47-794: Starting in 1899, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; 1896–1923) and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT; 1923–1940) operated rapid transit lines in New York City — at first only elevated railways and later also subways . Until 1907, these lines were leased to the Brooklyn Heights Railroad , which also operated the BRT's surface transit lines. In 1907, the lease of the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad
94-512: A few lines between then and when the letters were first publicly used. While the BMT number code was officially retired in the 1960s, two of these markers would continue to appear on equipment until as late as the early 1980s. For instance the BMT 7 marker appeared on Franklin Avenue Shuttle trains as late as 1982. The BMT's predecessor BRT organized the rapid transit lines into two divisions,
141-630: A new five-platform complex at Chambers Street beneath the Manhattan Municipal Building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge on August 4, 1913. In addition to BRT trains, Long Island Railroad (LIRR) commuter trains also used the new Chambers Street station from its opening until 1917. The elevated railroads were operated by a new corporation, the New York Consolidated Railroad . In 1913,
188-629: A number of surface railroads, the earliest of which, the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Railroad or West End Line , opened for passenger service on October 9, 1863, between Fifth Avenue at 36th Street at the then border of Brooklyn City and Bath Beach in the Town of Gravesend, New York . A short piece of surface route of this railroad, near Coney Island Creek , is the oldest existing piece of rapid transit right-of-way in New York City, and in
235-684: A small section turning north after the Crescent Street station. Most of the other surviving structures were either built new or rehabilitated between 1915 and 1922 as part of the Dual Contracts . One piece of structure – the elevated portion of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle , built in 1896 and 1905 – was extensively rebuilt in 1999. Several BRT-era equipment have been preserved. This includes nine BU cars and five AB Standard cars, all which were also operated by
282-618: A stub underground line which opened in 1989, with IND services operating above it. The BMT's only line in Queens which comes directly from Manhattan, the BMT Astoria Line , is entirely elevated. Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate railway lines in Brooklyn and Queens , New York City , United States . It
329-790: The BMT Nassau Street Line as far north as Chambers Street constitute the Southern Division. All the rest of the system are the Eastern Division except the Astoria and Flushing Lines , which were the Queens Division. The Astoria Line has been part of the Southern Division since 1949, and the Flushing is no longer a BMT Line. The divisions maintained separate car fleets and maintenance bases, to
376-554: The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation in 1923. The BRT was incorporated January 18, 1896, and took over the bankrupt Long Island Traction Company in early February acquiring the Brooklyn Heights Railroad and the lessee of the Brooklyn City Rail Road . It then acquired the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad leased on July 1, 1898. The BRT took over the property of
423-639: The Chrystie Street Connection joined the IND and BMT operationally in 1967, it did not change the Division boundaries, but it did break the strict assignment of types of car to one division or another. Prior to Chrystie Street, operation of a service on both divisions was exceedingly rare, until the QJ and RJ services were introduced in 1967. There were some instances of joint trackage, mainly on
470-661: The Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad and the short Van Brunt Street and Erie Basin Railroad remained independent; the former was acquired in 1913 or 1914. BRT opened its first short subway segment, consisting only of an underground terminal at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge at Delancey and Essex Streets in Manhattan on June 16, 1908. This line was extended under Delancey Street and Centre Street to
517-820: The IND Queens Boulevard Line and BMT Broadway Line opened in December 1955. This new route was used by the BMT Brighton local, which formerly ran to Astoria, for service to Forest Hills along with the IND GG local. The next year saw the new extension of the IND Fulton Street Line ( A train) in Brooklyn connected to the rebuilt section of the former BMT Fulton Street elevated at 80th Street in Queens in April 1956. The portion of
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#1732772405977564-536: The J in the peak direction during rush hours only. Prior to city ownership, the BMT services were designed with numbers, and the current letter scheme was developed as a continuation of the IND nomenclature as the IND and BMT systems were integrated. The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation took over the assets of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company on June 15, 1923, following the previous company's bankruptcy. Like its predecessor it controlled subsidiaries which operated
611-546: The J/Z , L , M , N , Q , R and W trains, as well as the Franklin Avenue Shuttle , with the IND B and D using BMT trackage in Brooklyn. The M train enters the IND via the Chrystie Street Connection after crossing the Williamsburg Bridge . The Q , along with some rush-hour N trains enter the IND from the BMT 63rd Street Line . The R train enters the IND via the 60th Street Tunnel Connection . The Z train supplements
658-607: The Manhattan Bridge to a junction with the aforementioned Nassau Street Line at Canal Street . The BRT opened the first segment of its Manhattan main line subway, the Broadway Line , as far as 14th Street–Union Square on September 4, 1917. The Broadway Line was completed in 1920. The BRT's only crosstown Manhattan line, the Canarsie Line , opened in 1924. During the beginning of the BRT's existence,
705-490: The Nassau Street Line and approaching Brooklyn Bridge . Currently, there is no service operating on both divisions. When the BMT introduced line numbers in 1924, it divided them by division: 1 to 4 , the Southern Division subway services, 5 , 6 and 7 , the Southern Division elevated services, 8 and 9 to the Queens Division and 10 to 16 , the Eastern Division services. In 1940, with City ownership,
752-581: The PCC car , whose design and advanced components influenced railcar design worldwide for decades. The company also sought to extend the art of rapid transit car design with such innovations as articulated (multi-jointed-body) cars , lightweight equipment, advanced control systems, and shared components with streetcar fleets. Unlike the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), the other private operator of subways in New York City,
799-700: The BMT Fulton Street El running west of 80th Street to Rockaway Avenue was demolished afterward. The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the biggest project of that era with the building of the Chrystie Street Connection , and the IND Sixth Avenue express tracks. This project connected the IND Sixth Avenue services to the BMT services that ran over the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges . Express services were directly connected to
846-461: The BMT upon the company's creation in 1923. Brooklyn%E2%80%93Manhattan Transit Corporation The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation ( BMT ) was an urban transit holding company , based in Brooklyn , New York City , United States , and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940. Today, together with the IND subway system , it forms the B Division of the modern New York City Subway . The original BMT routes form
893-600: The BRT subway and Williamsburg Bridge began with the opening of the Chambers Street Station. Both LIRR and BRT motorman were represented by the same union. Today, BRT successor MTA New York City Transit still receives freight deliveries from LIRR freight successor the New York & Atlantic Railroad in Sunset Park and at Linden Yard. World War I and the attendant massive inflation associated with
940-495: The BRT, through another subsidiary, the New York Municipal Railway , signed the Dual Contracts with the government of New York City , to construct and operate new subways and other rapid transit lines to be built or improved under these contracts. Almost all subsequent BRT lines were built as part of the contracts. The BRT opened its first Brooklyn subway under Fourth Avenue on June 22, 1915, running over
987-874: The Chrystie Street Connection to the BMT Jamaica Line over the Williamsburg Bridge. That connection was discontinued due to budget cuts in 1976. In 1988, the BMT Archer Avenue Line was opened, connecting to what was then the east end of the BMT Jamaica Line. Two stations— Sutphin Boulevard–Archer Avenue–JFK Airport and Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer —were added. In 1989, the BMT 63rd Street Line opened as an extension of
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#17327724059771034-533: The Divisions were officially restyled as "Sections" to avoid having Divisions of Divisions: i.e., "BMT Division, Eastern Section" but they are usually still referred to as "Divisions" to the present. Current BMT lines in Manhattan are exclusively subway. Its Brooklyn lines include one long subway line, the Fourth Avenue Line , and one subway connector, hooking the pre-existing Brighton Beach Line to
1081-520: The Eastern Division and the Southern Division. When BMT service began on the Corona and Astoria Lines in 1923, a Queens Division was added. When the dual-operated Queens lines were divided between the BMT and IRT in 1949, the Queens Division was dissolved. All the lines running to southern Brooklyn, including the Brighton–Franklin Line plus the Broadway Line as far as Queensboro Plaza and
1128-806: The Kings County Elevated Railroad. The first step in simplifying the corporate structure was made in 1900, when the Sea View Railroad ( Brighton Beach Line ) was merged into the Kings County Elevated (on May 9) and the Kings County Elevated was then merged into the Brooklyn Union Elevated (on May 24). The lease to the Brooklyn Heights was canceled effective March 1, 1907, after which the Brooklyn Union Elevated operated itself. At
1175-465: The LIRR was a competitor of the BRT for passengers in Brooklyn and Queens. Despite competing with nearby lines, the BRT and its predecessors also hosted LIRR passenger trains via track sharing agreements and interchanged freight with them. LIRR Passenger service to the BRT's Brooklyn Bridge terminal began after an agreement in 1895, utilizing BRT elevated lines. LIRR passenger service to downtown Manhattan via
1222-580: The Manhattan Bridge, and local services could use either the Williamsburg Bridge or the existing Rutgers Street Tunnel . Both connections opened in November 1967 and created the largest re-routing of train services in the history of the NYCTA. The BMT West End and Brighton Lines became served primarily by IND services as a result. From 1967, some IND Sixth Avenue trains called KK and later K, used
1269-543: The New York City Transit Authority brought the BMT into the IND letter system, and most services were reassigned as letters. Since then, many changes have been made; see the individual articles about the letters for more detail, and New York City Subway nomenclature for more general information. Terminals shown in the table below are pre-letters. This chart shows the letter code assigned to each BMT service in 1960; important changes happened on
1316-459: The U.S., having opened on June 8, 1864. Initially the surface and elevated railroad lines ran on steam power . Between 1893 and 1900 the lines were converted to electricity operation. An exception was the service on the Brooklyn Bridge . Trains were operated by cables from 1883 to 1896, when they were converted to electric power By 1900, it had acquired virtually all of the rapid transit and streetcar operations in its target area: Only
1363-421: The bitter, personal and unfair opposition of Mayor Hylan ." In a separate letter to Hylan he said: "For seven years, you have been misleading and fooling the people in this community… For seven years, you have blocked every effort at transit relief. You, and only you, are to blame for the present…deplorable condition of the whole transit situation. You have used the transit situation as a political escalator". In
1410-554: The city under Contract 4 of the Dual Contracts . This lease was made for 49 years from January 1, 1917. Under the terms of the contract, the two systems were to be operated as one, and the city had the right of recapture, under which it could take back the lines it owned for city operation after ten years. Contract 4 elevated lines were completed above the West End tracks in 1917 and the Culver tracks in 1920, ending elevated operations on
1457-508: The discontinued V train. The BMT operated rapid transit (subway and elevated lines) through the New York Rapid Transit Corporation and surface transit ( streetcars and buses ) through the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation . The BMT was a national leader in the transit industry, and was a proponent of advanced urban railways, participating in development of advanced streetcar designs, including
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1504-720: The express tracks of the BMT Broadway Line, connecting to the IND 63rd Street Line at Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station. A connection from the Broadway/63rd Street Lines to the IND Second Avenue Line opened in 2017. In June 2010, as a result of more budget cuts, the Chrystie Street Connection was put back into revenue service for use by the M train, which was rerouted up the IND Sixth Avenue Line to replace
1551-471: The extent that some types of cars were assigned only to one division or the other, and common equipment, such as the BMT Standards, were nevertheless divided by car number between the divisions. The distinction between Eastern and Southern BMT Divisions continues to date, partly for operational and maintenance reasons, and partly because the Eastern Division is limited to the shorter 60-foot cars. When
1598-481: The financially struggling company, and the BRT filed bankruptcy on December 31, 1918. In 1923 the BRT was restructured and released from bankruptcy as the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). Some of the former elevated system of the BRT, dating to 1885, remains in use today. The largest section is the part of today's BMT Jamaica Line running above Fulton Street from the Alabama Avenue station to
1645-495: The former BMT, starting in 1954 with the extension of the D train from its terminal at Church Avenue via a new connection with the former BMT Culver line at Ditmas Avenue . From 1954 the three remaining Culver stations between Ninth Avenue and Ditmas Avenue were used by the Culver Shuttle . The service was discontinued in 1975 because of budget cuts and was later demolished. The 60th Street Tunnel Connection between
1692-454: The great majority of the rapid transit and streetcar lines in Brooklyn with extensions into Queens and Manhattan . One of these, New York Rapid Transit Corporation operated the elevated and subway lines. In 1923, their president, Gerhard Melvin Dahl , published a document called "Transit Truths" to explain the issues the company faced. In it he complained that the company had "met with
1739-465: The late 1930s, the BMT was pressed by the City administration of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia to sell its operations to the City, which wanted to have all subway and elevated lines municipally owned and operated. The City had two powerful incentives to coerce the sale: The BMT sold all of its transit operations to the City on June 1, 1940. After World War II the city-built IND subway took over parts of
1786-480: The main subway at a large flying junction at DeKalb and Flatbush Avenues. The remaining Brooklyn lines are on elevated structures, in open cuts or on embankments, or on short portions of surface trackage. Several Brooklyn lines extend into Queens, and these are elevated, except for Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue on the Myrtle Avenue Line , which is on an embankment, and the BMT Archer Avenue Line ,
1833-500: The property of the bankrupt Brooklyn Elevated Railroad on February 17. The BRT gained control a month later, on March 25, and leased the elevated company to the Brooklyn Heights Railroad , until then solely a street railway company, on April 1. The other elevated company in Brooklyn, the Kings County Elevated Railway , was sold under foreclosure to the BRT on July 6, 1899, and reorganized on August 1 as
1880-502: The reorganization of the BRT into the BMT, the two companies were merged to form the New York Rapid Transit Corporation ; the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation was similarly formed in 1929 as the surface transit subsidiary. When the New York City Board of Transportation took over the BMT in 1940, the company ceased to operate. The Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad was incorporated on January 30, 1899, and acquired
1927-422: The same month that the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was reorganized as the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation , to form the New York Rapid Transit Corporation .The remaining Contract 4 lines were soon completed. On June 1, 1940, the New York City Board of Transportation took over operations. BMT services were assigned numbers in 1924, which appeared only on the fronts of trains and in schedules. In 1960,
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1974-473: The same time, the lease of the ground-level Canarsie Railroad , which was run as part of the elevated system, was transferred to the Brooklyn Union Elevated. The Sea Beach Railway (Sea Beach Line) and South Brooklyn Railway ( Culver Line ), which had been operated by the Brooklyn Heights as part of its elevated system, were released for independent operation. Thus, as of March 1907, the following lines were operated with elevated trains: The Sea Beach Railway
2021-615: The surface. Despite being leased to the New York Municipal Railway, all the new lines were operated by the elevated company - the New York Consolidated Railroad. The following construction was done under Contract 4: The following construction was done at the New York Municipal Railway's own expense: The New York Consolidated Railroad and New York Municipal Railway were merged in June 1923,
2068-670: The war put New York transit operators in a tough position, since their contracts with the City required a five-cent fare be charged, while inflation made the real value of the fare less than three cents in constant currency value. On November 1, 1918, the Malbone Street wreck , the second worst rapid transit train wreck to occur in the United States, occurred on the BRT's Franklin Avenue/Brighton Beach line, killing at least 93 people. This further destabilized
2115-480: Was a prominent corporation and industry leader using the single-letter symbol B on the New York Stock Exchange . It operated both passenger and freight services on its rail rapid transit, elevated and subway network, making it unique among the three companies which built and operated subway lines in New York City. It became insolvent in 1919. It was restructured and released from bankruptcy as
2162-404: Was canceled, and this company began to operate most of the rapid transit lines. A new company, the New York Consolidated Railroad , was formed in 1912 as the rapid transit operating subsidiary, and that same year the New York Municipal Railway was formed to enter into Contract 4 of the Dual Contracts with the city, under which the BRT gained subways and elevated extensions. In 1923, as part of
2209-410: Was soon leased by the Brooklyn Union Elevated, but the other two lines — the Culver and the West End — continued to be operated separately. On November 30, 1912, the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad, Canarsie Railroad, and Sea Beach Railway merged to form the New York Consolidated Railroad . The New York Municipal Railway was incorporated on September 27, 1912, in order to lease the BRT lines built by
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