Montague Street Tunnel | |
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Brooklyn ventilation building |
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Carries | 2 tracks of the BMT Fourth Avenue Line (N R trains) of the New York City Subway |
Crosses | East River |
Locale | Manhattan, New York and Brooklyn, New York |
Maintained by | Metropolitan Transportation Authority |
Opened | August 1, 1920 |
The Montague Street Tunnel carries the N R trains of the New York City Subway under the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. It opened to revenue service on Sunday, August 1, 1920 at 2 am with a holiday schedule, the same day as the 60th Street Tunnel. Regular service began Monday, August 2, 1920. The two new tunnels allowed passengers to make an 18-mile (29 km) trip from Coney Island, through Manhattan on the BMT Broadway Line, to Queens for a 5 cent fare.[1] The original construction cost was $9,867,906.52, almost twice that of the 60th Street Tunnel.
Construction of the tunnel began on October 12, 1914, using a tunneling shield in conjunction with compressed air. The tunnel was designed by civil engineer Clifford Milburn Holland, who would later serve as the first chief engineer of the Holland Tunnel.[2][3] The north tube of the tunnel was holed through on June 2, 1917 and the south tube was holed through on June 20, 1917.[4][5]
On December 27, 1920, more than ten thousand passengers were forced to evacuate the tunnel. Power to the third rail was shut off after a shoe beam on a train approaching Whitehall Street, fell and caused a short circuit, stranding ten subway trains inside the tunnel.[6]
Use of the Montague Street Tunnel, the Cranberry Street Tunnel or a combination of the two tunnels were considered as alternatives in lieu of constructing a new tunnel under the East River for the proposed Lower Manhattan – Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project.[7][8] Use of the existing tunnel was considered as an option because the Montague Street Tunnel had surplus capacity, having carried N trains during the reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge from 1986 until 2004.[9][10]
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