BMT Nassau Street Line

BMT Nassau Street Line
600V DC third rail
Route map Legend Jamaica Line Williamsburg Bridge (East River) Essex Street (Sixth Avenue Line) Second Avenue Chrystie Street Connection Sixth Avenue Line Bowery Broadway & Lexington Avenue Lines Canal Street (Manhattan Bridge) former connection Chambers Street (Brooklyn Bridge) Seventh Avenue Line Eighth Avenue Line Fulton Street Lexington & Seventh Avenue Lines Broad Street Montague Street Tunnel (East River) Fourth Avenue Line This diagram: view talk edit

The BMT Nassau Street Line is a

The line is served at all times by the

Service

The following services use part or all of the BMT Nassau Street Line.^[3] The trunk line's bullets are colored brown:

	Time period			Section of line
	Rush hours	Middays, evenings, weekends	Late nights
	local			north of Broad Street
	local in peak direction	no service
	Essex Street only		no service	Essex Street

History

Planning, construction, and first section

After the

Construction contracts for the main line in Manhattan were awarded in early 1907, though the city had not yet selected an operator for the line. The work was divided into five sections: two under Centre Street and three under other streets or buildings.[7] The city began receiving bids for the sections under Centre Street in March 1907.^[8][9] The city received bids for the sections between Centre Street and Bowery (under Kenmare Street), between Bowery and Norfolk Street (under Delancey Street), and between Pearl Street and Park Row (under the Manhattan Municipal Building) that June.^[9][10] The line was assigned to a proposed Tri-borough system in early 1908 and to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) in the Dual Contracts, adopted on March 4, 1913.^[11][12] Unlike previous subway contracts that the city government had issued, the BRT was responsible only for constructing the Centre Street Loop and installing equipment, not for operating the loop. As a result, although the loop was almost completed by late 1908, there was no operator for the route at the time.^[13] Furthermore, the BRT did not originally want to operate the loop.^[14]

The BRT began operating through a short piece of subway, coming off the Williamsburg Bridge under Delancey Street to

Under Contract 4 of the Dual Contracts, the BRT (later reorganized as the

The line was constructed 20 feet (6.1 m) below the active IRT Lexington Avenue Line, next to buildings along the narrow Nassau Street, and the project encountered difficulties such as quicksand.[24]^[38] When the construction contracts were awarded, work had been projected to be completed in 39 months.^[24] By early 1929, sixty percent of the work had been finished.^[24][39] Nassau Street is only 34 feet (10 m) wide, and the subway floor was only 20 feet (6.1 m) below building foundations. As a result, 89 buildings had to be underpinned to ensure that they would stay on their foundations. Construction had to be done 20 feet below the active IRT Lexington Avenue Line. An area filled with quicksand with water, which used to belong to a spring, was found between John Street and Broad Street. Construction was done at night so as to not disturb workers in the Financial District.^[24] The project was 80 percent complete by April 1930,^[40] and Charles Meads & Co. was awarded a $252,000 contract to install the Fulton Street station's finishes the next month.^[41][42] The plans for that station had been changed so that the southbound platform was above the northbound platform.^[41][42] The total construction cost was $10.072 million^[38][43] for 0.9 miles (1.4 km) of new tunnels, or $2,068 per foot ($6,780/m), which was three times the normal cost of construction at the time.^[24]

Opening of loop

The Nassau Street Loop opened at 3 p.m. on May 29, 1931, when Mayor

Plans for the Chambers Street area changed several times during construction, always including a never-completed connection to the Brooklyn Bridge tracks. By 1910, only the west two tracks were to rise onto the bridge, and the east two were to continue south to the Montague Street Tunnel. As actually built for the 1931 opening south of Chambers Street, the two outer tracks ran south to the tunnel, while the two inner tracks continued several blocks in a lower level stub tunnel to allow trains to reverse direction.^[49]

Service changes and modifications

A major change to the Nassau Street Line occurred on November 27, 1967, when the extensive Chrystie Street reroutes resulted in the discontinuation of service over the south tracks of the Manhattan Bridge into Chambers Street, as those tracks were now directly connected to the upper level (Broadway) Canal Street station. This ended all "loop" service, which had most recently seen rush hour "specials" on both the Brighton and 4th Avenue lines operating via both the Manhattan Bridge and Montague Street tunnel in single directions.

As part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's 2000–2004 Capital Program, the reconfiguration of the Nassau Street Line between Canal Street and Essex Street took place. As part of the plan, northbound trains were rerouted via the second track from the west, and the former northbound platforms at

).

Station listing

Station service legend
	Stops all times
	Stops all times except late nights
	Stops late nights only
	Stops weekdays during the day
	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

Neighborhood (approximate)		Station	Services	Opened	Transfers and notes
Begins as the Z  ​)
Lower East Side		Essex Street	Z  ​	September 16, 1908[60]	<F> ​) at Delancey Street
	Split to Chrystie Street Connection (M )
		Bowery	Z	August 4, 1913[20]
Chinatown		Canal Street	Z	August 4, 1913[20]	<6> )
Former Connection to Manhattan Bridge south tracks
Civic Center		Chambers Street	Z	August 4, 1913[20]	<6> ) at Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall
Financial District		Fulton Street	Z	May 29, 1931[44]	PATH at World Trade Center
		Broad Street	Z	May 29, 1931[44]
	Terminus of all service
Line merges with the BMT Broadway Line (N  R ) and becomes the BMT Fourth Avenue Line via the Montague Street Tunnel

References