line would replace the elevated BMT Fifth Avenue Line on June 1, 1940, and inherited the connections to the West End and Sea Beach Lines. The Myrtle Avenue station was closed in 1956 as part of the reconstruction of the DeKalb Avenue junction.
Besides the BMT and its predecessors, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company expanded two subways and one elevated line into Brooklyn. The Eastern Parkway Line was built under Brooklyn Borough Hall to Atlantic Avenue in 1908 and then to Utica Avenue in Crown Heights in 1920. This line is fed from Manhattan by the IRT Lexington Avenue Line via the Joralemon Street Tunnel as well as the Brooklyn Branch of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line through the Clark Street Tunnel. Additionally, two extensions from the Eastern Parkway Line was built in 1920. The first being the Nostrand Avenue Line from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush. The second was the elevated New Lots Line, over East 98th Street and Livonia Avenue in Brownsville and East New York to Pennsylvania Avenue, and was expanded to New Lots Avenue in 1922.[7]
In 1933, the city-owned Independent Subway System built the IND Crosstown Line from Court Square in Long Island City south to Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint, and then from Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg to Hoyt and Schermerhorn Streets in Downtown Brooklyn. Additionally, in 1933, they built IND Brooklyn Line from Jay Street–Borough Hall to Church Avenue station. Three years later, the IND Sixth Avenue Line was connected to Jay Street through the Rutgers Street Tunnel. The connecting ramps between Church Avenue and Ditmas Avenue on the BMT Culver Line did not exist until 1954, and once they did, the Culver Line was "recaptured" by the IND, with them except for the Culver Shuttle northwest to Ninth Avenue on the BMT West End Line. This segment of the BMT Culver Line was abandoned on May 10, 1975. The newest line in Brooklyn is the ramp from the IND Fulton Street Subway connecting with the former BMT Fulton Street elevated which opened on April 29, 1956. This ramp includes a connection to Pitkin Yard and the Grant Avenue station.
Description
editThis section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2010) |
There are 170 New York City Subway stations in Brooklyn (171 if 75th Street–Elderts Lane, which is located in both Brooklyn and Queens, is included).[^ 1] When transfer stations with two or more non-adjacent platforms are counted as one station, the number of stations is 157. The physical trackage lines within Brooklyn include:
- BMT Elevated (& streetcars)
- Original right-of-way:
- BMT Franklin Avenue Line
- BMT Jamaica Line
- BMT Canarsie Line
- BMT Brighton Line
- IRT Eastern Parkway Line
- BMT Jamaica Line
- BMT Myrtle Avenue Line
- BMT Fourth Avenue Line
- BMT Sea Beach Line
- BMT West End Line
- BMT/IND Culver Line
- IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line
- IRT Nostrand Avenue Line
- IRT New Lots Line
- IND Eighth Avenue Line
- IND Brooklyn (Culver) Line
- IND Crosstown Line
- IND Fulton Street Line
- IND Sixth Avenue Line
Lines and services
editThere are 170 New York City Subway stations in Brooklyn, per the official count of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; of these, 22 are express-local stations. If the 10 station complexes are counted as one station each, the number of stations is 157. In the table below, lines with colors next to them indicate trunk lines, which determine the colors that are used for services' route bullets and diamonds. The opening date refers to the opening of the first section of track for the line. In the "division" column, the current division is followed by the original division in parentheses.
| Division | Line | Services | Stations in Brooklyn | Opened | Continues to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B (BMT) | Fourth Avenue Line |    
|
16 (3 express-local stations, 4 part of station complexes, 1 shared with Brighton Line) | June 22, 1915 | Manhattan |
| B (IND) | Sixth Avenue Line |  
|
1 | April 9, 1936 | Manhattan |
| B (IND) | Eighth Avenue Line |  
|
1 | February 1, 1933 | Manhattan |
| B (BMT) | Brighton Line |  
|
20 (6 express-local stations (1 shared with Franklin Avenue Line), 1 part of a station complex, 1 shared with Fourth Avenue Line, 1 shared with Culver Line, 1 shared with Culver, Sea Beach, and West End Lines) | July 2, 1878 | Manhattan |
| A (IRT) | Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line |  
|
2 (1 part of a station complex) | April 15, 1919 | Manhattan |
| B (BMT) | Canarsie Line | 
|
19 (3 part of station complexes) | July 28, 1906 | Manhattan |
| B (IND) | Crosstown Line | 
|
11 (1 part of a station complex, 1 shared with Fulton Street Line) | August 19, 1933 | Queens |
| B (IND) | Culver Line |
|
21 (2 part of station complexes, 1 shared with Fulton Street Line, 1 shared with Brighton Line, 1 shared with Brighton, Sea Beach & West End Lines) | March 16, 1919 | — |
| A (IRT) | Eastern Parkway Line |  
|
11 (4 express-local stations, 3 part of station complexes) | January 9, 1908 | Manhattan |
| B (BMT) | Franklin Avenue Line | 
|
4 (2 part of station complexes, 1 shared with Brighton Line) | August 18, 1878 | — |
| B (IND) | Fulton Street Line |
|
16 (5 express-local stations, 3 part of station complexes, 1 shared with Culver Line, 1 shared with Crosstown Line) | April 9, 1936 | Queens |
| B (BMT) | Jamaica Line |   
|
16 (4 express-local stations,[^ 2] 1 part of a station complex) | June 25, 1888 | Manhattan, Queens |
| B (BMT) | Myrtle Avenue Line |
|
3 (1 part of a station complex) | April 10, 1888 | Queens |
| A (IRT) | New Lots Line | [^ 3]
|
7 | November 22, 1920 | — |
| A (IRT) | Nostrand Avenue Line |
|
7 | August 23, 1920 | — |
| B (BMT) | Sea Beach Line |
|
10 (1 part of a station complex, 1 shared with Brighton, Culver & West End Lines) | June 22, 1915 | — |
| B (BMT) | West End Line |
|
13 (1 part of a station complex, 1 shared with Brighton, Culver & Sea Beach Lines) | June 24, 1916 | — |
Stations
editPermanently closed subway stations, including those that have been demolished, are not included in the list below. The 95th Street station is listed under "Bay Ridge–95th Street."
| Station service legend | |
|---|---|
|
Stops all times |
|
Stops all times except late nights |
|
Stops late nights only |
|
Stops weekdays during the day |
|
Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction |
|
|
Stops all times except nights and rush hours in the peak direction |
|
Stops rush hours only |
|
Stops rush hours in the peak direction only |
| Time period details | |
|
Station is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act |
| ↑
|
Station is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act in the indicated direction only |
| ↓
| |
|
Elevator access to mezzanine only |
| * | Station is part of a station complex |
| ** | Transfer stations either between local and express services or that involve the terminus of a service on the same line; may also be part of a station complex as defined above |
| *** | Multi-level or adjacent-platform transfer stations on different lines considered to be one station as classified by the MTA |
| † | Terminal of a service |
| *†, **† or ***† | Transfer stations and terminals |
| ‡ | Last station in Brooklyn before service continues to Manhattan or Queens |
| *‡, **‡, or ***‡ | Last station in Brooklyn and a transfer station |
| *†‡, **†‡, or ***†‡ | Last station in Brooklyn, a transfer station and a terminal |
See also
edit- New York City Subway stations
- List of New York City Subway stations
- List of New York City Subway transfer stations
- List of New York City Subway terminals
- List of closed New York City Subway stations
- List of Staten Island Railway stations
- Accessibility of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
- List of New York City Subway stations in the Bronx
- List of New York City Subway stations in Manhattan
- List of New York City Subway stations in Queens
Notes
edit- ^ Halsey Street served by the L train, which is located mostly in Queens, is counted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as being in Brooklyn.
- ^ As the J/Z combined in a skip-stop service, an "express-local" station in this sense means both services stop at the station during the hours of skip-stop operation. 2 of the express-local stations on the Jamaica line fit this definition.
- ^ The 2 and 5 operate limited services on the IRT New Lots Line during rush hours.
- ^ a b The 2 platform sets of the Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ a b The 2 platform sets of the New Utrecht Avenue/62nd Street station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ a b c The 3 platform sets of the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ At the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center Eastern Parkway Line station, the single inner island platform for express trains is separated from the two outer side platforms for local trains. Transfers between local and express trains can be done by walking through a crossunder, but it is more convenient to do so at either Nevins Street or Franklin Avenue.
- ^ a b c The 3 platform sets of the Borough Hall/Court Street station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ a b The 2 platform sets of the Franklin Avenue/Botanic Garden station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ a b c The 3 platform sets of the Broadway Junction station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ a b The 2 platform sets of the Franklin Avenue station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ a b The 2 platform sets of the Jay Street–MetroTech station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ a b The 2 platform sets of the Metropolitan Avenue/Lorimer Street station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
- ^ a b The 2 platform sets of the Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues station complex count as one station when compared to international standards.
References
edit- ^ "Opening of a New Railroad". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 5 October 1863. p. 2.
- ^ "Railroads". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 9 October 1863. p. 1.
- ^ New York Times, New Line to Bath Beach, June 24, 1916, page 7
- ^ "Done at Last". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. 13 May 1885. p. 1.
- ^ "Still Extending Its Lines". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 5 September 1885. p. 6.
- ^ "Trains Running This Morning". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 30 May 1893. p. 10.
- ^ a b c Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1922. p. 372.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Fischler, p. 239-240
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by bz ca Fischler, p. 241-242
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au Fischler, p. 243-244
- ^ a b c Senate, New York (State) Legislature (January 1, 1917). Documents of the Senate of the State of New York.
- ^ a b "Stations of Subway are Now Opened". Home Talk the Item. September 22, 1915. pp. 1, 14 – via newspapers.com
.
- ^ Atlantic Avenue; BMT Canarsie Line (NYCSubway.org)
- ^ a b c "Subway Stations Opened: Last Three in Eastern Parkway Branch of I.R.T. Put Into Service" (PDF). New York Times. October 11, 1920. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
- ^ "Botanic Garden Station Opened". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 1, 1928. Retrieved November 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Announcing the Opening of the Lawrence Street (BMT) Subway Station". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 11, 1924. p. 8. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
Further reading
edit- Fischler, Stan (1997). The Subway: A Trip Through Time on New York's Rapid Transit. H & M Productions II Inc. ISBN 1-882608-19-4.