Broad Street station (BMT Nassau Street Line)
New York City Subway station in Manhattan / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Broad Street station is a station on the BMT Nassau Street Line of the New York City Subway at the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets in the Financial District of Manhattan. It serves as the southern terminal for J trains at all times and for Z trains during rush hours in the peak direction.
Broad Street | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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New York City Subway station (rapid transit) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Station statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Address | Broad Street & Wall Street New York, NY 10005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Borough | Manhattan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | Financial District | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 40°42′25″N 74°00′39″W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Division | B (BMT)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line | BMT Nassau Street Line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Services | J (all times) Z (rush hours, peak direction) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transit | New York City Transit: M15, M15 SBS, M55, SIM1, SIM1C, SIM2, SIM3C, SIM5, SIM15, SIM32, SIM33C, SIM34, SIM35, X27, X28 MTA Bus: BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, QM7, QM8, QM11, QM25 Staten Island Ferry at Whitehall Terminal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Structure | Underground | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Platforms | 2 side platforms | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | May 29, 1931; 92 years ago (1931-05-29)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Accessible | not ADA-accessible; accessibility planned | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opposite- direction transfer | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Traffic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2022 | 1,032,292[3] 38.3% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rank | 276 out of 423[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The station was built as part of the Dual Contracts, signed between the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (later reorganized as the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT) and the city in 1913. The Nassau Street Line was one of the last lines to be completed under the Dual Contracts, and construction did not proceed until James Walker was elected as mayor of New York City in 1926. This station opened on May 29, 1931, as part of the final portion of the Nassau Street Line. Despite being under Broad and Nassau Streets, with Wall Street as the cross-street, this station was named after Broad Street to prevent confusion with other stations. Between 1990 and 2015, Broad Street was only open on weekdays and weekday nights.
Planning and construction
On March 19, 1913, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; after 1923, the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation or BMT[4]) and the city signed Contract 4 of the Dual Contracts, which provided for the construction of certain lines, including the Nassau Street Line.[5] In July 1915, the New York Public Service Commission received the rights to build subway entrances within five buildings near the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets, which would have served the proposed BRT station there. Among the buildings were the New York Stock Exchange Building, the Mills Building, and 23 Wall Street.[6] Most of the BMT's Dual Contracts lines were completed by 1924, except for the Nassau Street Line.[5] BMT chairman Gerhard Dahl was persistent at requesting that the city build the line, saying in 1923 that the BMT was willing to operate the line as soon as the city completed it.[7] At the time, the BMT was planning to construct two stations on the Nassau Street Line, including one at the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets.[8] However, mayor John Hylan refused to act during his final two years in office.[5] BOT chairman John H. Delaney believed that the line was unnecessary because both of its planned stations would be extremely close to existing subway stations.[9] Meanwhile, the BMT claimed that the city's failure to complete the line was overburdening other BMT lines.[10] By January 1925, the BMT was asking its passengers to pressure Hylan into approving the remainder of the Nassau Street Line.[11] Work did not commence until after James Walker succeeded Hylan as mayor at the end of 1925.[5]
The city government agreed to build the Nassau Street Line in May 1927,[12] after the BMT sued the city for $30 million.[12][13] At the time, the city wanted to take over the BMT's lines but could not do so until all Dual Contracts lines were completed.[13] The BOT received bids for the construction of the line that July,[14] but it rejected every bid the next month because of concerns over the lowest bidder's ability to complete the work.[13][15] That September, contractors again submitted bids to the BOT; some bidders offered to build the entire line, while others only offered to construct the segments of the line to the north or south of Liberty Street.[14] The BOT awarded construction contracts for the line's construction two months later. The Marcus Contracting Company was hired to build the portion north of Liberty Street, including the Fulton Street station, for $4.7 million, while Moranti and Raymond were hired to build the portion to the south for $5.7 million. [16][17] The New York City Board of Estimate approved the contracts in January 1928, allowing the builders to construct the line using the cut-and-cover method, despite merchants' requests that the line be constructed using tunneling shields.[18]
The line was constructed 20 feet (6.1 m) below the active IRT Lexington Avenue Line, next to buildings along the narrow Nassau Street, and the project encountered difficulties such as quicksand.[5][19] When the construction contracts were awarded, work had been projected to be completed in 39 months.[5] Nassau Street is only 34 feet (10 m) wide, and the subway floor was only 20 feet (6.1 m) below building foundations. As a result, 89 buildings had to be underpinned to ensure that they would stay on their foundations. Construction had to be done 20 feet below the active IRT Lexington Avenue Line. An area filled with quicksand with water, which used to belong to a spring, was found between John Street and Broad Street.[5] Additionally, the station underpinned the former Sub-Treasury building (now Federal Hall) at the northeast corner of Wall Street and Nassau Street; the city had to receive permission from the United States Congress to dig under the building, and it constructed a new foundation for that edifice.[20] Construction was done at night so as to not disturb workers in the Financial District.[5][21]
By early 1929, sixty percent of the work had been finished.[5][22] The project was 80 percent complete by April 1930.[23][21] Later that year, a federal judge ruled that the city government did not have to pay the BMT $30 million in damages for failing to construct the Nassau Street Line.[24] The total construction cost was $10.072 million[19][25] for 0.9 miles (1.4 km) of new tunnels, or $2,068 per foot ($6,780/m), which was three times the normal cost of construction at the time.[5]
Operation
The station opened on May 29, 1931, completing what was known as the "Nassau Street Loop".[26][27][28] The loop ran from the line's previous terminus at Chambers Street, running through the Fulton Street and Broad Street stations before merging with the Montague Street Tunnel to Brooklyn.[29] The completion of the line relieved congestion on several BMT lines to southern Brooklyn, which previously had to operate to Midtown Manhattan using the Broadway Line.[30] When the line was completed, Culver Line trains began operating on the loop; previously, elevated Culver Line trains from Coney Island ran only as far as Ninth Avenue, where transfers were made to West End subway trains. The new line provided an additional ten percent capacity compared with existing service through DeKalb Avenue. Service on the Jamaica Line was extended to operate to this station.[31][32]
The station is under Broad and Nassau Streets, with Wall Street as the cross-street, but was named after Broad Street to distinguish it from the two other Wall Street stations nearby, at Broadway and at William Street.[20][33] When the station opened, it had 14 exits to nearby buildings.[20][21] Banking firm J.P. Morgan & Co., which occupied a structure at 23 Wall Street (on the southwest corner with Broad and Nassau Streets), paid for the installation of bronze rails and stanchions on the subway entrance just outside its building. Other entrances were built to the basements of the Equitable Building and the Bankers Trust Company Building. In addition, there were street entrances outside the New York Stock Exchange Building; to the intersection of Broad Street and Exchange Place; and to the northwest corners of Nassau and Cedar Streets.[20]
In April 1993, the New York State Legislature agreed to give the MTA $9.6 billion for capital improvements. Some of the funds would be used to renovate nearly one hundred New York City Subway stations,[34][35] including Broad Street.[36] From September 30, 1990,[37] to June 14, 2015, the Broad and Fulton Street stations were closed during weekends, making them two of the four New York City Subway stations that lacked full-time service (the remaining two being the platforms for the 42nd Street Shuttle).[38]
Proposed elevators
A proposed skyscraper at 45 Broad Street will provisionally include an entrance to the station that contains elevators, making the station compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.[39] The plans call for two elevators, one for each platform, at the northeastern and southwestern corners of Broad Street and Exchange Place.[40] The New York City Council approved the construction of the elevators in July 2018, and granted the developers an additional 71,391 square feet (6,632.4 m2) in zoning rights in exchange for building the elevators.[41]
Residents and tenants of 15 and 30 Broad Street opposed construction of glass-and-metal elevators, saying they posed a risk for terrorist attacks; the buildings' occupants hired a security consultant who determined they were a terrorist risk.[42] However, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hired its own security consultant who found they would not make the area more prone to terrorist attacks. Regular riders at the Broad Street station also advocated for the elevators because only six of the 30 stations served by the J and Z trains were wheelchair-accessible as of 2020[update].[42]