IRT Eastern Parkway Line

IRT Eastern Parkway Line
The 2, 3, 4 and 5 trains are the primary services at most IRT Eastern Parkway Line stations, and thus the only IRT services that travel to/from Brooklyn.
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
System	New York City Subway
Status	Operating
Locale	Brooklyn
Termini	Borough Hall Crown Heights–Utica Avenue
Stations	11
Daily ridership	214,906
Operation
Opened	1908–1920
Owner	City of New York
Operator(s)	New York City Transit Authority
Character	Underground
Technical
Number of tracks	4
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification	600V DC third rail

The Eastern Parkway Line is one of the lines of the IRT division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Downtown Brooklyn south along Flatbush Avenue and east along Eastern Parkway to Crown Heights. After passing Utica Avenue, the line rises onto an elevated structure and becomes the New Lots Line to the end at New Lots Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. The west end of the Eastern Parkway Line is at the Joralemon Street Tunnel under the East River.

The IRT Nostrand Avenue Line splits from the local tracks of the Eastern Parkway Line south of the Franklin Avenue station.

The Eastern Parkway Line to Atlantic Avenue is part of Contract 2 of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company's plan to construct an extension of the original subway, Contract 1. Contract 2 extended the original line from City Hall in Manhattan to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, and the contract was signed on September 11, 1902. Construction commenced on Contract 2 on March 4, 1903. In order to cross the East River, a tunnel had to be constructed. That tunnel, the Joralemon Street Tunnel was the first underwater subway tunnel connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn and it opened on January 9, 1908, extending the subway from Bowling Green to Borough Hall.Clifford Milburn Holland served as the assistant engineer during the construction of the tunnel. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on February 9, 2006.