Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall / Chambers Street   New York City Subway rapid transit station complex
Street stair
Station statistics
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Civic Center
Coordinates	40°42′46″N 74°0′17″W / 40.71278°N 74.00472°W / 40.71278; -74.00472Coordinates: 40°42′46″N 74°0′17″W / 40.71278°N 74.00472°W / 40.71278; -74.00472
Division	A (IRT), B (BMT)
Line	IRT Lexington Avenue Line BMT Nassau Street Line
Services	4  (all times)       5  (all except late nights)       6  (all times) <6>(weekdays until 8:45 p.m., peak direction)       J  (all times)       Z  (rush hours, peak direction)
Connection	New York City Bus: M9, M22, M103
Structure	Underground
Other information
Opened	August 4, 1913[1] (BMT station) October 27, 1904 (IRT station)[2]
Traffic
Passengers (2010)	10,783,128 (station complex)[3]  1.1%
Rank	27 out of 422
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops in station at all times Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekends only Stops weekdays only Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction Stops all times except weekdays Stops rush hours only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only Station is closed (Details about time periods)

Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall / Chambers Street is a New York City Subway station complex in Lower Manhattan. The complex is served by trains of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and the BMT Nassau Street Line. The following services stop at this station:

• J, 4, and 6 trains at all times
• 5 train at all times except late nights
• Z skip-stop train during rush hours in peak direction
• <6> train on weekdays in peak direction

IRT Lexington Avenue Line platforms

Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall   New York City Subway rapid transit station
Downtown island platform
Station statistics
Address	Park Row & Centre Street New York, NY 10007
Division	A (IRT)
Line	IRT Lexington Avenue Line
Services	4  (all times)       5  (all except late nights)       6  (all times) <6>(weekdays until 8:45 p.m., peak direction)
System transfers	J  Z  at Chambers Street (BMT Nassau Street Line)
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 island platforms, 2 closed side platforms (partially visible)
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	October 27, 1904[2]
Accessible	(transfer to Chambers Street is not accessible)
Former/other names	Brooklyn Bridge Brooklyn Bridge - Worth Street
Station succession
Next north	Canal Street (local): 4  6  <6> 14th Street – Union Square (express): 4  5  Worth Street (local; closed)
Next south	Fulton Street: 4  5  (Terminal): 6  <6> City Hall (closed)
Next north	Canal Street (local): 4  6  <6> Grand Central – 42nd Street (express): 4  5
Next south	Bowling Green: 4  5
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops in station at all times Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekends only Stops weekdays only Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction Stops all times except weekdays Stops rush hours only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only Station is closed (Details about time periods)

Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall is an express station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line which is located on Park Row at the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge. It is served by the 4 and 6 trains at all times, the 5 train at all times except late nights, and the <6> train during weekdays in the peak direction.

Description

This is the south terminal for the 6 train, which turns via the City Hall Loop to head back uptown. During weekdays from approximately 6:30 AM to 8:45 PM, some 6 trains change designation here. At those times the Pelham Bay Park terminal can't handle the large number of 6 trains in service. The solution is to operate 6 trains local on the IRT Pelham Line south of Parkchester and terminate them there. The <6> trains run express using the center track from Third Avenue to Parkchester in the peak direction and local north of Parkchester, terminating at Pelham Bay Park. In the morning, terminating <6> trains become 6 trains for the return trip to the Bronx; in the afternoon and early evening some terminating 6 trains become <6> trains.

Just north of the station are crossovers that allow trains to switch between the local and express tracks, which allow Lexington Avenue local trains to continue south via the express tracks if necessary (rather than using the City Hall loop). Due to the closure of City Hall station in 1945, Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall (which had simply been Brooklyn Bridge) became the southernmost station on normal Lexington Avenue local service.

South of the station, the downtown local track splits into three tracks. The westernmost track loops around to the northbound local track through City Hall station. The other two are layup tracks parallel to the downtown express track. Until the 1960s, they merged into the downtown express track north of Fulton Street, but now they are spurs ending a little north of Fulton Street, occasionally used for train storage. Plans are on the books to rejoin the layup tracks to the express track.

The station has been renovated, with new tile and ADA-accessible elevator access. It is the zero point for the IRT East Side chain; mile 0 is at the south end of the station.

Station and platform layout

The Brooklyn Bridge station has a number of closed off areas as construction and service patterns have required changes to be made to the station. In addition to the two island platforms, there are two short side platforms on the outer edges of the station. Like those on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line at 14th Street – Union Square and on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line at 96th Street, these side platforms were built to accommodate extra passenger volume and were built to the five-car length of the original IRT local trains. These platforms did not see much use as they were located at express stations, which allows cross-platform interchanges via the island platforms. When trains were lengthened to their current ten-car length, it was impractical to lengthen both these side platforms and the island platforms. They were closed in 1910 after only six years in operation and walled off along the platform edges.

The side platform on the southbound side is now home to some electrical equipment and a backup control tower for the Brooklyn Bridge interlocking, just north of the station. The tower is functional but not normally used, because the Grand Central – 42nd Street tower is the primary control point for the whole line. The interlocking board can be seen through a window along the wall along the southbound local trackway. The south end of the downtown side platform is still visible near the dispatcher's booth on the downtown island platform.

There are also some closed portions at the south ends of the existing express platforms. During the station lengthening projects it was easier to lengthen the express platform to the north. The curves at the south end proved impossible to rework so the station was lengthened northward (allowing Worth Street to be closed), and the curved southern ends of the express platform closed. Gap fillers and original mosaic tiles remain in the closed ends.

Artwork includes a 1996 work by Mark Gibian titled Cable Crossing.

After Worth Street station closed, the Brooklyn Bridge - City Hall station was known as Brooklyn Bridge - Worth Street. The name was reverted to Brooklyn Bridge - City Hall in 1995.

Image gallery

• 

  Downtown Local 6 train arriving

• 

  Tiles

• 

  Replica of an original IRT subway entrance kiosk

• 

  Plan of the station (lower-right corner)

Further reading

• Lee Stokey. Subway Ceramics : A History and Iconography. 1994. ISBN 978-0-9635486-1-0

BMT Nassau Street Line platforms

Chambers Street New York City Subway rapid transit station
train arriving at the northbound platform, on the right is the unused middle platform
Station statistics
Division	B (BMT)
Line	BMT Nassau Street Line
Services	J  (all times)       Z  (rush hours, peak direction)
System transfers	4  5  6  <6> at Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall (IRT Lexington Avenue Line)
Connection	New York City Bus: M22
Structure	Underground
Platforms	3 island platforms (2 active), 2 side platforms (1 walled up; 1 disused)
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	August 4, 1913[1]
Station succession
Next north	Canal Street: J  Z
Next south	Fulton Street: J  Z  (Terminal): J
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops in station at all times Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekends only Stops weekdays only Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction Stops all times except weekdays Stops rush hours only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only Station is closed (Details about time periods)

Chambers Street on the BMT Nassau Street Line is located at the intersection of Centre and Chambers Streets beneath the Manhattan Municipal Building. The station has four tracks, three island platforms, and one side platform (originally two).

Layout

This station is the southern terminal for J trains on weekends (from approximately 1 a.m. on Saturday to 5 a.m. on Monday) and during this time, they use the inner tracks to begin their return trip to Brooklyn and Queens.

The south platform is slightly higher at the southern end of the station because the next stop south, Fulton Street, is bi-level with the southbound platform being above the northern one.

The two "express" tracks at this station merge into a single tail track south of the station. The tail track is 620 feet long from the switch points to the bumper block, where an emergency exit is available.

North of this station, there are provisions for two tracks, which end behind the now-closed Queens-bound side platform.^[4] These tracks were formerly connected to the Manhattan Bridge, until they were disconnected in 1967 as part of the Chrystie Street Connection.

History

Original plan of Chambers Street station (1908)

This was one of the earliest BMT subway stations opened in New York City, built at a time when Lower Manhattan was the city's principal business district. It was designed to be the BMT's Manhattan hub, with trains arriving from Brooklyn in both directions, and terminating here. Originally, trains arrived from the north via either the Williamsburg Bridge or the Manhattan Bridge.

The Nassau Street Loop was completed in 1931, making Chambers Street a through station south to the Montague Street Tunnel to Brooklyn. At this point, the center island platform and two side platforms were closed. The west side platform was walled up and partly demolished when Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line was rebuilt on the other side of the wall in 1960–62.

The loop configuration permitted trains arriving in either direction from the BMT Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn to pass through Chambers Street and return to Fourth Avenue without turning around. A track connection to the Brooklyn Bridge, which would have made a similar loop through the Williamsburg Bridge, was planned in the station's design, but never built. (See BMT Brooklyn Loops.)

Although altered over the years to account for changing ridership patterns, the station has not been renovated. In one poll, it was voted the ugliest station in the system:

When it was being built before World War I, Chambers Street was envisioned as a City Hall terminal, a kind of downtown Grand Central at a time when the business and population center of the city was still closer to the southern end of the island. Three years after it opened, its four wide platforms were so overcrowded that one newspaper article described them as more dangerous during the rush hours than at the Grand Central or the Fourteenth Street Stations.

But by the mid-1920s, the subway itself was pushing the city's population north and leaving Chambers Street behind. By as early as the 1930s, in fact, the station's ridership had dropped off so steeply that half of it was closed.

By the 1950s, many of the city's business interests had shifted to Midtown. The Chrystie Street Connection, completed in 1967, severed the Nassau line's connection to the Manhattan Bridge, so that the bridge tracks could connect instead to the uptown IND Sixth Avenue Line. The tracks heading towards the Manhattan Bridge (now used for train storage) are visible from northbound trains leaving Chambers Street.

The station was the site of the R42 crash into the bumper block on the lower level relay track on November 6, 2007 on the M service.^[5]

In Film

This station was used in the 1998 adaptation of Great Expectations, in a climactic scene featuring Ethan Hawke and Robert DeNiro. Subway scenes from the 1956 film Somebody Up There Likes Me were filmed at this station. The station was used to film a scene in the 1980 film Fame.

Tile Work

The tile work on this station includes a depiction of the nearby Brooklyn Bridge that suffers from an interesting gaffe: it features the parallel up-down cables between the main cable and the roadway (as seen alone on most suspension bridges) but misses the second set of diagonal cables that radiate from the bridge to the roadway (as seen on cable-stayed bridges).

Image Gallery

• 

  Name of station in mosaics

• 

  Ceramic tile with Brooklyn Bridge

• 

  Early postcard depiction of station

• 

  Entrance to the station

• 

  Disused northbound side platform

• 

  Northbound platform used by J train

• 

  Former tickets booths at Chambers Street

• 

  Unused center platform

References

1. ^ ^{a b} New York Times, Passenger Killed on Loop's First Day, August 5, 1913, page 2
2. ^ ^{a b} New York Times, Our Subway Open: 150,000 Try It, October 28, 1904
3. ^ "Facts and Figures: 2010 Annual Subway Ridership". New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority. http://mta.info/nyct/facts/ridership/ridership_sub_annual.htm. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
4. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V69X72HAZ1g The provisions for 2 tracks are clearly visible towards the right at the 3:11 mark, just after the train leaves the Chambers Street station.
5. ^ Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York), M Train Incident at Chambers Street, November 6, 2007

External links

• nycsubway.org — BMT Nassau Street/Jamaica Line: Chambers Street
• nycsubway.org — IRT East Side Line: Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall
• Station Reporter — Brooklyn Bridge/Chambers Street Complex
• MTA's Arts For Transit — Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall/Chambers Street
• entrance near City Hall Park from Google Maps Street View
• entrance north of Brooklyn Bridge from Google Maps Street View
• entrance south of Brooklyn Bridge from Google Maps Street View
• Reade Street and Centre Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Foley Square entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Abandoned Stations - Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall platforms
• Abandoned Stations - Chambers Street platforms