The
Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (
BMT) was an urban transit
holding companyA holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
, based in
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
,
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940 and today, together with the
IND subway systemThe Independent Subway System , formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway...
, form the
B DivisionThe B Division is a division of the New York City Subway, consisting of the lines operated with services designated by letters , in addition to the Franklin Avenue Shuttle and Rockaway Park Shuttle...
of the
New York City SubwayThe New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
. The original BMT routes form the , , , , and trains, as well as the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, with the ex-
INDThe Independent Subway System , formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway...
, and using some former BMT trackage in Brooklyn, as does a short section of the in Queens. The train enters the IND via the
Chrystie Street ConnectionThe Chrystie Street Connection is a major connecting line of the New York City Subway, and is one of the few connections between lines of the BMT and IND divisions...
after crossing the
Williamsburg BridgeThe Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
. The train supplements the in the peak direction during rush hours only.
Company years
The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation took over the assets of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company in 1923 following the previous company's bankruptcy. Like its predecessor it controlled subsidiaries which operated the great majority of the
rapid transitA rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
and streetcar lines in
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
with extensions into
QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
and
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. One of these, New York Rapid Transit Corporation operated the elevated and subway lines.
Their president, Gerhard Melvin Dahl, immediately published a document, "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".
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 was forced by provisions of the Dual Contracts
The Dual Contracts of 1913, also known as the Dual Subway System, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the City of New York. The majority of the lines of the present-day New York Subway were built or reconstructed under these contracts...
to charge no more than a five-cent fare, an amount set in 1913, before the inflationIn economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
of World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
- 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 .
Afterwards
After World War II the city-built
IND subwayThe Independent Subway System , formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway...
took over parts of the former BMT, starting in 1954 with the extension of the
DThe D Sixth Avenue Express is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway. It is colored orange on route signs, station signs, and the official subway map, since it uses the IND Sixth Avenue Line through Manhattan....
train from its terminal at
Church AvenueChurch Avenue is an express station on the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway. Located at Church and McDonald Avenues in Kensington, Brooklyn, it is served by the F and G trains at all times, the latter of which terminates here....
via a new connection with the former BMT
Culver lineThe IND Culver Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway, extending from Downtown Brooklyn south to Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, United States...
at Ditmas Avenue.
From 1954 the three remaining Culver stations between 9th Ave and Ditmas Ave were used by the
Culver Shuttle. The service was discontinued in 1975 because of budget cuts and was later torn down. The 60th Street Tunnel Connection between the IND and BMT between the
IND Queens Blvd.The Queens Boulevard Line is a fully underground line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan and Queens, New York City, United States. The line provides crosstown service across Manhattan under 53rd Street and east through Queens to Jamaica...
opened in 1955.
Local west of Queens Plaza and the BMT
60th Street TunnelThe 60th Street Tunnel carries the trains of the New York City Subway under the East River and Roosevelt Island between Manhattan and Queens.The tunnel was built as part of the Dual Contracts period of New York City subway construction...
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 LineThe IND Fulton Street Line is a rapid transit line of the IND Division of the New York City Subway, extending from the Cranberry Street Tunnel under the East River through all of central Brooklyn to a terminus in Ozone Park, Queens. The IND Rockaway Line branches from it. It forms part of the A...
(
AThe A Eighth Avenue Express is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway. Its route bullet is colored blue on route signs, station signs, and the official subway map since it runs on the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan....
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 torn down.
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the biggest project of that era with the building of the
Chrystie Street ConnectionThe Chrystie Street Connection is a major connecting line of the New York City Subway, and is one of the few connections between lines of the BMT and IND divisions...
, and the
IND Sixth AveThe Sixth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in the United States. It runs mainly under Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, and continues south through the Rutgers Street Tunnel to Brooklyn...
express tracks. This project connected the IND Sixth Avenue services to the BMT services that ran over the
ManhattanThe Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn . It was the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River, following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges...
and
Williamsburg BridgeThe Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
s. 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 by IND services exclusively as a result.
Between 1967 and 1976, some IND Sixth Avenue trains called KK and later K, used the connection to the
BMT Jamaica LineThe Jamaica 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 southeast over Broadway to East New York, Brooklyn, and then east over Fulton Street and Jamaica Avenue to...
over the Williamsburg Bridge. That connection was discontinued due to budget cuts in 1976. In June 2010, as a result of more budget cuts, the MTA re-activated the Williamsburg Bridge connection for
MThe M Sixth Avenue Local is a rapid transit service of the B Division of the New York City Subway. It is colored orange on route signs, station signs, and the official subway map, since it runs on the IND Sixth Avenue Line in Manhattan....
service.
SubwaySubway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...
sandwich shops were originally designed with bright yellow maps of the New York subway system on its walls. Today, one of its largest selling sandwiches continues to be the
BMT, named for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit's lines.
Operation
The BMT operated
rapid transitA rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
(subway and elevated lines) through the New York Rapid Transit Corporation and
surface transitSurface transit is a type of public transit that operates on the surface in built-up areas, usually with buses or tram systems....
(streetcars and
busA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es) through the
Brooklyn and Queens Transit CorporationThe Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation was a subsidiary of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation that operated streetcars in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States...
.
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, 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. The BMT was also the original proponent of the
all-fourAll-four is an urban public transport scheme first enunciated by the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation in the 1930s in which different transportation technologies are chosen and implemented in an integrated system.-Modes:...
concept of integrated urban transit.
Unlike the
Interborough Rapid Transit CompanyThe Interborough Rapid Transit Company was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940...
(IRT), the other private operator of subways in New York City, the BMT remained solvent throughout the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and showed a profit, albeit small in its last year, until the very end of its transit operations.
Maps
External links