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BMT
ANew York Transit Museum set ofBMT Triplexes on theBMT Brighton Line
Overview
Status	Incorporated into theNew York City Subway
Owner	City of New York
Service
Operator(s)	New York City Transit Authority
Depot(s)	Coney Island Yard,East New York Yard
Rolling stock	R46,R68,R68A,R143,R160,R179
History
Opened	1923; 102 years ago (1923)
Closed	1940; 85 years ago (1940) (acquisition by theNYC Board of Transportation)
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge
Route map

TheBrooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) was anurban transitholding company, based inBrooklyn,New York City,United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940. Today, together with theIND subway system, it forms theB Division of the modernNew York City Subway.^[1]

The original BMT routes form theJ/Z,L,M,N,Q,R andW trains, as well as theFranklin Avenue Shuttle, with theINDB andD using BMT trackage in Brooklyn. TheM train enters the IND via theChrystie Street Connection after crossing theWilliamsburg Bridge. TheQ, along with some rush-hourN trains enter the IND from theBMT 63rd Street Line. TheR train enters the IND via the60th Street Tunnel Connection.

TheZ train supplements theJ in the peak direction during rush hours only. Prior to city ownership, the BMT services were designed with numbers, and the current letter scheme was developed as a continuation of theIND nomenclature as the IND and BMT systems were integrated.

The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation took over the assets of theBrooklyn Rapid Transit Company on June 15, 1923, following the previous company's bankruptcy.^[2] Like its predecessor, it controlled subsidiaries which operated the great majority of therapid transit andstreetcar lines inBrooklyn with extensions intoQueens andManhattan. One of these,New York Rapid Transit Corporation operated the elevated and subway lines.

In 1923, their president,Gerhard Melvin Dahl, published a document called "Transit Truths" to explain the issues the company faced. In it, he complained that the company had "met with the bitter, personal and unfair opposition ofMayor Hylan." In a separate letter to Hylan he said: "For seven years, you have been misleading and fooling the people in this community… For seven years, you have blocked every effort at transit relief. You, and only you, are to blame for the present…deplorable condition of the whole transit situation. You have used the transit situation as a political escalator".^[3]

In the late 1930s, the BMT was pressed by the City administration of MayorFiorello H. La Guardia to sell its operations to the City, which wanted to have all subway and elevated lines municipally owned and operated. The City had two powerful incentives to coerce the sale:

• the BMT was forced by provisions of theDual Contracts to charge no more than a five-cent fare, an amount set in 1913, before theinflation ofWorld War I.
• the City had the right of "recapture" of those lines that had been built or improved with City participation under thoseDual Contracts. This meant that, if the City forced the issue, the BMT could have been left with a fragmented system and City competition in many of its market areas.

The BMT sold all of its transit operations to the City on June 1, 1940.

After World War II, the city-builtIND subway took over parts of the former BMT, starting in 1954 with the extension of theD train from its terminal atChurch Avenue via a new connection with the former BMTCulver line atDitmas Avenue. From 1954, the three remaining Culver stations between Ninth Avenue and Ditmas Avenue were used by theCulver Shuttle. The service was discontinued in 1975 because of budget cuts and was later demolished.

The60th Street Tunnel Connection between theIND Queens Boulevard Line andBMT Broadway Line opened in December 1955. This new route was used by the BMT Brighton local, which formerly ran to Astoria, for service to Forest Hills along with the IND GG local.^[4][5] The next year saw the new extension of theIND Fulton Street Line (A train) in Brooklyn connected to the rebuilt section of the formerBMT Fulton Street elevated at 80th Street in Queens in April 1956.^[6][7] The portion of the BMT Fulton Street El running west of 80th Street to Rockaway Avenue was demolished afterwards.

The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the biggest project of that era with the building of theChrystie Street Connection, and theIND Sixth Avenue express tracks. This project connected the IND Sixth Avenue services to the BMT services that ran over theManhattan andWilliamsburg Bridges. Express services were directly connected to the Manhattan Bridge, and local services could use either the Williamsburg Bridge or the existingRutgers Street Tunnel. Both connections opened in November 1967 and created the largest re-routing of train services in the history of the NYCTA. The BMT West End and Brighton Lines became served primarily by IND services as a result.^[8] From 1967, some IND Sixth Avenue trains calledKK and later K, used the Chrystie Street Connection to theBMT Jamaica Line over the Williamsburg Bridge. That connection was discontinued due to budget cuts in 1976.^[9]

In 1988, theBMT Archer Avenue Line was opened, connecting to what was then the east end of the BMT Jamaica Line. Two stations —Sutphin Boulevard–Archer Avenue–JFK Airport andJamaica Center–Parsons/Archer — were added.^[10]

In 1989, theBMT 63rd Street Line opened as an extension of the express tracks of the BMT Broadway Line, connecting to the IND 63rd Street Line atLexington Avenue–63rd Street station. A connection from the Broadway/63rd Street Lines to theIND Second Avenue Line opened in 2017.

In June 2010, as a result of more budget cuts, theChrystie Street Connection was put back into revenue service for use by theM train, which was rerouted up theIND Sixth Avenue Line to replace the discontinuedV train.

The BMT operatedrapid transit (subway and elevated lines) through theNew York Rapid Transit Corporation andsurface transit (streetcars andbuses) through theBrooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation.

The BMT was a national leader in the transit industry, and was a proponent of advanced urban railways, participating in development of advanced streetcar designs, including thePCC car, whose design and advanced components influenced railcar design worldwide for decades. The company also sought to extend the art of rapid transit car design with such innovations asarticulated (multi-jointed-body) cars, lightweight equipment, advanced control systems, and shared components with streetcar fleets.

Unlike theInterborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), the other private operator of subways in New York City, the BMT remained solvent throughout theGreat Depression and showed a profit, albeit small in its last year, until the very end of its transit operations.

Several pre-unification BMT equipment have been preserved in various museums. While some of the equipment are operational, others are in need of restoration or are used simply as static displays.

• BU cars 197, 659, 1227, 1273, 1349, 1362, 1365, 1404 and 1407 have been preserved. Cars 197, 659, 1227, 1349 and 1362 are located at theShore Line Trolley Museum. Car 1365 is on static display at theSt. Louis Museum of Transportation. Cars 1273, 1404 and 1407 are operational at theNew York Transit Museum.
• BMT Elevated Instruction car 999 is preserved at theShore Line Trolley Museum.
• Q-type cars 1602A and 1612C have been preserved. Car 1602A survives at the Trolley Museum of New York, while car 1612C survives at the New York Transit Museum.
• AB Standards 2204, 2390, 2391, 2392 and 2775 have been preserved. Car 2204 is located at the New York Transit Museum; cars 2390, 2391 and 2392 are preserved by the Railway Preservation Corp; and car 2775 is preserved at the Shore Line Trolley Museum.
• D-type Triplex sets 6019, 6095, and 6112 have been preserved by the New York Transit Museum.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (category)

• Article about BMT rapid transit car designs inThe Third Rail byPaul Matus
• History site including articles about the BMT
• Site dedicated to the history of the BMT
• Early Rapid Transit in Brooklyn, 1878–1913, nycsubway.org
• BMT map

• Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation
• Defunct public transport operators in the United States
• Defunct New York (state) railroads
• History of the New York City Subway
• 1923 establishments in New York City
• 1940 disestablishments in New York (state)
• Railway companies established in 1923
• Railway companies disestablished in 1940
• Transportation in Queens, New York
• Transportation in Manhattan
• Transportation in Brooklyn
• American companies disestablished in 1940
• American companies established in 1923

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