Interborough Rapid Transit Company

Interborough Rapid Transit Company

Overview
Type Underground and above-ground metro
Status In operation
Services 8
Operation
Opened 1904 (1904)
Closed 1940 (1940)
(acquisition by the NYC Board of Transportation)
Owner City of New York
Operator(s) New York City Transit Authority
Depot(s) 239th Street Yard, 240th Street Yard,
Corona Yard, East 180th Street Yard,
Jerome Yard, Livonia Yard, Westchester Yard
Rolling stock R62, R62A, R142, R142A, R188
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Minimum radius 147.25 ft (44.88 m)[1]
IRT Powerhouse
An old IRT sign remains at Wall Street station.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City.[2] The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940. The former IRT lines (the numbered lines in the current subway system) are now the A Division or IRT Division of the Subway.

History

The first IRT subway ran between City Hall and 145th Street at Broadway, opening on October 27, 1904. It opened following more than twenty years of public debate on the merits of subways versus the existing elevated rail system and on various proposed routes.

Founded on May 6, 1902, by August Belmont, Jr., the IRT's mission was to operate New York City's initial underground rapid transit system after Belmont's and John B. McDonald's Rapid Transit Construction Company was awarded the rights to build the railway line in 1900, outbidding Andrew Onderdonk.[3]:20–22 On April 1, 1903, over a year before its first subway line opened, the IRT acquired the pre-existing elevated Manhattan Railway by lease, gaining a monopoly on rapid transit in Manhattan. The Manhattan EL was the operator of four elevated railways in Manhattan with an extension into the Bronx. The IRT coordinated some services between what became its subway and elevated divisions, but all the lines of the former Manhattan EL have since been dismantled.

In 1913, as a result of massive expansion in the city, the IRT signed the Dual Contracts with Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) in order to expand the subway.[4]:2–3

The IRT ceased to function as a privately held company on June 12, 1940, when its properties and operations were acquired by the City of New York.

Today, the IRT lines are operated as the A Division of the subway. The remaining lines are underground in Manhattan, except for a short stretch across Harlem at 125th Street and in northernmost Manhattan. Its many lines in the Bronx are predominantly elevated, with some subway, and some railroad-style right-of-way acquired from the defunct New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, which now constitutes the IRT Dyre Avenue Line. Its Brooklyn lines are underground with a single elevated extension that reaches up to New Lots Avenue, and the other reaching Flatbush Avenue via the underground Nostrand Avenue Line. The Flushing Line, its sole line in Queens, is entirely elevated except for a short portion approaching its East River tunnel and its terminal at Flushing – Main Street (the whole Manhattan portion of the line is underground). The Flushing Line has had no track connection to the rest of the IRT since 1942, when service on the Second Avenue El was discontinued. It is connected to the BMT and the rest of the system via the BMT Astoria Line on the upper level of the Queensboro Plaza station.

Lines

As built

The Bronx and Manhattan

Trunk lines include:

Branch lines include:

Brooklyn and Queens

There were three Brooklyn lines built by the IRT:

The only line in Queens is the Flushing Line (7  <7> trains), under 50th Avenue, and over Queens Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue.

Cross-river crossings

(of the East and Harlem Rivers, from south to north)

After 1940

See also

References

  1. ↑ "NYC Minimum Curve Radius". Archived from the original on 18 March 2012.
  2. ↑ "About New York; Alphabet Soup: Telling an IRT From a BMT". The New York Times. 30 June 1990. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  3. ↑ Cudahy, Brian J. (1995). Under the Sidewalks of New York: The Story of the Greatest Subway System in the World (2nd revised ed.). New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-1618-7.
  4. ↑ Derrick, Peter (2001). Tunneling to the Future: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion that Saved New York. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-1910-4.

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