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The BMT Broadway Line is a were closed for rebuilding. The Broadway Line was built to give the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (later the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation ) access to Midtown Manhattan . The line is named for its location under to the BMT Fourth Avenue Line in Brooklyn and the 60th Street Tunnel to the BMT Astoria Line and 60th Street Tunnel Connection in Queens . Center express tracks exist between Canal Street and 57th Street , turning off at Canal Street to feed the South Tracks On The Manhattan Bridge , and continuing north and east under Central Park as the BMT 63rd Street Line (presently unused, but planned to connect with the Second Avenue Subway ). The Broadway Line was the only Manhattan outlet north of Delancey Street for the BMT's Brooklyn lines until 1967, when most BMT Brighton Line and BMT West End Line trains were moved to the IND Sixth Avenue Line via the new Chrystie Street Connection . EXTENT AND SERVICE The BMT Broadway Line begins at the 60th Street Tunnel from Queens. It runs west under 60th Street as a two-track Subway line, with stations at Lexington Avenue–59th Street and Fifth Avenue/59th Street . It then turns south to Seventh Avenue into the local tracks at 57th Street . This segment of the line carries the N and W services from the BMT Astoria Line and the R service from the IND Queens Boulevard Line . At the 57th Street station, the line joins two express tracks that enter the station from the north via the BMT 63rd Street Line . There is no scheduled BMT service on the 63rd Street Line at present. The BMT 63rd Street Line will carry the Q service across 63rd Street and up the proposed Second Avenue Line , when and if it is built. The express tracks at 57th Street are currently used as terminal tracks for the Q train. The BMT Broadway Line proceeds as a four-track subway down Seventh Avenue to its intersection with Broadway , and then continues down Broadway to a point north of Canal Street , where the express tracks carrying the N and Q services are lowered and turn sharply east into the Canal Street (formerly Broadway) station of the BMT Broadway Bridge Line. Immediately after Canal Street, the express tracks resume again (originally they had been intended to run through) and serve as storage and turning tracks, bypassing the Canal Street local station and ending in the disused lower level of City Hall . The local tracks continue south as a two-track subway to Whitehall Street–South Ferry station. Whitehall Street–South Ferry is a three track, two-platform station, with the center track set up as a terminal track, currently used as the south terminal for W trains. A pair of Bellmouth s exists here, allowing for a connection to a never-built East River tunnel south of the Montague Street Tunnel . It has been proposed to use this as part of the Lower Manhattan-Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project , connecting to the Court Street station ( New York Transit Museum ) in Brooklyn.Community Consulting Services, Inc. in association with George Haikalis, Transportation Consultant, , revised April 2003, page 49Regional Rail Working Group, , page 4 (includes a map) The BMT Broadway Line then curves east carrying the R service to a trailing junction with the BMT Nassau Street Line and enters the Montague Street Tunnel to Brooklyn . HISTORY The , 1910 The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company submitted a proposal to the Commission, dated March 2 , 1911 , to operate the Tri-borough system (but under Church Street instead of Greenwich Street), as well as a branch along Broadway, Seventh Avenue , and 59th Street from Ninth Street north and east to the Queensboro Bridge ; the Canal Street Subway was to merge with the Broadway Line instead of continuing to the Hudson River. The city, the BRT, and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (which operated the First Subway and four elevated lines in Manahattan) came to an agreement, and sent a report to the Board Of Estimate on June 5 , 1911 . The line along Broadway to 59th Street was assigned to the BRT, while the IRT obtained the Lexington Avenue Line , connecting with its existing route at 42nd Street–Grand Central . Construction began on Lexington Avenue on July 31 , and on Broadway the next year. The Dual Contracts , two operating contracts between the city and the BMT and IRT, were adopted on March 4 , 1913 .James Blaine Walker, Fifty Years of Rapid Transit, 1864-1917 , published 1918, pp. 224-241 Because of the complicated history, the Broadway Line includes several remnants of earlier plans. The line was built as four tracks south to , 2007 Unused construction is also present near the west end of the Queensboro Bridge. The original plan there was to build two one-track tunnels under 59th and , 2007 Another unused provision existed for many years north of 57th Street , where the two express tracks ended before being connected to the BMT 63rd Street Line in 1989. Plans were made, but never carried through, to build a line northwest through Central Park and under Eighth Avenue through the Upper West Side to Inwood , along the route later built as the IND Eighth Avenue Line .Transit Commission, New Subways: Proposed Additions to Rapid Transit System , 1922 A short portion of the line, coming off the north side of the Manhattan Bridge through , 1920 , page 17 Service history At most times, the Broadway Line has had four services - two local and two express - during the day, with a third express service until the 1967 opening of the Chrystie Street Connection .
The current set of four services - N, Q, R, and W - have used the line since July 22 , 2001 , when the south tracks on the Manhattan Bridge reopened, but until February 22 , 2004 , when the north tracks reopened, the N was local and the W express. STATION LISTING
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