Park Row Terminal

Park Row 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.[2] 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.

 Park Row
 
Former New York City Subway station
Park Row station, circa 1905
Station statistics
AddressBrooklyn Bridge & Centre St & Brooklyn Bridge Promenade New York, NY 10013
BoroughManhattan
LocalePark Row
Coordinates40°42′44″N 74°0′16″W
DivisionB (BMT)
ServicesBMT Brighton Line (until 1920)
BMT Culver Line
BMT Fulton Street Line
BMT Myrtle Avenue Line
BMT Lexington Avenue Line
BMT Fifth Avenue Line
BMT West End Line (until 1916)
StructureElevated
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
OpenedMay 24, 1883 (1883-05-24)[1]
ClosedMarch 5, 1944 (1944-03-05)[1]
Station succession
Next north(Terminus)
Next southSands Street

Early history
Park Row seen from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge

For the first decade-and-a-half 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.[3]

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.[3]:15 On January 27, 1908 the shuttle was eliminated and elevated trains began running to Park Row at all times.[4]

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.[3]

Services

From the turn of the 20th century until 1913, the following lines were hosted at least part-time at Park Row:

Gradual decline
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 built the Brooklyn Bridge subway station at Center Street and Park Row.[3]: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.[3]: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 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.[3]: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.[3]:20 Brooklyn Bridge streetcars were shifted to the elevated tracks and used them until 1950, when all public transit was removed from the bridge.[3]:20[5] The streetcars did not use the Park Row terminal, but continued to use the trolley loops beneath the train shed, which was torn down.

References
  1. "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.
  2. City Hall / Park Row Complex
  3. 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.
  4. Cudahy, Brian (2002). How We Got to Coney Island: The Development of Mass Transportation in Brooklyn and Kings County. Fordham University Press. p. 168.
  5. "Brooklyn Bridge Traffic Will Undergo Changes". The New York Times. 1950-03-03. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
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