New York metropolitan area passed through ports in New York or in one of the surrounding towns. The five boroughs of New York City — The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island — were consolidated into a single city in 1898. The newly unified New York City encouraged both more physical connections between the boroughs and the growth of bedroom communities. The New York City Subway began operating in 1904 as the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, one of three systems (the other two being the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation and the Independent Subway System) that were later taken over by the city. Railroad stations
2 (New York City Subway service) 2 (New York City Subway service) The 2 Seventh Avenue Express is a rapid transit service in the A Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored since it uses the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line through most of Manhattan. The 2 operates at all times between 241st Street in Wakefield, Bronx and Flatbush Avenue–Brooklyn College in Flatbush, Brooklyn; limited rush hour service originates and terminates at New Lots Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn instead of Flatbush Avenue. Daytime service makes local stops in the Bronx and Brooklyn and express in Manhattan; late night