Chrystie Street Connection
The connection was originally conceived as part of the long delayed Second Avenue Subway, and, along with the three stations added with the opening of phase 1, is one of the few completed sections of the project.
[2][3][4] The IND Sixth Avenue Line express tracks formerly continued east, ending slightly east of the Second Avenue station, and were planned to extend into Brooklyn and beyond as part of a never-built major system expansion called the IND Second System.
As a result of the uneven traffic distribution, the Manhattan Bridge started tilting to its north side.
The opening of the Chrystie Street Connection to the Manhattan Bridge allowed the integration of four major routes of the combined system.
[1][22] The New York City Board of Estimate voted in September 1951 to construct the Second Avenue Subway and several related lines for $500 million.
[27] In 1955, the TA recommended that the Board of Estimate approve a contract to reconstruct a junction near the DeKalb Avenue station, on the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge, to eliminate a bottleneck there.
[28][29] The Chrystie Street Connection would utilize the additional capacity created by reconstructing the tracks around DeKalb Avenue.
[33] A groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 25, 1957, with Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. and TA officials in attendance.
[37] On January 23, 1964, the entire seven-block length of Chrystie Street was fully reopened to traffic.
[40] In 1965, the connection was projected to cost $100 million (equivalent to $966,842,661 in 2023), and provide capacity for 52,000 additional riders per hour between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
[42] The Manhattan Bridge connection and the Grand Street station opened on November 26, 1967, almost exactly 10 years after the project began.
[22] On November 15, 1967, the TA published a subway map showing which routes would be changed when the Manhattan Bridge connection opened.
[11] After 940 new signs had already been installed across the New York City Subway system, mayor John Lindsay wrote a letter to the TA in an attempt to delay the planned route changes.
[44] Lindsay dropped his objection on November 22, just hours before workers started installing heavy equipment to reroute the tracks.
[46] The opening of the Manhattan Bridge connection on November 26, 1967, was concurrent with the opening of the new express tracks on the Sixth Avenue Line between West Fourth Street–Washington Square and 34th Street, providing additional capacity for the extra trains on the IND via the connection.
[48] The following changes went into effect on July 1, 1968, concurrent with the opening of the 57th Street station at Sixth Avenue and the bridge connection:[43] The following adjustments to the new service were put into effect on August 18, 1968: These new services began to unravel in response to commuter complaints about the various routings.
[51] The KK (since renamed the K) was discontinued in 1976 as a money-saving measure,[52][53] ending service via the Williamsburg Bridge connection.
