The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a transportation holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate transit facilities in Kings County, now Brooklyn, New York. Within a decade, it had acquired virtually all of the rapid transit and streetcar operations in its target area. Though the BRT was the public face of the consolidated companies, it left it to the acquired companies or newly formed companies to carry out the actual operation of the system, to provide power and services for the system, and even to design and acquire rolling stock.