1907 Kennard Thomson Plan for Double-Tracked Train 'Loops,' New York City

Origin of the Brooklyn Loops?

This is a c. 1907 T. Kennard Thomson manuscript map proposing loops between Brooklyn and Manhattan consisting of double-tracked trains. Although never fulfilled as Thomson envisioned, the plan was similar to and possibly inspired a partially completed plan for the Centre Street and Nassau Street Loops, collectively known as the BMT Brooklyn Loops.

Mass Transit Loops

This map was most likely produced in the later part of the first decade of the 20th century. At the time, the Brooklyn Bridge was well-established as a thoroughfare, with elevated trolley cars running in both directions; however, these did not connect with other mass transit options, specifically the various subway lines being developed under Manhattan. The Williamsburg Bridge was slow to get off the ground after opening in December 1903, as the bridge was opened in a rush, and neither the trolley nor the rapid transit (subway) lines were ready for use upon opening. Trolley tracks were laid and trains began operating within several months, but rapid transit services did not begin until September 1908. The Manhattan Bridge was completed in 1909 and likewise saw a delay before mass transit service began. Streetcars began operating in 1912, and subway lines in 1915.

With the bridges coming to fruition, demand for mass transit into Lower Manhattan soaring, and no obvious alternative in sight, urban planners like Thomson imagined ways in which mass transit across the East River in both directions could be made more efficient. One solution was 'loops' for subways, which would allow a train to make a circuit between the boroughs instead of having to stop at a terminus and either turn around by some method (such as the wyes employed on railroads) or run in reverse in the opposite direction.

The leading proposal of the era, approved by the city in January 1907 but never completed, was the Centre Street Loop, named for the street of that name in Manhattan, also known as the Brooklyn Loop Subway. This plan would have seen a subway line below Centre Street in Manhattan connect with trains running across the Williamsburg Bridge, link all three bridges with four-track lines (two in each direction, expanded from the original proposal of one track in each direction), and add a subway connection to the Brooklyn Bridge. The Nassau Street Loop, a related project, would link Brooklyn and Manhattan in a loop utilizing the Manhattan Bridge.

In many ways the most difficult part of the work was completed quickly, with the stations leading to and under Centre Street (the Delancey St., Bowery, and Canal St. stations on today's J, Z lines) being ready by 1910 except for the massive interchange station under the Municipal Building (Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall/Chambers Street Station), which opened in 1914. All that was needed was to link the new station with the trains coming off the Brooklyn Bridge, and preparatory work was undertaken to this end, but the link was never established because the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) did not want to pay the city the annual rental fee for 'use' of the Brooklyn Bridge. Also, there was uncertainty over how the loops would operate given the presence of both BMT and BRT trains, and these ambiguities were not entirely cleared up by the 1913 'Dual Contracts' agreement between the two companies.

As priorities shifted towards expanding subway service in Midtown Manhattan in the 1910s and 1920s, the project fell by the wayside and in the following years parts of the loop infrastructure were torn down or abandoned (as with the still extant unused central platform at the Chambers Street BMT Jamaica Line/J, M, Z station, and remnants of several entrances to the interchange station that were subsequently closed off). The Nassau Street Loop also failed to materialize quickly, but was ultimately completed.

Thomson's Plan

The plan presented here by Thomson is conceptually very similar to the Centre Street Loop. The map covers proposed double-track train lines (in line with the original Centre Street Loop proposal) that operate across the Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridges, part of a wider loop between the two boroughs. Although Thomson was an early and vocal skeptic of subways, his plan appears to incorporate subways in the Manhattan portion of the loops; however, this is ambiguous, as the lines closely follow the course of the streets. What is certain is that these lines do not neatly align with the subway system that emerged in the early 20th century, most notably the Centre Street Loop line, suggesting Thomson's plan predated the completion of this line around 1914, or even its partial completion in 1910. Similarly, Thomson does not endorse the large Municipal Building/Chamber Street interchange station, instead shifting the critical Brooklyn Bridge interchange eastwards to the vicinity of Pearl Street. Given Thomson's general dislike of subways and the grade required to safely descend from the bridge, this almost certainly would have been an aboveground station.

Nevertheless, in total, Thomson's plan is more ambitious than the Centre Street Loop as it also envisions a connection between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges in Brooklyn, and a wide loop in Brooklyn through the Navy Yard and Williamsburg linking all three bridges, foreshadowing the Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown service, opened in 1933 (today's much-maligned but in theory quite useful G Train). While the eventual Nassau Street Loop does allow for trains to both originate and terminate in Brooklyn, passing through Manhattan along the way, it is not a loop in the sense that Thomson envisioned here, where a train could operate continuously in one direction in a circuit, indefinitely. As with Thomson's other grand schemes for New York City, we can see the clear logic of efficiency underlying them, even if political, technical, and financial considerations would have made them difficult to realize.

Legacy of the Loops

In the end, neither the Centre Street Loop nor Thomson's plan fully materialized, but they did inspire several connections that did alleviate the flow of mass transit as intended. The famous, abandoned 'City Hall Station' on the Lexington Avenue Local Line (6 Train) was built in 1904 and quickly came to be used as a single-track loop, and is still used as such today, allowing trains to turn around to travel northwards rather than have to reverse or turn in some other fashion. More directly related to the Centre Street Loop plan, the Nassau Street Loop was effectively completed via the Montague Street Tunnel (opened 1920) and the completion of the Nassau Street Line (in 1931). Though not using the Brooklyn Bridge as the Centre Street Loop had imagined, it was finally possible for a train originating in Brooklyn to pass through Manhattan (via the Montague Tunnel) and return to Brooklyn (via the Manhattan Bridge).

Kennard Thomson's Ambitious Urban Plans

In the early 20th century, Manhattan faced many of the same challenges as today - limited space, soaring real estate values, overpopulation, and gridlock traffic congestion. Kennard Thomson believed that engineering would come to the rescue. His solutions, including tiered avenues (as here, and more extensively in our NoMoreSubways-kennardthomson-1927) and massive landfills (NewManhattan-kennardthomson-1930), were novel and futuristic but in no way the crackpot fantasies of a maverick visionary. Kennard Thomson was a highly respected engineer who pioneered innovations in pneumatic caissons, worked on numerous major urban infrastructure projects, and frequently spoke at the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Publication History and Census

This manuscript map was drawn by Thomas Kennard Thomson; it is undated, but from context, as discussed above, can be very roughly estimated to be from c. 1910 or slightly earlier. His use of an office in the Park Row Building mentioned here is also consistent with a date of 1907-1908, after which he moved his office to the Hudson Terminal Building. Thomson's use of the title 'Consulting Engineer' suggests that these plans were meant to be presented to the city government. As a manuscript work, it is entirely unique. This map is jointly owned with Boston Rare Maps.

Cartographer

Thomas Kennard Thomson (April 25, 1864 - July 1, 1952) was a New York City based civil engineer active in the first half of the 20th century. Thomson was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of William Alexander Thomson (1816 - 1878), founder and builder of the Canada Southern Railroad. He studied at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1886, then returning for a degree in Civil Engineering and a Doctorate of Science. He initially worked in Canada, first on the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the Rocky Mountains, then with the Dominion Bridge Company in Montreal. He moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1889, initially taking a position with Pencoyd Bridge Company of Pennsylvania. He left this position within a year to attend the Paris Exhibition with the American Society of Civil Engineers. Thomson returned to a long and successful engineering career, working on hundreds of major projects, including more than 50 skyscrapers and 200 bridges. His New York City projects included the Singer Building (149 Broadway), the Commercial Cable Building (22-24 Broad Street Extension, demolished 1954), the Government Assay Building (40 Wall Street), the Mutual Life Building, and the Manhattan Municipal Building (1 Centre St). He was also one of five consulting engineers in charge of the New York Barge Canal (1814 - 1915) and developed a plan to build a dam in the whirlpool Rapids of the Niagara Falls. For a time, he served as chief engineer for Arthur Mullin, the foundation contractors behind some of Manhattan's early skyscrapers. He worked as a consulting engineer for the city until a week before his death of stroke, at age 88. Although his contributions to American engineering are innumerable, Thomson is best remembered today for proposing a massive extension of Manhattan into New York Harbor - although it never happened, the proposal received national media attention and is remarkably persistent, having been reproposed as recently as 2022.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Manuscript map on waxed cloth. Creasing. Unrepaired margin tear upper left corner.

References

'Personal Notes,' Engineering Record, Building Record and Sanitary Engineer, Vol. 55, No. 3 (January 19, 1907), pp. 30. 'Personals,' Engineering and Contracting, Vol. 29, No. 20 (May 13, 1908), pp. 302.