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 currently form the , , , , , and trains, as well as the
Franklin Avenue Shuttle
The Franklin Avenue Shuttle is a New York City Subway shuttle service operating in Brooklyn. The shuttle service uses the BMT Franklin Avenue Line exclusively. The north terminus is Franklin Avenue, with a transfer available to the IND Fulton ...
, with the
IND
Ind or IND may refer to:
General
* Independent (politician), a politician not affiliated to any political party
* Independent station, used within television program listings and the television industry for a station that is not affiliated with ...
, , and using BMT trackage in Brooklyn. The train enters the IND via the
Chrystie Street Connection
The Chrystie Street Connection is a set of New York City Subway tunnels running the length of Chrystie Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is one of the few track connections between lines of the former Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Co ...
after crossing the
Williamsburg Bridge, the , along with some rush-hour trains enter the IND from the
BMT 63rd Street Line and the train enters the IND via the
60th Street Tunnel Connection
The 60th Street Tunnel Connection or 11th Street Cut is a short rapid transit line of the New York City Subway connecting the 60th Street Tunnel under the East River (which connects to the BMT Broadway Line) with the IND Queens Boulevard Line we ...
. The train supplements the 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.
History
Company years
The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation took over the assets of the
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 was a prominent corporation and industry leader using ...
in 1923 following the previous company's bankruptcy. Like its predecessor it controlled subsidiaries which operated 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 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 the late 1930s, the BMT was pressed by the City administration of Mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fr ...
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 was forced by provisions of the
Dual Contracts to charge no more than a five-cent fare, an amount set in 1913, before the
inflation of
World War I.
* the City had the right of “recapture” of those lines that had been built or improved with City participation under those ''Dual Contracts''. This meant that, if the City forced the issue, the BMT could have been left with a fragmented system and City competition in many of its market areas.
The BMT sold all of its transit operations to the City on June 1, 1940.
Afterward
After World War II the city-built
IND subway took over parts of 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 Culver Shuttle was a New York City Subway shuttle, running along a remnant of the BMT Culver Line, most of which is now the IND Culver Line. The shuttle was originally part of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT)'s 5 service, p ...
. The service was discontinued in 1975 because of budget cuts and was later demolished.
The
60th Street Tunnel Connection
The 60th Street Tunnel Connection or 11th Street Cut is a short rapid transit line of the New York City Subway connecting the 60th Street Tunnel under the East River (which connects to the BMT Broadway Line) with the IND Queens Boulevard Line we ...
between the
IND Queens Boulevard Line and
BMT Broadway Line
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 ...
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
The IND Fulton Street Line is a rapid transit line of the IND Division of the New York City Subway, running from the Cranberry Street Tunnel under the East River through all of central Brooklyn to a terminus in Ozone Park, Queens. The IND Roc ...
( 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 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
The Chrystie Street Connection is a set of New York City Subway tunnels running the length of Chrystie Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is one of the few track connections between lines of the former Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Co ...
, 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 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 and later K, used the Chrystie Street Connection to the
BMT Jamaica Line
The BMT Jamaica Line, also known as the Broadway - Brooklyn Line is an elevated rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway, in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States. It runs from the Williamsburg Bridge southea ...
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 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
The Chrystie Street Connection is a set of New York City Subway tunnels running the length of Chrystie Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is one of the few track connections between lines of the former Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Co ...
was put back into revenue service use for service.
Operation
The BMT operated
rapid transit (subway and elevated lines) through the
New York Rapid Transit Corporation and
surface transit
A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is t ...
(
streetcars and
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
es) through the
Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation
The Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation (B&QT) was a subsidiary of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation that operated streetcars in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States (as well as into Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge a ...
.
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 the
PCC car
The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the ...
, 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, the BMT remained solvent throughout the
Great Depression and showed a profit, albeit small in its last year, until the very end of its transit operations.
Surviving BMT Equipment
Several pre-unification BMT equipment have been preserved in various museums. While some of the equipment are operational, others are in need of restoration or are used simply as static displays.
*
BU cars 197, 659, 1227, 1273, 1349, 1362, 1365, 1404 and 1407 have been preserved. Cars 197, 659, 1227, 1349 and 1362 are located at the
Shore Line Trolley Museum. Car 1365 is on static display at the
St. Louis Museum of Transportation. Cars 1273, 1404 and 1407 are operational at the
New York Transit Museum
The New York Transit Museum (also called the NYC Transit Museum) is a museum that displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, and commuter rail systems in the greater New York City metropolitan region. The main museum is lo ...
.
* BMT Elevated Instruction car 999 is preserved at the
Shore Line Trolley Museum.
*
Q-type cars 1602A and 1612C have been preserved. Car 1602A survives at the
Trolley Museum of New York
The Trolley Museum of New York, a non-profit organization, is located at 89 East Strand Street, Kingston, New York. The museum is open to the public on a seasonal schedule, but volunteer activities relating to the preservation of historic tran ...
, while car 1612C survives at the
New York Transit Museum
The New York Transit Museum (also called the NYC Transit Museum) is a museum that displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, and commuter rail systems in the greater New York City metropolitan region. The main museum is lo ...
.
*
AB Standards 2204, 2390, 2391, 2392 and 2775 have been preserved. Cars 2204 is located at the
New York Transit Museum
The New York Transit Museum (also called the NYC Transit Museum) is a museum that displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, and commuter rail systems in the greater New York City metropolitan region. The main museum is lo ...
, 2390, 2391 and 2392 are preserved by the Railway Preservation Corp, and car 2775 is preserved at the
Shore Line Trolley Museum.
*
D-type Triplex sets 6019, 6095, and 6112 have been preserved by the
New York Transit Museum
The New York Transit Museum (also called the NYC Transit Museum) is a museum that displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, and commuter rail systems in the greater New York City metropolitan region. The main museum is lo ...
.
References
External links
Article about BMT rapid transit car designsin ''The Third Rail'' by ''Paul Matus''
History site including articles about the BMTSite dedicated to the history of the BMTEarly Rapid Transit in Brooklyn, 1878-1913 nycsubway.org
* Maps:
**
Interactive map of New York streetcar network
*
BMT map
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Corporation
Defunct public transport operators in the United States
Defunct New York (state) railroads
History of the New York City Subway
1923 establishments in New York City
1940 disestablishments in New York (state)