Park Row Terminal

Last updated

 Park Row
 
Former New York City Subway station
BRT Park Row c1905 from Detroit Publishing.png
Park Row station, c.1905
Station statistics
AddressBrooklyn Bridge & Centre St & Brooklyn Bridge Promenade New York, NY 10013
Borough Manhattan
Locale Park Row
Coordinates 40°42′44″N74°0′16″W / 40.71222°N 74.00444°W / 40.71222; -74.00444
Division B (BMT) [1]
Services BMT Brighton Line (until 1920)
BMT Culver Line
BMT Fulton Street Line
BMT Myrtle Avenue Line
BMT Lexington Avenue Line
Fifth Avenue Line (Brooklyn elevated)
BMT West End Line (until 1916)
Structure Elevated
Platforms3 island platforms (2 main terminal, 1 west end)
4 side platforms (2 main terminal, 2 west end)
Spanish solution (West End)
Tracks6 (4 main terminal, 2 West End)
Other information
OpenedSeptember 1, 1898;125 years ago (September 1, 1898) [2]
ClosedMarch 5, 1944;79 years ago (1944-03-05) [2]
Station succession
Next north(Terminus)
Next south Sands Street
Location
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Street map

Park Row Terminal

Station service legend
SymbolDescription
NYCS-SSI-alltimes.svg Stops in station at all times
NYCS-SSI-allexceptnights.svg Stops all times except late nights
NYCS-SSI-nightsonly.svg Stops late nights only
NYCS-SSI-nightsweekends.svg Stops late nights and weekends only
NYCS-SSI-weekdaysonly.svg Stops weekdays during the day
NYCS-SSI-weekendsonly.svg Stops weekends during the day
NYCS-SSI-allexceptrush.svg Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction
NYCS-SSI-allexceptrush.svg Stops all times except weekdays in the peak direction
NYCS-SSI-allexceptrush.svg Stops all times except nights and rush hours in the peak direction
NYCS-SSI-rushonly.svg Stops rush hours only
NYCS-SSI-rushpeak.svg Stops rush hours in the peak direction only
NYCS-SSI-closed.svg Station is closed
(Details about time periods)

The Park Row station was a major elevated railway terminal constructed on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, across from New York City Hall and the IRT's elevated City Hall station. [3] It served as the terminal for BMT services operating over the Brooklyn Bridge Elevated Line from the BMT Fulton Street Line, BMT Myrtle Avenue Line, and their feeders. Until the opening of the nearby Williamsburg Bridge to elevated train traffic in 1913, it was the only Manhattan station available for elevated trains from Brooklyn and the only elevated station in Manhattan to be owned by a company other than the IRT or its predecessors.

Contents

Early history

Park Row seen from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge New York from tower of Brooklyn Bridge LCCN2004673010 (cropped).jpg
Park Row seen from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge

For the first fifteen years of its existence, it was used exclusively by trains of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Railway, a cable-hauled line that spanned the length of the bridge between Park Row and another terminal at the Brooklyn end of the bridge. [4]

On June 18, 1898, elevated trains of predecessor companies of the BMT began using the station during off-peak hours, while the cable-hauled shuttle continued to run at rush hours. [4] :15 Traffic at the station peaked in 1907, during what was known as the "Brooklyn Bridge crush", and additional stairways from the street to the terminal station were built. [5] On January 27, 1908, the shuttle was eliminated and elevated trains began running to Park Row at all times. [6]

At its height, Park Row Terminal had four platforms on four tracks in the main part of the terminal, and another three platforms on two tracks beyond (west of) the main train shed. This resulted in very complex scheduling and track shifting, so that most trains discharged their passengers at dedicated exit platforms and then were transferred to tracks on other platforms for loading of outgoing passengers. [4]

Services

From 1898 until 1913, the following lines were hosted at least part-time at Park Row:


Gradual decline

City Hall Panorama one.jpg
Circa 1911 view of City Hall Park, with the terminal at right

As new bridges and new subways took the pressure off the Brooklyn Bridge services, ridership at Park Row gradually declined. In 1913, BMT built the nearby Chambers Street Subway Station below the yet to be completed Manhattan Municipal Building, although nine years earlier IRT had built the Brooklyn Bridge subway station at Center Street and Park Row. [4] :16–17

October 27, 1913, was the last day of Sea Beach elevated service, in preparation for the new grade-separated line that began to use the BMT Fourth Avenue Line on June 22, 1915. On June 23, 1916, West End trains began using the Fourth Avenue subway exclusively. This was followed by the withdrawal of Brighton Beach service on August 1, 1920, when Brighton Beach trains began using a new connection to the BMT Broadway Line subway, severing its connection with the Fulton Street Line. On May 30, 1931, some Culver trains were rerouted to the Fourth Avenue subway and the BMT Nassau Street Line when the latter line opened. [4] :18

In 1936, Park Row was reconfigured to two tracks total (the two southern main shed tracks) due to declining use and to simplify operations. On May 31, 1940, in preparation for the New York City takeover of the BMT system, the Fifth Avenue and Bay Ridge lines and services were abandoned, which also ended remaining Culver elevated service via those lines. The main line of the Fulton Street line was abandoned at the same time and, on June 1, a new service, Fulton–Lex, was introduced, bringing trains from the surviving outer portion of the Fulton Street Line to Park Row over the Broadway, Lexington and Myrtle Avenue Lines. [4] :19

On March 5, 1944, all remaining elevated lines stopped using Park Row, and the Myrtle Avenue, Lexington Avenue, and Fulton–Lex services were cut back to the Bridge Street station in downtown Brooklyn. [4] :20 Brooklyn Bridge streetcars were shifted to the elevated tracks and used them until 1950, when all public transit was removed from the bridge. [4] :20 [7] The streetcars did not use the Park Row terminal, but continued to use the trolley loops beneath the train shed, which was torn down.

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Flatbush Avenue was a station on the demolished BMT Fulton Street Line. The Fulton Street Elevated was built by the Kings County Elevated Railway Company and this station started service on April 24, 1888. The station had 2 tracks and 1 island platform. It was served by trains of the BMT Fulton Street Line, and until 1920, trains of the BMT Brighton Line. The station was located west of the BMT Fifth Avenue Line, but had no connection to that elevated line. It was also located north of the Flatbush Avenue station on the Long Island Rail Road, now known as the Atlantic Terminal, and had no connections there either. This station was served by steam locomotives between 1888 and 1899. In 1898, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) absorbed the Kings County Elevated Railway, and it took over the Fulton Street El, and it was electrified on July 3, 1899. It closed on June 1, 1940, when all service from Fulton Ferry and Park Row to Rockaway Avenue was abandoned, as it came under city ownership. Current mass transit stations available nearby are either at Nevins Street subway station on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line to the southeast, or at DeKalb Avenue subway station on the BMT Fourth Avenue and Brighton Lines to the northwest.

References

  1. "Glossary". Second Avenue Subway Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) (PDF). Vol. 1. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 4, 2003. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Brooklyn Bridge Train Service Ends Today -- Trolley Cars Stay On". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle . March 5, 1944. p. 11. Retrieved October 22, 2019 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  3. City Hall / Park Row Complex
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Small, Charles S. (1957). "The Railway of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge". The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin (97): 7–20. ISSN   0033-8842. JSTOR   43520182.
  5. "Bridge Terminal to Be Razed Soon; Extension of Brooklyn Span Station at Park Row to Be Closed March 31". The New York Times. March 4, 1935. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved May 13, 2023.
  6. Cudahy, Brian (2002). How We Got to Coney Island: The Development of Mass Transportation in Brooklyn and Kings County. Fordham University Press. p. 168.
  7. "Brooklyn Bridge Traffic Will Undergo Changes". The New York Times. March 3, 1950. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 27, 2019.