The Park Place station
platform looking north. The walkway at right includes
interesting ironwork, designed by a local artist. A better look at this
bit of rapid transit art is in the photo below.
Heading south just outside Park Place, the R-68 made the switch onto
the southbound track (allowing for a northbound train to pass us on the left).
As we approached Botanic Garden station, we passed through one
the original Brighton Line structures—the Eastern Parkway tunnel. This is one
of the few true railroad tunnels on the NYCT system. This
arched-brick structure goes back to the days of steam-driven coach operations of
the Brooklyn, Flatbush & Coney Island Railway Co., predecessor of
the modern Brighton Line. It has been beautifully and expertly re-pointed and
lit for dramatic effect.. The
New and the Old meet with dramatic effect at the north end of
Botanic Garden station. The old-fashioned brick lined 1878 railroad tunnel
has been cleaned, repointed and lighted. Until 1928, when Botanic Garden
station was built, the south end of the tunnel, seen here, was outdoors
with stone wing walls, as the north end still is. Douglas Diamond
photo Botanic Garden The Third Rail and The Third Rail
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The tunnel leads into the
more modern Botanic Garden station, originally built in 1928, and now
rebuilt entirely within the former subway portion. The earlier
configuration was partially in subway, partially in the open air with a
wooden platform. Keeping in step with the rest of the line, Botanic Garden
station can only accommodate two-75 foot subway cars, thus having the
shortest stations on the entire system, the rest of the system having
platforms ranging from about 500 to 660 feet
long.
The station's name was
reproduced in delicate, earth tone colored tiling lending to the stations'
horticultural namesake located two blocks to the
west.
The most important
improvement to the line is found at the Botanic Garden station. A
long-sought connection to the nearby IRT New Lots and Flatbush Avenue
lines was realized during the rebuilding process. The Franklin and the
Brooklyn IRT lines cross each other at right angles at this point, and the
IRT’s Franklin Avenue express station has its platform only a few hundred
yards away from the Botanic Garden of the BMT (albeit a number of feet
beneath the Franklin line). The solution was not a complicated one. On the
far west end of the IRT platform, there was an NYPD Transit Precinct at a
former mezzanine-crossover point. The Transit Police Precinct was moved to
a local street location and a wall was tunneled from that mezzanine area
to the Franklin Shuttle's northbound Botanic Garden station. Incredibly,
the NYCT's new Franklin Shuttle route schedule brochures do not make
mention of this new and vital link in the system.
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