The Chrystie Street Connection is a major connecting line of the New York City Subway System, and is one of the few connections between lines of the BMT and IND divisions. As a road, Chrystie Street extends northward to become Manhattan's Second Avenue, and the Chrystie Street Connection is the only part of the long-planned Second Avenue Line ever to be completed and opened to service of any kind.
Description
The line, opened on November 26, 1967, connects the former IND Sixth Avenue Line east of Broadway-Lafayette Street station with the former BMT Nassau Street Line (towards the Williamsburg Bridge) and over the Manhattan Bridge. It represented the first actual integration of BMT and IND lines since all major lines were brought under New York City municipal ownership in 1940. Prior to that the nearest integration of the two previous systems was the operation of BMT trains over part of the IND Queens Boulevard Line via the 60th Street Tunnel Connection in 1955. In that case, however, BMT trains operated on the IND by trackage rights, using BMT equipment and crews.
Williamburg Bridge connection
The two tracks that connect to the Williamsburg Bridge split from the Sixth Avenue Line local tracks east of Broadway-Lafayette Street station and feed into the Nassau Street Line west of Essex Street station. The main purpose of this portion of the connector was to allow trains originating in northern and eastern Brooklyn and southern and eastern Queens to operate into Midtown Manhattan via the IND Sixth Avenue Line, rather than having to turn south along Nassau Street. This service did not prove popular, and only operated from July 1, 1968 to August 30, 1976, when it was cut as part of an ongoing rethrenchment of service during New York City's fiscal crisis. The chief service on this route was signed KK and later K, and has no relation to the later K 8th Avenue Local service, which was a renaming of the former AA train.
Manhattan Bridge connection
The line's other two tracks, which begin as a continuation of the Sixth Avenue Line express tracks east of Broadway-Lafayette Street station, contain the line's only station, Grand Street, and connect to the two northern subway tracks over the Manhattan Bridge. The Houston Street Line express tracks used to continue east to a bit east of Second Avenue station, and were planned to extend into Brooklyn and beyond as part of the IND Second System. The two tracks on the north side of the Manhattan Bridge formerly carried trains to the BMT Broadway Line; in their place the two southern tracks, formerly connecting to the BMT Nassau Street Line towards downtown, now carry the Broadway Line service. The connection to the Nassau Street Line has been cut at the Manhattan Bridge end, and is used for storage from the Nassau Street end. The Chrystie Street Connection to the Manhattan Bridge allowed the integration of four major lines of the combined system. The BB service of the IND was through-routed with the T West End Line service of the BMT as the B route, and the D service of the IND was through-routed with the Q Brighton Beach Line service of the BMT.
Station listing
