page_title: Independent Subway System
section_title: Nomenclature
hierarchical_section_title: Independent Subway System / Nomenclature
caption_attribution_description: Independent Subway sign at 14th Street Station by David Shankbone
context_page_description: The Independent Subway System, formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway. It was first constructed as the Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan in 1932.
  One of three rail networks that became part of the modern New York City subway, the IND was intended to be fully owned and operated by the municipal government, in contrast to the privately operated or jointly funded Interborough Rapid Transit Company and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation companies. It was merged with these two networks in 1940.
  The original IND service lines are the modern subway's A, B, C, D, E, F, G and M services. In addition, the BMT's N, Q and R now run partly on IND trackage. The Rockaway Park Shuttle supplements the A service. For operational purposes, the IND and BMT lines and services are referred to jointly as the B Division.
context_section_description: Until 1940, it was known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOS), Independent Subway System (ISS), or Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad. It became known as the IND after unification of the subway lines in 1940; the name IND was assigned to match the three-letter acronyms that the IRT and BMT used.
  The first IND line was the Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan, opened on September 10, 1932; for a while the whole system was colloquially known as the Eighth Avenue Subway. The original IND system was entirely underground in the four boroughs that it served, with the exception of a short section of the IND Culver Line containing two stations spanning the Gowanus Canal in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn.
caption: Independent Subway mosaics sign at 14th Street station on the Sixth Avenue Line, before V train service at this station was replaced by M train service
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