nycsubway.org: IND 6th Avenue Line (2024)

Overview

The Sixth Avenue line was the last of the Manhattan subway lines to bebuilt, and the most complex due to the prior existence of the BMTBroadway, PATH's 6th Avenue line, and Amtrak/LIRR tunnels. Ground wasbroken on March 12, 1936, and service between 47th-50th Streets andWest 4th Street (lower level) began December 15, 1940. The 6th Avenueline was constructed as a four track subway between the 53rd Streetjunctions and the 34th Street/Herald Square station, and two trackssouth of 34th Street connecting to the local trackways at West 4thStreet lower level. The four-track subway along Houston Street fromWest Fourth Street to 2nd Avenue, and the two tracks further to EastBroadway, was completed earlier, with shuttle service from West 4thStreet beginning in January 1936. The Rutgers Street tunnel and theYork Street station on the Brooklyn side opened April 9, 1936.

Opening/Closing Dates

Route Map

Station by Station

See Also63rd Street Tunnel and the Second Avenue Subway

57th Street

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Two tracks, one island platform.

This station was constructed as part of the larger "Chrystie Street"connection project, since a new terminal at the end of the 6th Avenueline would be required for the new services. Provision for theextension from 47th-50th Street to 57th Street was built into the 53rdStreet junctions during the original construction of those segments ofthe line. The 63rd Street cross-river tunnel was in the planningstages and construction on it would begin in the 1970s.

57th Street served as a terminal station until 1988, when the 63rdStreet line was connected to it at the north. There is no color tileband, just vertical light beige tile. The mezzanine has extensive useof glass partition walls making up the fare control areas. There arethree fare control areas, which are connected by the mezzanine. Thesouth third of the mezzanine features high exit turnstiles and hassome chained shut slam gate exits. The station is very clean, wellmaintained and very plainly functional. The platform is extra wide.

ArtworkMetropolitan Faces (Alex Katz, 2018)

47-50th Street-Rockefeller Center

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Four tracks, two island platforms. The track and platform arrangementhere is slightly unusual. The north end of the downtown platformramps up, and is at a higher elevation than the uptown platform. Thetracks north of the station run on three levels to form the flyingjunction at 53rd Street connecting the IND Queens Boulevard line intothe 6th and 8th Avenue trunks. To accommodate the track arrangement inthe junction, the southbound platform has the positions of the"express" and "local" tracks reversed. Trains entering 47th/50thStreet station from the west (from Central Park West) enter thestation on the westernmost of the downtown tracks; trains enteringfrom the east (from Queens Boulevard) use the eastern downtowntrack. Between 47/50th Streets and 42nd Street the southbound trackscross over each other (not at grade). Thus it can be said that thesouthbound side of the station has the traditional placement of localand express tracks reversed.

The station has a massive mezzanine which connects to many RockefellerCenter buildings outside the fare control. There are four sets of exitstairs from the two island platforms. The south two connect to 47thand 48th Sts., the northern pair to 49th and 50th. The tile is whitewith an orange tile band with black border and there is no nametablet.

42nd Street-Bryant Park

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Four tracks, two island platforms. The full mezzanine has green tileat the stairs on the west wall and red on the east wall. The tile iswhite with an orange tile band with black border. The I-beams arepainted a reddish-orange.

The long passageway to Fifth Avenue (and the #7 train) features brownglazed brick with various color sections. There are porcelainlaminated photos of the old Crystal Palace which stood at thiscorner. The passageway was added later in the life of thestation. Originally, a transferring passenger picked up a papertransfer when leaving the one station, then walked across the street,entered the other station, and dropped the ticket into a collectionbox. This system, similar to the one at the BMT Franklin Avenue andIND Fulton Street transfer, was routinely abused. One could easilyleave the one station, spend the day in midtown Manhattan, and reenterby the other station on the same one fare.

South of 42nd St., the mezzanine extends all the way to 34thSt. (outside fare control) but has been closed off for many years. Thelong mezzanine had no real transit purpose and it is unclear why itwas built. Plans were afoot to extend the PATH/Hudson & ManhattanRailroad to Grand Central; the mezzanine could have been builtanticipating this extension either as a right of way or as a means toblock the extension. There was an exit to street level at 37th St.,but no traces exist at street level of this exit. While it was open itwas dimly lit, poorly maintained, and risky to walk through. Theclosure came in the mid 1980s after a passenger was murdered in thepassageway. With the tunnel so lightly trafficked and with no transitcrew nearby, there was no expectation of help. It is now used forstorage. From time to time, access doors are open at the 40th St. farecontrol from which one can see down the length of the passageway.

A new connecting passageway to the Times Square station complex was opened in September 2021. Interestingly, this means that a passenger now has two ways to connect to the IRT Flushing Line.

ArtworkThe Sixth Avenue Elevated, 1878 (W. P. Snyder), High Five (Jane Ingram Allen, 1994), Under Bryant Park (Samm Kunce, 2002), 42nd Street Nocturne (Lynn Saville, 2006), Early Color (Saul Leiter, 2007), Underground Exposure: Photographs from a Daily Commute (Travis Ruse, 2010)

Transfer toIRT Flushing Line, BMT Broadway Line, IRT West Side Line, IRT Times Square-Grand Central Shuttle, IND 8th Avenue Line, IND 6th Avenue Line

34th Street-Herald Square

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34th Street/Herald Square is a massive complex servingthe IND 6th Avenue, the BMT Broadway, and the PATH line from NewJersey. As one might expect, this is the third busiest station complexin the system.

A textual description of the layout of this station isnot easy. The Broadway and 6th Avenue subways cross in an "X" patternfollowing their respective streets, with the midpoint of the "X" atabout 32nd Street. The 6th Avenue line, built later, passes underneaththe Broadway line and the elevation of the tracks shows it; the 6thAvenue line tracks dip way down in the middle of its station, with theends higher. From the top down, at the south end, the layout isroughly as follows: BMT mezzanine; BMT tracks; PATH station andtracks; 6th Avenue mezzanine; 6th Avenue tracks. Underneath all ofthis at a much lower level are the Long Island Rail Road tunnels fromQueens to Pennsylvania Station. As the PATH predates the subway byabout 32 years, its tracks are closer to the surface of 6th Avenue,with the subway tracks underneath. (Actually, the layout is morecomplex than that, see the descriptions of 23rd St./6th Ave. and 14thSt./6th Ave. for more details.)

Discontiguous mezzanines exist at both the north andsouth end of this complex, providing a transfer at both ends. At thenorth end there is a single mezzanine with stairs and elevators to theBroadway platforms on the west and the 6th Avenue platforms on theeast. At the south end, the 6th Avenue and Broadway mezzanines areconnected inside the fare-paid area by stairs. The mezzanines are alsoconnected outside the fare-paid area as well, and it is this area thatprovides access to the PATH station. A long passageway from one endof the complex to another connects the PATH mezzanine at the southwith the "shared" mezzanine at the north. (Phew!)

There are numerous exits and passageways including adirect entrance to the shopping center that has variously been knownas Gimbels, A&S Plaza, and Manhattan Mall. The station has exits from30th St. at the south end, to 35th St. at the north end, and variousothers in between. Until the mid-1980s a passageway was available toconnect, outside the fare control, to the IRT 7th Ave./West Side lineand to Penn Station and the commuter railroads there, but this wasclosed citing security concerns and the lack of desire of the privateproperty owner to maintain it.

Prior to a 1990s renovation effort, this was a dungeon ofa station complex. The lighting was miserably faint, signs all mixedup, stairs dark and tricky. The renovations have improved all aspectsof the station, although little of the original IND or BMT decor waskept. The combined stations are blended into a unified scheme ofdecor. The 6th Avenue station received new "34" monogram tabletsinstalled along the trackside walls (these are not mosaics). The tileis white with two rows of bright red accents. The BMT station retainedits "Dual Contracts"-style "34" mosaic monograms.

Some relative depths of stations in the 34th St./6thAve. complex are as follows, +/- 10 feet.

• IND Platforms, 40 feet below street
• BMT Platforms, 20 feet below street
• PATH Platforms, 30 feet below street

Transfer toIND 6th Avenue Line, BMT Broadway Line, PATH Port Authority Trans-Hudson

ArtworkHalo (Nicholas Pearson, 1991), Yab-Yum (David Provan, 1992)

23rd Street

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Two side platforms and two tracks. This is a local station with twoseparate platforms, and no crossover between directions. The layouthere is as follows (west to east, facing north): Downtown subwayplatform; downtown subway track; downtown PATH platform, downtown PATHtrack; uptown PATH track, uptown PATH platform; uptown subway track,uptown subway platform. The 6th Avenue Subway express tracks werebuilt in the 1960s and are below all of that. Provision was left forthe addition of side platforms along the express tracks if the needsomeday arises. An emergency exit from the express level isnoticeable along the subway platforms.

The PATH and subway stations share the same entrance from the street,with the PATH platforms being accessed via an underpass below thesubway platform and track. (That is, to access the PATH station youfirst go down from the street to subway mezzanine, then down to theunderpass where the PATH fare control is, then up to the PATHplatform.)

ArtworkStationary Figures (William Wegman, 2018)

14th Street

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Two side platforms and two tracks. Another unusual and complexstation, 14th Street on the 6th Avenue line ties together thepre-existing PATH subway (1908) and the BMT Canarsie line (1924)running crosstown on 14th Street. First, the local tracks were weavedthrough the complex in between the PATH and BMT in the late 1930s;then the express tracks were built later, in the 1960s. Again, theprovision exists on the express level to add platforms if the needarises, but adding in the access to these platforms is going to be aserious engineering project!

A common entrance to the subway and PATH, with separate fare controls,is at the 14th street end. There is a typical full IND mezzanine overthe station, largely unused and dimly lit. At the north end there isan exit to 16th Street. Fare controls are at both ends.

Transfer to the BMT Canarsie line is made from the south end of theIND 6th Avenue platforms. Stairways from each platform lead 28 stepsdown to an intermediate mezzanine, then down to the Canarsie Line'sisland platform.

Transfer toBMT Canarsie Line, IRT West Side Line

West 4th Street-Washington Square

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Two track levels, four tracks and two island platforms oneach level, with a full-length mezzanine between the two levels (notabove). The upper level services trains from the IND 8th Avenuesubway, and the lower level services those from the IND 6thAvenue/Houston Street subway. The upper level began service first,beginning in September, 1932. The first service on the lower level wasa shuttle along Houston Street to 2nd Avenue, starting January, 1936,with through service along the 6th Avenue local tracks startingDecember 1940. The 6th Avenue express tracks were built later, anddidn't begin service until July 1, 1968, so between 1936 and 1968, theexpress tracks here at West 4th Street (and also at 34th Street/6thAvenue) were used as terminal tracks only.

The station, which doesn't actually have an exit to 4thSt., is probably so-called to differentiate it from the planned INDsecond system South 4th St. station/line in Brooklyn.

There are two fare control areas; one reached via rampsat the south end of the two upper level platforms, in a small"mezzanine"; and one at the south end of each of the upper levelplatforms. Since the fare control areas all lead directly to the upperlevel (8th Avenue) platforms, passengers for 6th Avenue trains walk ashort distance along the upper platforms to the stairs down to themezzanine, and thence to the lower level platforms. Crossover andtransfer is provided via the mezzanine. Elevators were recently addedconnecting the two platforms and the mezzanine.

The mezzanine now houses a large NYCT office complex atthe north end; closed stairways from the lower level platforms revealthe "shortened" mezzanine above. Rumor has it that there used to bedirect exits to the street from this middle level mezzanine. For astation this large it actually has relatively few and small exits tothe street; this station was meant as a mass transfer point betweenthe two trunk lines.

The tile adornment is standard IND; both track levelshave dark green tile stripes with an even darker green border. Thereare no other artworks or mosaics along the platforms or tracksidewalls.

The streets around this station bear scars of the INDconstruction. Sixth Avenue started at 3rd Street; there was no streetcontinuing south at that point. A new street was sliced through theVillage to accommodate the new subway. Bits and bites of the adjoiningblocks were cut off by the new street. There are numerous buildingswith sides ripped out and bare; many have been cosmetically redoneover the ages. This slicing through of the IND subway (and of the IRTWest Side line as well) helped contribute to the triangular blocks sofamous to the Village.

This new southern extension of Sixth Avenue is extra wideto fit the cunning interchange between the 6th and 8th Avenuelines. South of the station there are three levels of track. The 8thAvenue express is the upper level. The local tracks of both lines arein the middle with their flying junction. The 6th Avenue express isthe lowest level.

Transfer toIND 8th Avenue Line, IND 6th Avenue Line

See AlsoHow to Read Single Line Diagrams

Broadway-Lafayette

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Four tracks and two island platforms. Tile is white with blue stripeand black border. There are slate blue accent tiles at regularintervals. The fare control is up 21 steps from the mezzanine. Thereis a crossover between directions via the mezzanine. South of thisstation the line divides into two branches to Brooklyn: via tunnel tothe IND lines and via bridge to the BMT lines.

There has long been a transfer to the downtown local train of the IRTEast Side's Bleecker Street station, via a glass-walled passageway.In 2012, a transfer opened to the uptown local platform, along withnew stairway, escalators, and elevators.

ArtworkSignal (Mel Chin, 1998), Hive (Leo Villareal, 2012)

Transfer toIRT East Side Line

2nd Avenue

F

Two island platforms and four tracks. Tile band is purple with darkpurple border, and no name tablet. Columns are concrete. The center ofthe platform has a huge concrete column with built-in benches. Thereis evidence of a removed center exit. The north exit (HoustonSt./Second Ave.) and mezzanine are very dim and despite leading tothe station's namesake avenue is only open on a part-time basis. Thesouth mezzanine (to First Ave.) has an intermediate level, with thefare control 8 steps up from this level, and is open full time.

The four tracks at 2nd Avenue were originally, but notnow, the same four as at Broadway-Lafayette. A view of the area track map willillustrate this point. The center tracks at Broadway-Lafayette wereconnected to the two tracks of the Chrystie Street Connection comingnorth from the Grand Street Station and the Manhattan Bridge. Thelocal tracks continue unbroken between Broadway-Lafayette and 2ndAvenue. The track in between the uptown local and express, now used bythe connection from the Williamsburg Bridge was original construction,formerly used as a layup track. Presently the stumps of the expresstracks at 2nd Avenue are tied to the local tracks and has a crossoverjust west of 2nd Avenue. This makes 2nd Avenue into a terminal stationfor short runs and it is planned that one route from the upper sectionof the Second Avenue Subway line wouldend here. The center tracks continue behind the wall to about AvenueA. They would have continued to and under the East River as part ofthe IND Second System lines. Before the mid 1980s they were open and used for laying uptrains from time to time, but they were quickly inundated by squatterswho domiciled in the nooks and crannies of the tunnel. When they werecleared out by 1990 the tracks were closed off. Evidence of theprovision for the Second Avenue Subway is found in a lower transverseceiling across the platforms and the discontiguous mezzanines.

Delancey Street

F

Features tile colors like Second Avenue. Northbound has concretecolumns and southbound has I-beams, both in purple. The name tabletcolors are reversed. There are two tracks and two wall platforms. farecontrol is in the center on the mezzanine level.

Reader Alan L. writes:

Regarding the Delancy Street Station of the IND, I recall stairways leading up to wherever at the south end of the platform. These stairways were always blocked, and there were a few of them. They were NOT the stairways to the BMT Jamaica line. Now, these stairways are gone, and there is no evidence that they were there or what they went to. I suspected that they were part of the IND second system which was never built, but I can find no literature that indicates that they might have been there. If anyone has any information, please send it along!

ArtworkShad Crossing (Ming Fay, 2004), Delancey Orchard (Ming Fay, 2004)

Transfer toBMT Nassau Street-Jamaica Line

East Broadway

F

Tile is off-white brick with purple border. South exitis up 18 steps, a bend in the passageway then 14 more steps and a rampto the fare control. Outside the control is a ramp to EastBroadway. The north exit leads to Madison Street and also has a rampto East Broadway (outside the paid area). The lower mezzanine is tiledover on the north end along with a closed stairway. There is a closedcenter exit which is very narrow and a long closed extreme southernexit. The north upper mezzanine extends further north outside the paidzone.

ArtworkDisplacing Details (Noel Copeland, 1992)

York Street

F

We've passed under the East River through the Rutgers St. tunnel, andarrived at this deep-level station, which has round deep-bore wallsand a narrow island platform. Tile is matte finish white brick withpurple tile border. The center of the station features round columnswith the tile border and white matte finish brick. The ceilingfeatures some barrel vaults. The north exit leads to York and JayStreets. There are 32 steps to a long, steep ramp to the farecontrol. The upper mezzanine is dim and is the site of a new fanplant. There is no south exit.

Grand Street

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Two tracks and two side platforms. Opened in 1967 as part of theChrystie Street connection work. There is an extra exit being plannedto the street, no details available but a contract has beenissued. The tile is ivory in a vertical arrangement with a robin bluetile band. The Grand Street name is in white. A stylized train artworkis at the stairs to the mezzanine and also in the mezzanine.

Rumor has it that the walls along the platforms are designed to beremoved, for conversion into two island platforms; space for twotracks which would have been used by the Second Avenue Subway issaid to be behind the walls. It isn't clear if this is actually trueor not. In any event, the more recent plans for completion of theSecond Ave. line would probably not use these provisions.

The immense growth of Chinatown can be appreciated by watching thisstation. When it opened in 1967 only a few riders got on or off here;the modest entrances were in keeping with this light traffic. Steadilythe ridership here swelled. Today there are portions of the day whenthe platform is filled end to end with people pressed against the walland toeing the platform edge.

After Grand Street, the trains from the IND 6th Avenue Subway crossthe Manhattan Bridge and arrive at DeKalb Avenue station. South ofthe station where the tracks curve onto Manhattan Bridge are theoriginal trackways from the BMT Broadway station at Canal Street. Theyare best seen from the back window of a Brooklyn-bound train.

ArtworkTrains of Thought (Gardner/Heller)

Page Credits

By Peggy Darlington, Ron Aryel, and David Pirmann. Route map schematic by Timothy Anderson.