The BMT Broadway Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan. , it is served by four services, all colored : the on the express tracks and the on the local tracks during weekdays (the N and Q trains make local stops during late nights, as do the N and R trains on weekends). The line is often referred to as the "N and R", since those were the only services on the line from 1988 to 2001, when the Manhattan Bridge's southern tracks were closed for rebuilding. The Broadway Line was built to give the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (later the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT) access to Midtown Manhattan.
The line is named for its location under Broadway between Vesey Street and Seventh Avenue/45th Street (Times Square). It also passes under Vesey Street, Whitehall Street, Trinity Place, and Church Street in Lower Manhattan, and Seventh Avenue, 59th Street, and 60th Street in Midtown. The local tracks stretch the entire length between the two East River tunnels: the Montague Street Tunnel to the BMT Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn and the 60th Street Tunnel to the BMT Astoria Line and 60th Street Tunnel Connection in Queens. Center express tracks exist between Canal Street and 57th Street, turning off at Canal Street to feed the south tracks on the Manhattan Bridge, and continuing north and east under Central Park as the IND/BMT 63rd Street Line (connecting with the Second Avenue Subway). The Broadway Line was the only Manhattan outlet north of Delancey Street for the BMT's Brooklyn lines until 1967, when the opening of the Chrystie Street Connection allowed most BMT Brighton Line and BMT West End Line service to be moved to the IND Sixth Avenue Line.
Description and service The following services use the Broadway Line and are colored : RouteServices Time periodSouth ofWhitehall StBetweenWhitehall Stand Canal StCanal Stvia BridgeBetweenCanal Stand 42 St49 Stand57 StBetween 57St andLexington AveWeekdays style="text-align:center;" colspan="2" expresslocalWeekends style="text-align:center;" colspan="2" localNightslocal style="text-align:center;" localAll times except nights colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" expressalign=center Nights style="text-align:center;" colspan="2" localalign=center All times except nightslocal style="text-align:center;" localNightslocal style="text-align:center;" colspan="5" Weekdayslocalrush hourslocal style="text-align:center;" local
The BMT Broadway Line begins at the 60th Street Tunnel from Queens. The N and W trains from the BMT Astoria Line and the R service from the IND Queens Boulevard Line join at the beginning of the tunnel. The line runs west as a two-track subway line under 60th Street (east of Fifth Avenue) and 59th Street (west of Fifth Avenue), with stations at Lexington Avenue/59th Street and Fifth Avenue/59th Street. It then turns south to Seventh Avenue into the 57th Street–Seventh Avenue station.
At the 57th Street station, the line joins two express tracks that enter the station from the north via the BMT 63rd Street Line, which the Q uses (with rush hour service from the N and R).* The line proceeds as a four-track subway down Seventh Avenue to its intersection with Broadway at Times Square-42nd Street, and then continues down Broadway to a point north of Canal Street, where the express tracks carrying the N and Q services descend and turn sharply east to separate platforms from the local tracks, before crossing the south side of the Manhattan Bridge to go to Brooklyn.
Immediately after Canal Street, the express tracks resume again (originally they had been intended to run through) and serve as storage and turning tracks, bypassing the Canal Street local station and ending in the disused lower level of City Hall. The local tracks continue south as a two-track subway to Whitehall Street–South Ferry station. Whitehall Street–South Ferry is a three track, two-platform station, with the center track set up as a terminal track for the W train during weekdays, and late night R trains. The BMT Broadway Line then curves east carrying the R train to a trailing non-revenue connection with the BMT Nassau Street Line () and enters the Montague Street Tunnel to Brooklyn.
Unused sections and provisions Because of the complicated history, the Broadway Line includes several remnants of earlier plans. The line was built as four tracks south to City Hall, where the local tracks were to terminate on the upper level, and the express tracks were to use the lower level, curving through Vesey Street into Church Street. However, the final plan had the express tracks splitting at Canal Street and passing under the northbound local track to the Manhattan Bridge. The tracks via Canal Street and the Manhattan Bridge were not intended to be connected to the Broadway Line. Instead, they were supposed to be a crosstown line continuing further west. The tracks were connected to the Broadway Line as it allowed through operation between the Broadway Line and the Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn to go into operation more than a year earlier than would otherwise have been possible. From the Canal Street Bridge station, it is possible to see where the line would have continued further west to a terminal near the Hudson River. At the Canal Street local station, the express tracks terminate part of the way into the station, more evidence of the change of plans. The tunnel south of City Hall was rebuilt to bring the upper local tracks down to the lower level north of Vesey Street, and the lower level at City Hall was never used for passenger service. The lower level is currently used for train storage.Joseph Brennan, Abandoned Stations: City Hall (BMT) lower level , accessed March 21, 2007
Unused construction is also present near the west end of the Queensboro Bridge. The original plan there was to build two one-track tunnels under 59th and 60th Streets east of Fifth Avenue, rising onto the bridge to Queens. On July 28, 1915, the New York Public Service Commission approved a change of plans requested by the New York City Board of Estimate to place both tracks under 60th Street and cross the East River in the 60th Street Tunnel, because of concern whether or not the bridge could handle the weight of all-steel subway trains. A piece of the 59th Street tunnel had already been built, concurrent with the construction of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, and became a walkway connecting the two side platforms of the IRT's 59th Street station.Joseph Brennan, Abandoned Stations: Lexington Ave (BMT) unfinished platforms , accessed March 21, 2007 North of 57th Street, provisions were built to extend the four tracks northwest through Central Park and under Eighth Avenue through the Upper West Side to Inwood, along the route later built as the IND Eighth Avenue Line. The provision existed for many years and would have allowed for a grade-separated junction, allowing Broadway service via 59th Street and Eighth Avenue to coexist. The provisions from two express tracks were connected to the BMT 63rd Street Line in 1989. The provisions from the two local tracks remain unused.Transit Commission, New Subways: Proposed Additions to Rapid Transit System , 1922
South of the Whitehall Street station, provisions were built to allow for two tunnels to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It was later proposed to use these provisions as part of the Lower Manhattan–Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project, connecting to the Court Street station (New York Transit Museum) in Brooklyn.Community Consulting Services, Inc. in association with George Haikalis, Transportation Consultant, , revised April 2003, page 49Regional Rail Working Group, , page 4 (includes a map)
History
Planning New York City's first subway line, operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), ran along Broadway in Lower Manhattan and Upper Manhattan, but it detoured away from Broadway between New York City Hall and Times Square. John B. McDonald, the contractor who built the first subway line, had considered constructing a subway line under part of the remaining portion of Broadway as early as April 1902. The line would have run between Union Square and Times Square, merging with the IRT's subway line north of Times Square. In July 1902, McDonald and the IRT's president August Belmont Jr. unsuccessfully proposed a line under Broadway between Union Square and Times Square for $100,000. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that, if the New York City government had accepted Belmont and McDonald's proposal, the government could lose $150,000 in annual income from the streetcar companies that used Broadway.
The New York Public Service Commission adopted plans for what was known as the Broadway–Lexington Avenue route on December 31, 1907. This route began at the Battery and ran under Greenwich Street, Vesey Street, Broadway to Ninth Street, private property to Irving Place, and Irving Place and Lexington Avenue to the Harlem River. After crossing under the Harlem River into the Bronx, the route split at Park Avenue and 138th Street, with one branch continuing north to and along Jerome Avenue to Woodlawn Cemetery, and the other heading east and northeast along 138th Street, Southern Boulevard, and Westchester Avenue to Pelham Bay Park. In early 1908, the Tri-borough plan was formed, combining this route, the under-construction Centre Street Loop Subway in Manhattan and Fourth Avenue Subway in Brooklyn, a Canal Street subway from the Fourth Avenue Subway via the Manhattan Bridge to the Hudson River, and several other lines in Brooklyn.James Blaine Walker, Fifty Years of Rapid Transit, 1864–1917 , published 1918, pp. 207-223Engineering News, A New Subway Line for New York City , Volume 63, No. 10, March 10, 1910 A list of stations on the Broadway–Lexington Avenue line were announced in 1909. The plans tentatively called for a super-express service with stops at Warren or Murray Street and at Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, running non-stop to 86th Street and 125th Street in Upper Manhattan.
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) submitted a proposal to the Commission, dated March 2, 1911, to operate the Tri-borough system (but under Church Street instead of Greenwich Street), as well as a branch along Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 59th Street from Ninth Street north and east to the Queensboro Bridge; the Canal Street subway was to merge with the Broadway Line instead of continuing to the Hudson River. The IRT initially opposed the BRT's plans to operate a subway line under Broadway in Manhattan, as the IRT wanted to operate the line itself, but the BRT persisted. In May 1911, the IRT proposed constructing a two-track line extending from Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn, which would cross the East River into Manhattan and travel west under 14th Street, north under Broadway, and east under 59th Street to the Queensboro Bridge. The BRT refused to accept this offer. The city, the BRT, and the IRT reached an agreement and sent a report to the New York City Board of Estimate on June 5, 1911. The line along Broadway to 59th Street was assigned to the BRT, while the IRT obtained the Lexington Avenue line, connecting with its existing route at Grand Central–42nd Street. The New York City Board of Estimate approved the report on June 21. The Public Service Commission approved a proposal in March 1912 to connect the line with the proposed Montague Street Tunnel at its southern end. The Dual Contracts, two operating contracts between the city and the BMT and IRT, were adopted on March 4, 1913.James Blaine Walker, Fifty Years of Rapid Transit, 1864–1917 , published 1918, pp. 224-241