BMT Brooklyn Loops
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The Nassau Street Loop, also called the Nassau Loop, was a service pattern of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) inaugurated in 1931 when the BMT Nassau Street Line was completed, providing a physical link that allowed a train to originate in Brooklyn, run through Lower Manhattan and return to Brooklyn without having to terminate and reverse the direction of the train. Nassau Loop services have not been able to operate since 1967, when the Loop line's connection to the Manhattan Bridge was severed.
The Centre Street Loop was a similar service proposal that was never completed. Together, they are referred to as the BMT Brooklyn Loops.
Services
Trains using the Nassau Street Loop originated on the services to
- via bridge — from the Manhattan Bridge north tracks towards Midtown Manhattan
- via bridge — from the Manhattan Bridge south tracks to Chambers Street
- via tunnel — from the Montague Street Tunnel towards Midtown or turning short at City Hall
The Nassau Street Line was completed on May 30, 1931, and a fourth service pattern was added: the Nassau Street Loop. Trains could enter Manhattan along the south bridge tracks or through the tunnel and return via the other.
The Nassau Street Loop opened with two regular rush hour services, Monday– Saturday:
West End–Nassau Local | northbound | The City Hall service
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Culver–Nassau Express | southbound | This inaugurated Culver Line subway service
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In 1934 two "Bankers' Specials" were added. Unlike the two existing regular services, these were special runs, one express service from the Brighton Line and another express from the Fourth Avenue Line. They operated during morning rush-hour only.
In 1950, Nassau Loop service reached its greatest extent when both Bankers' Specials added evening rush-hour service.
On May 28, 1959, in a massive round of service cuts known locally as the "May Massacre," Culver–Nassau service was eliminated entirely. The West End–Nassau trains ceased using the Manhattan Bridge part of the loop, turning at Chambers Street instead.
The Brighton and Fourth Avenue Bankers' Specials continued until the opening of the Chrystie Street Connection in 1967 with various permutations of routing but, by the time service ended, only the Fourth Avenue Bankers' Specials carried passengers over the Bridge. Brighton Bankers' trains operated northbound in the morning and southbound in the evening, using the bridge, but running "light" without passengers.
Background
The Brooklyn Loops system, in its earliest incarnation, grew out of the desire of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Company to make its cable railway more efficient by altering terminal facilities at the New York (Manhattan) end so that there would have been a modest downtown loop allowing trains to return to Brooklyn without reversing direction. This plan, proposed in 1888, five years after the bridge's opening, would also have included walking transfer facilities to future expected subway lines.
By 1891, municipal planning for
There were to be two loop lines allowing
The Nassau Street Loop was formed by tracks of the
The other loop line, never finished, was the Centre Street Loop, formed by the
The Centre Street subway carried four tracks from a point just west of the former Essex Street terminal of the
The Chrystie Street Connection opened in 1967, connecting the two north tracks on the Manhattan Bridge to the IND Sixth Avenue Line, and the south tracks to the northbound BMT Broadway Line. The connection to the BMT Nassau Street Line was cut off.[2]
References
External links
- My Recollection via Wayback Machine - Description of Culver-Nassau Loop service c.1950