Broadway Junction is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the elevated BMT Canarsie Line and BMT Jamaica Line, and the underground IND Fulton Street Line. It was also served by trains of the Fulton Street Elevated until that line closed in 1956. It is located roughly at the intersection of Broadway, Fulton Street and Van Sinderen Avenue at the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York, Brooklyn. The fare control area is located at the eastern end of the Fulton Street Line station.
The station is adjacent to the East New York Yard and a complex junction between the tracks leading to the yard, the Canarsie Line and the Jamaica Line. The structure of the elevated station still contains the ironwork for the trackways used by the old Fulton Elevated.
The station opened as Manhattan Junction as part of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line in 1885. In 1900, an elevated connection was made with the Fulton Street Elevated, resulting in a change in service patterns. Lexington Avenue and Fulton Street trains were through-routing, going around the East New York Loop, with service to Cypress Hills requiring a transfer. The station started to be used by service to Canarsie in 1906. In 1919, the Manhattan Junction station was replaced by the current station which was then known as Eastern Parkway. Today's Canarsie Line platforms, known as Broadway Junction, opened as that line was connected to the 14th Street-Eastern District Line in 1928. A subway station on the Independent Subway System's Fulton Street Line, Broadway-East New York, opened here in 1946. The three stations were combined as one station complex on July 1, 1948. Fulton Elevated trains stopped running in 1956. The names of the stations in the complex were conformed to Broadway Junction in 2003.
Although Broadway Junction ranked 166th in the system for passenger entries in 2016, with 3,085,401 total entries, it is Brooklyn's third-busiest station in terms of passenger activity. It sees 100,000 passengers per day as of 2017, the vast majority of who make transfers. In 2017, the New York City Economic Development Corporation started studying options to rezone the surrounding area as a transit hub.
The complex is served by the:
- A, J, and L trains at all times
- C and M trains at all times except late nights
- Z train during rush hours in the peak direction only
Video Broadway Junction (New York City Subway)
History
Broadway Junction is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the elevated BMT Canarsie Line and BMT Jamaica Line, and the underground IND Fulton Street Line. Throughout the history of the area, this has been a key junction point between various different rail lines. What is now Broadway Junction sits atop the historical Jamaica Pass, the junction of the modern Broadway, Fulton Street, and Jamaica Avenue. The Pass is where these roads passed through the valleys of the area, which are part of the terminal moraine created by the Wisconsin glaciation. The first rail service in the area was the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) at East New York station.The line opened as the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad in 1836, under lease to the LIRR, but did not include a station at East New York until early 1843. The Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad (the predecessor to the BMT Canarsie Line) began service in the area in 1865. The name Manhattan Junction or Manhattan Beach Junction was applied to the station on what is now the Jamaica Line when it opened in 1885; the area had been known as Manhattan Beach Crossing since before then, due to the crossing of the LIRR's Manhattan Beach Division. A station on the Fulton Street Elevated railroad at Sackman Street opened on July 4, 1889, when the line was extended to Atlantic Avenue.
A two-track, one-half-block elevated connection was built on the east side of Vesta Avenue (now Van Sinderen Avenue) between the Fulton Street and Broadway Lines. This connection, equipped with a third rail to supply electric power, was opened on August 9, 1900, and new service patterns were implemented: during times other than rush hours, Lexington Avenue and Fulton Street trains were through-routed, and travel beyond Manhattan Junction required a transfer. This "East New York Loop" was unpopular, and was soon stopped; the next service to use the tracks was the BMT Canarsie Line to Broadway Ferry (later the 15 train), joined to the Fulton Street Line at Pitkin and Snediker Avenues in 1906.
The name was changed from Manhattan Junction to Broadway Junction in 1913. The Dual Contracts were signed on March 19, 1913 between the City and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT). As part of the agreement, the BRT, which owned the elevated lines in Brooklyn, agreed to construct bidirectional express tracks on the Fulton and Broadway Elevateds. The Broadway express track was placed into service on December 23, 1916. The current Broadway Elevated station at Eastern Parkway opened on August 5, 1919, replacing the old Manhattan Junction station. The full BMT 14th Street-Canarsie Line was completed on July 14, 1928 with the opening of the segment connecting Broadway Junction with Montrose Avenue.
By 1936, the Independent Subway System's Fulton Street Line had been extended to Rockaway Avenue. At that time, Broadway Junction was an all-Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT) transfer point. Further eastward extension of the line was delayed by World War II; the Broadway-East New York station opened on December 30, 1946. A direct escalator passageway was constructed between the IND and BMT stations in East New York to allow passengers free transfers. The passageway opened on on July 1, 1948. The Fulton Street Elevated was now redundant, and BMT service on the line closed entirely on April 26, 1956, with the eastern portion to Lefferts Boulevard connected to the IND.
The entire complex was renovated from 1999 to 2001. As part of the project, an abandoned mezzanine and adjacent staircases were removed, a new station booth was built and the public adress system was improved. In 2001, as part of the work a piece of artwork made by Al Loving titled Brooklyn, New Morning was installed in the station. This piece of art consists of 75 unique glass panels arranged in a series throughout the complex and a mosaic mural wall that is seven-by-ten feet. This installation was part of MTA Arts & Design's program to install artwork in stations that undergo rehabilitations. Other necessary improvements were also completed as part of the project. For a long time, the stations within the complex went by three different names: the original Eastern Parkway on the BMT Jamaica Line, Broadway Junction on the BMT Canarsie Line, and Broadway-East New York (IND Fulton Street Line). Conformity between the station names was established in 2003.
As part of a project initiated in 2017 in which 200 blocks of land in East New York were rezoned for housing and improvements to area parks and schools were planned, the New York City Economic Development Corporation initiated a study to foster economic growth around Broadway Junction as a transit hub with residential and commercial uses.
Maps Broadway Junction (New York City Subway)
Station layout
The station complex is composed of three stations: the two elevated stations on the BMT Jamaica and Canarsie Lines, as well as the underground station on the IND Fulton Street Line. The IND station is accessible from the station's ground-level station house, at the east end of the station complex, using staircases down to platform level. The BMT lines are reachable from that same station house via escalators which were replaced in 2000 from street level to the upper mezzanine, which is located over the elevated BMT Jamaica Line platforms and at the BMT Canarsie Line's platform level. A footbridge leads from the upper mezzanine to the BMT Canarsie Line's northbound platform.
Exit
The fare control area is in the station house, with a token booth and turnstile banks. This was built along with the IND station. The station house leads to Van Sinderen Avenue between Fulton Street to the south, and Truxton Street and Broadway to the north. This is the only entrance to the entire complex. There is also a police precinct located in the station house, NYPD Transit Police District 33, at the south end of the building. The station was previously part of Transit Police District 23. The station house is adjacent to Callahan-Kelly Playground, and is recessed a short distance west from Van Sinderen Avenue.
A ventilation structure for the IND line sits at the west end of the park at Sackman Street. There have been planning studies to build a new entrance in this area, or reopen an old closed-off one, though no evidence exists today of a prior exit.
BMT Canarsie Line platforms
Broadway Junction on the BMT Canarsie Line has two tracks, one island platform, and one side platform. Manhattan-bound trains use the island platform for northbound service while Canarsie-bound trains use the side platform for southbound service, similar to the configuration of the Bowling Green station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. However, unlike Bowling Green, the southbound trains can use the island platform if necessary.
This station opened on July 14, 1928 as the final section of the 14th Street-Eastern DIstrict Line, now part of the Canarsie Line, opened between Montrose Avenue and Broadway Junction. This new line allowed trains from Canarsie to run via the 14th Street Line in Manhattan in addition to the Nassau Street Line. The station is one of the highest elevated platforms in the city, sitting above the already-elevated BMT Jamaica Line. As high as this station platform is, it plunges abruptly into a tunnel at the north end. This end of the station slopes sharply downward, and the platform end is about 200 yards (180 m) away from the tunnel's portal. A diamond crossover was installed here between 1998 and 2001.
The south end of the northbound platform divides into two, with a central gap between the two legs. Two normally-unused tracks connect the Canarsie and Jamaica lines. The southbound track can be seen emerging beneath the two legs of the northbound platform; the northbound flyover with its severe curve can be seen just east of the station, beginning near the signal tower. During 1999, this station underwent a series of renovations, including new canopies, a new crossover (known as 'The Barn' because of its rustic red siding and white trim), and the removal of a hazardous crossunder. The old-style platform lights were removed and replaced with light fixtures that curve upward and split into two lights, widely seen elsewhere in the system.
BMT Jamaica Line platforms
Broadway Junction is an express station on the BMT Jamaica Line that has three tracks and two island platforms. The middle express track is used to terminate M trains, and is not used for express service. At each end of the station there are track connections to the East New York Yard. Trains that run to or from that yard can terminate or begin at this station.
The station was originally called Eastern Parkway, named for its original exit on the extreme west end of the platforms. This entrance is now closed, though the street stairs and station house are still present. A second fare control area, a mezzanine, at Conway Street in the middle of the platforms was also closed, and was removed in the 2000s as part of the station's renovation. The ironwork for the old Fulton Elevated trackways can be seen under this portion of the complex from the platforms. Two staircases from each platform lead to the upper mezzanine of the complex. The mezzanine is above the platforms and connects to the Canarsie Line and to the exit at street level via two long escalators. At street level, there is a transfer to the underground IND Fulton Street Line and the fare control area.
As part of the 2015-2019 Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Capital Program, station capacity enhancements will be made at the station. The project will assess the feasibility of building one additional staircase from each platform to the mezzanine to reduce platform congestion. Design work started in February 2017, and was finished in August 2017. The project is being bid on as of January 2018.
IND Fulton Street Line platforms
Broadway Junction on the IND Fulton Street Line, formerly called Broadway-East New York, is a standard express station with four tracks and two island platforms.
The land for the station was acquired by the city in 1938, and in order to construct the station and other utilities, the land had to be cleared of buildings. Some of the land was given to the New York City Parks Department in 1945 for the construction of Callahan-Kelly Playground, which was named after two local soldiers who died during World War I. The station was nearly complete when the United States' entrance into World War II in 1941 halted construction due to material shortages. Work resumed following the war to install the necessary signals, tracks and complete the escalators to the BMT platforms. The contract for the 43-foot (13 m) escalator was awarded on November 7, 1945 to the Otis Elevator Company. The station opened on December 30, 1946, while the escalator was completed on July 1, 1948 after supply delays. In the early 1950s, the platforms were extended to 660 feet (200 m) to accommodate 11-car trains.
The station's tile band is unique in that it incorporates two types of tile-gloss and matte-in contrasting shades of cobalt blue (gloss border) and blueberry (matte center). When the station was renamed in 2003, the "EAST NY" tiles on the wall were removed and replaced by tiles reading "JUNCTION", in the matching IND copperplate font. There is an active control tower just past the head end of the Queens-bound platform.
East of the station, the tunnel widens on both sides to accommodate an additional trackway diverging from the local tracks. These bellmouths, one of which has an emergency exit, were built for a proposed extension along the BMT Jamaica Line, or for a proposed Jamaica Avenue Subway. They were not a provision for the IND Second System, as were similar structures on other IND lines, but rather date from an earlier plan for the IND Fulton Street Line, which would have connected the IND tracks west of the station to two lines to the east of the station: the BMT Jamaica Line tracks, and the BMT Fulton Street Line tracks to Lefferts Boulevard, which were eventually connected to the IND Fulton Street Line anyway, albeit past Grant Avenue.
Ridership
In 2016, the station had 3,085,401 boardings, making it the 166th most used station in the 422-station system. This amounted to an average of 9,189 passengers per weekday. In 2017, The New York Times wrote that 100,000 daily passengers used the station per day, meaning that more than 90% of passengers used the station to make transfers to other routes.
References
External links
- nycsubway.org - BMT Canarsie Line: Broadway Junction
- nycsubway.org - BMT Jamaica Line: Broadway Junction
- nycsubway.org - IND Fulton: Broadway/East New York
- Station Reporter -- Broadway Junction Complex
- The Subway Nut -- Broadway Junction - East New York (A,C) Pictures
- The Subway Nut -- Broadway Junction - Eastern Parkway (J,L,Z) Pictures
- MTA's Arts For Transit -- Broadway Junction
- Van Sinderen Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View (the only entrance into the entire complex)
- Closed entrance to the Jamaica Line station on Eastern Parkway from Google Maps Street View
- Canarsie Line platforms from Google Maps Street View
- Jamaica Line platforms from Google Maps Street View
- IND platforms from Google Maps Street View
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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