Brooklyn Loops

The Brooklyn Loops was a service pattern of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), now part of the New York City Subway system. Half of it was the Nassau Street Loop, also called the Nassau Loop; the other half, the Centre Street Loop, was never completed. Trains no longer use the Nassau Street Loop, since a portion of it has been cut.

Services

Trains using the Nassau Street Loop originated on the lines to Coney Island and Bay Ridge. All the lines merged at DeKalb Avenue station, and then split into four tracks over the Manhattan Bridge and two through the Montague Street Tunnel. Before the Nassau Street Line opened, the following service patterns were used:

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

additional rush hour service via the Montague Street Tunnel to 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:

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 a.m. rush hours only.

In 1950, Nassau Loop service reached its greatest extent when both Bankers' Specials added p.m. rush hours 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' continued until the opening of the Chyrstie Street Connection in 1967 with various permutations of routing but, by the time service ended, only the Fourth Avenue Bankers' 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 was an essential element of planning for operation through downtown Manhattan. There were to be two loop lines allowing trains to enter lower Manhattan via one line, pass through Chambers Street, and return to Brooklyn via a different route, obviating the need for terminal facilities and lessening the necessity for turning trains in the Financial District.

The Nassau Street Loop was formed by tracks of the Montague Street Tunnel, Nassau Street Line and Manhattan Bridge south tracks. The loop allowed trains from any Southern Division subway line (service numbers 1 to 5) to operate northbound through DeKalb Avenue, take either the tunnel or the bridge, and then return southbound through DeKalb Avenue via the opposite route.

The other loop line, never finished, was the Centre Street Loop, formed by the Williamsburg Bridge, the Centre Street Line (now part of the Nassau Street Line) and the Brooklyn Bridge. It would have allowed Eastern Division trains to operate to or from Manhattan over the Broadway Elevated (now the Jamaica Line) and return via any of the elevated lines splitting from the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Nassau Street subway carried four tracks from the Jamaica Line in Brooklyn to Canal Street, where trains could turn back. Just south of that station, the Nassau Street Loop tracks entered from the bridge, providing four tracks again through Chambers Street. Just south of Chambers Street, the two center tracks end. Original plans called for the two west tracks, coming from the Jamaica Line, to rise onto the Brooklyn Bridge as part of the Centre Street Loop. The Nassau Street Line continues south as a two-track subway to the Montague Street Tunnel, where it merges with the Broadway-BMT Line.

The Chrystie Street Connection opened in 1967, connecting with the two north tracks on the Manhattan Bridge. The two south tracks were changed to run where the north tracks had in Manhattan, and the connection to the Nassau Street Line was cut off.

External links

Abandoned stations - Chambers Street closed platforms

My Recollection - Description of Culver-Nassau Loop service c.1950

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