contract to construct the line on January 13, 1916. Clifford Milburn Holland served as the engineer-in-charge during the construction. The Canarsie Line station at Union Square opened on June 30, 1924, as part of the 14th Street–Eastern Line, which ran from Sixth Avenue under the East River and through Williamsburg to Montrose and Bushwick Avenues. A passageway between the Broadway and Canarsie Line stations was completed in late 1923. Later years The city government took over the BMT's operations on June 1, 1940, and the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. In September 1945, the New York City Club presented a proposal for improving service on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. The 14th Street–Union Square station on the IRT line would have been relocated about northward, requiring the closure of the 18th Street station. Since the plan entailed having local trains terminate at 14th Street instead of at City Hall, the local platforms would be rebuilt at a lower level, with a crossover next to the station. In addition, all local trains would be lengthened from six to ten cars. The transfer between the IRT and BMT was placed inside fare control on July 1, 1948. In the 1960s, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) started a project to lengthen station platforms on the Broadway Line to to accommodate 10-car trains. As part of the project, the Broadway Line platforms at Union Square, which were long, were extended to the north. The Broadway Line station was overhauled in the late 1970s. The MTA replaced the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting with the 1970s wall tile band and tablet mosaics, signs and fluorescent lights. They also fixed staircases and platform edges. By 1982, the entrances in the southern portion of Union Square were to be renovated as part of a refurbishment of Union Square Park. This work was performed over the latter half of that decade, with the entrances having been renovated by 1985. In the late 1980s, the 14th Street–Union Square station was renovated as part of the construction of the Zeckendorf Towers immediately east of the Lexington Avenue Line platforms. The towers' developers agreed to build and maintain subway entrances within the Zeckendorf Towers as "a public benefit", and in exchange, were allowed to develop the site. This was because of zoning rules that required many developers in Lower Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, and Downtown Brooklyn