N (New York City Subway service)
The N Broadway Express is a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet," is colored yellow, since it uses the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan.
The N operates 24 hours daily between Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens, and Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn; limited rush hour service originates and terminates at 96th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan instead of Ditmars Boulevard. Weekday daytime service makes express stops between 34th Street–Herald Square in Manhattan and 59th Street in Brooklyn and all stops elsewhere. Weekend daytime service is the same as weekday daytime service, except trains make all stops in Manhattan between 34th and Canal Street. Overnight service makes all stops along the full route, serves the Financial District of Lower Manhattan and uses the Montague Street Tunnel to travel between Manhattan and Brooklyn instead of the Manhattan Bridge.
The N was originally the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation's 4 service, running along the BMT Sea Beach Line to the Manhattan Bridge. The 4 used the BMT Nassau Street Line in Lower Manhattan from 1915 to 1917, after which it ran express on the BMT Broadway Line. The 4 became the N in 1961. The N ran local in Queens along the IND Queens Boulevard Line to Forest Hills–71st Avenue from 1976 until 1987, when it switched terminals with the R. From 1986 to 2004, reconstruction on the Manhattan Bridge forced the N to run local on the Broadway Line via the Montague Street Tunnel.