Chambers St
Chambers Street was the flagship station of the BMT Nassau Street line that used to connect to both the current Williamsburg Bridge Line and the south side of the Manhattan Bridge forming loop service that ran via the Montague Street Tunnel through the 3 stops on the Nassau Line and back over the Manhattan Bridge or vise-versa. Manhattan Bridge service from the station was fully discontinued and the tracks cut off in 1967 with the opening of the Christy Street connection shifting the BMT Broadway Line to the south side of the bridge so the connection to the IND 6 Avenue line could be added to the north. Rush hour 'bankers specials' continued after the loop had been severed as the Diamond Brown R, the last regular train to terminate at the station from the south, running during rush hours up from Bay Ridge was finally discontinued on November 23, 1987.
On June 25, 2010, southbound service from here to the Montague Street Tunnel was fully discontinued for the first time since the Nassau Street subway opened 1931, when the M and V trains were combined so the M no longer serves this station either. The stop, unlike Bowery and Canal Street to the north where in 2004 Brooklyn-bound trains were rerouted onto the middle Manhattan-bound meaning now just a single island platform is still in use, still has all four tracks. The middle tracks were used by J trains when they terminated here from 1994 through 2015 on weekends when Broad Street was closed from 1990 to 2015 (from 1990 to 1994 Chambers Street was also closed on weekends with J trains terminating at Canal Street). Today there are just two island platforms that are open one for each direction. The remains of two extra platforms are still visible with closed off staircases, one in the middle of the station between the two terminating tracks, and an extra side exit platform along the Queens-bound track where wonderful original mosaic depictions of the Brooklyn Bridge and Chambers Street name tablets exist. There was also a side exit platform originally on the Broad Street-bound track but this has been walled off and portions destroyed when the IRT Brooklyn Bridge Station was extended with a 1950s era brown wall and Chambers St written inside a trimline. The remains of many extra staircases up from the now closed platforms, especially the middle one are visible in the two exit areas.
The stop has two mezzanine areas; both of these have transfers to the 4,5,6 train making it rather convenient. At the northern end of the station two staircases from the Queens-bound platform and one from the Broad St-bound platform lead up to a mezzanine area where both high turnstiles and a bank of regular turnstiles now without a token booth lead to a single triple wide staircase up to Foley Square at it's Duane Street end. A passageway then connects with some stairs downward to connect with the IRT at Brooklyn Bridge (it ends with staircases up to the extreme northern end of these platforms).
Towards the southern end of the station two staircases lead up from each open platform to a more substantially large mezzanine area where there is a bank of unstaffed turnstiles up to a very wide staircase with an unusual ornamental railing and Svbway written in that historic way inside the enclosed pedestrian plaza inside the Municipal Building, built at the same time as the subway line. A very short passageway connects from here to the IRT station, this time above the platforms since this is the original part of the IRT station designed to have an upper mezzanine.
The station recieved a bit of a renovation to accomidate the opening of platform elevators on September 2, 2020. ADA accessible ramps were installed in places along the southern passageway connecting 4/5/6 trains with J/Z trains (no new street elevator was built so passengers must use the elevator inside City Hall Park). This renovation leads to a renovated southern mezzanine area, here additional ramps lead down (the one to the Broad Street-bound platform is long enough that there are direct staircases to the northern elevator landing) to the upper landings of a new elevator down to each platform. For passengers who can handle stairs a new wide staircase leads down a few steps to an upper passageway within the station platform's high roof to two new staircases down to each platform.
This renovation also included the installation of a new very generic (white painted) wall, near the track bed completely closing off the formerly visible side platform along the Jamaica-bound platform. The only place the Brooklyn bridge terra cotta is visible now is one panel at the extreme southern end of the Broad Street-bound platform. This made the station feel a bit less abandoned, there are still plenty of platform pillars missing tiles and the middle island platform is still not in passenger use, dustily sitting between the two station tracks for terminating trains, not used for regular subway service.
1-4: January 1, 2005; 5-7: July 30, 2009; 8-10: August 13, 2008; 11-21: December 31, 2009; 22-46: June 20, 2011; 47-60: December 4, 2012: 61-64: May 12, 2013; 65-132: September 25, 2023;
Arts For Transit at Chambers Street
Buildings, Boats, and a Bridge
a children's art project of the Studio in a School Association
By Students of PS 126, District and PS 20, District 1, Manhattan under the direction of artist-instructors Beth Hausman and Lyn Riccardo
Station Subway Lines (1988 to 2010)
