14th Street–Union Square station
The 14th Street–Union Square station is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the BMT Broadway Line, the BMT Canarsie Line and the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. It is located at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 14th Street, underneath Union Square Park in Manhattan. The complex is near the border of several neighborhoods, including the East Village to the southeast, Greenwich Village to the south and southwest, Chelsea to the northwest, and both the Flatiron District and Gramercy Park to the north and northeast. The 14th Street–Union Square station is served by the,,,, and trains at all times; the and trains at all times except late nights; the W train on weekdays; and the <6> train weekdays in the peak direction.
The Lexington Avenue Line platforms were built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company as an express station on the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. As part of the Dual Contracts, the Broadway Line platforms opened in 1917 and the Canarsie Line platform opened in 1924. Several modifications have been made to the stations over the years, and they were combined on July 1, 1948. The complex was renovated in the 1990s and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
The Lexington Avenue Line station has two abandoned side platforms, two island platforms, and four tracks, while the parallel Broadway Line station has two island platforms and four tracks. The Canarsie Line station, crossing under both of the other stations, has one island platform and two tracks. Numerous elevators make most of the complex, except for the Lexington Avenue Line station, compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. There is also a New York City Police Department transit precinct at the station. In 2019, over 32 million passengers entered this station, making it the fourth-busiest station in the system.
History
First subway
Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864. However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, chief engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission. It called for a subway line from New York City Hall in lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into the Bronx. A plan was formally adopted in 1897, and all legal conflicts over the route alignment were resolved near the end of 1899. The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900, in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations. Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in April 1902 to operate the subway.The 14th Street station was constructed as part of the route segment from Great Jones Street to 41st Street. Construction on this section of the line began on September 12, 1900. The section from Great Jones Street to a point 100 feet north of 33rd Street was awarded to Holbrook, Cabot & Daly Contracting Company. Two streetcar tracks on Union Square East were temporarily relocated to one side of the street while contractors excavated through solid rock on the site. During the line's construction, the contractors installed a temporary compressed-air plant in Union Square, prompting a lawsuit from the operator of a nearby hotel. The New York Court of Appeals ruled in 1902 that the contractors had to disassemble the compressed-air plant and to stop storing materials in Union Square Park. By late 1903, the subway was nearly complete, but the IRT Powerhouse and the system's electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening. The 14th Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from City Hall to 145th Street on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line.
The opening of the 14th Street station turned Union Square into a major transportation hub. With the northward relocation of the city's theater district, Union Square became a major wholesaling district with several loft buildings, as well as numerous office buildings. Initially, the IRT station was served by local and express trains along both the West Side and East Side. West Side local trains had their southern terminus at City Hall during rush hours and South Ferry at other times, and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street. East Side local trains ran from City Hall to Lenox Avenue. Express trains had their southern terminus at South Ferry or Atlantic Avenue and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street, Lenox Avenue, or West Farms. Express trains to 145th Street were later eliminated, and West Farms express trains and rush-hour Broadway express trains operated through to Brooklyn. As part of an experiment to improve the subway line's ventilation, the Rapid Transit Commission installed large fans at the 14th Street station in July 1905.
To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. At the 14th Street station, the northbound island platform was extended north and south, while the southbound island platform was extended north, necessitating the replacement of some structural steel north of the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 13th Street. Gap fillers were added to the southbound island platform at this time. Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910. On January 23, 1911, ten-car express trains began running on the Lenox Avenue Line, and the next day, ten-car express trains were inaugurated on the West Side Line.
In 1918, the Lexington Avenue Line opened north of Grand Central–42nd Street, and the original line was divided into an H-shaped system. All trains at the 14th Street–Union Square station were sent via the Lexington Avenue Line.
Dual Contracts
After the original IRT opened, the city began planning new lines. The New York Public Service Commission adopted plans for what was known as the Broadway–Lexington Avenue route on December 31, 1907. A proposed Tri-borough system was adopted in early 1908, incorporating the Broadway Line. Operation of the line was assigned to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company in the Dual Contracts, adopted on March 4, 1913. The Dual Contracts also entailed a subway route under 14th Street, to run to Canarsie in Brooklyn; this became the BMT's Canarsie Line.Broadway Line
In May 1913, the Public Service Commission began receiving bids for Section 4 of the Broadway Line, between Houston Street and Union Square. This was the first construction contract to be placed for bidding after the Dual Contracts had been signed. The next month, the Dock Contractor Company submitted a low bid of $2.578 million. This section was to include a station at Union Square between 14th and 16th Streets. Local civic group Broadway Association and various property owners objected to the fact that Dock Contractor was to receive the contract, citing the firm's lack of experience. The Public Service Commission approved Dock Contractor's bid despite these objections, and the contract was awarded later that month. The section between 16th and 26th Streets was awarded to the E. E. Smith Construction Company in September 1913 for $2.057 million.From the outset, the 14th Street–Union Square station was intended as an express station on the Broadway Line. To save money, the station was built using an open cut method. A strip of land, running diagonally through Union Square Park, was closed and excavated. By late 1913, large portions of Union Square Park had been demolished for the construction of the Broadway Line's Union Square station. New York City's parks commissioner promised members of the public that the park would be remodeled after the station was finished. Because the Dual Contracts specified that the street surfaces needed to remain intact during the system's construction, a temporary web of timber supports was erected to support the streets overhead while the BMT platforms were being constructed.
The Broadway Line south of 14th Street was near completion by February 1916, and workers began restoring the section of Union Square Park above the 14th Street station. The same month, the Public Service Commission began accepting bids for the installation of finishes at seven stations on the Broadway Line from Rector Street to 14th Street. D. C. Gerber submitted a $346,000 low bid for the finishes. The section of the line north of 14th Street, by contrast, was still incomplete. Although it was technically possible for the BRT to terminate trains at Union Square, the line would not be profitable until it was extended at least to 34th Street. The Broadway Line's 14th Street–Union Square station opened on September 4, 1917, as the northern terminus of the first section of the line between 14th Street and Canal Street. Initially, it only served local trains. Within three months of the Broadway Line station's opening, the 14th Street–Union Square station recorded more daily passengers than either the Grand Central–42nd Street station or the Brooklyn Bridge–Chambers Street station, leading Women's Wear to describe the Union Square complex as "probably the world's greatest underground traffic point".
On January 5, 1918, the Broadway Line was extended north to Times Square–42nd Street and south to Rector Street, and express service started on the line. For about three weeks, a shuttle service ran between Union Square and Times Square. Local trains from Brooklyn began running through to Times Square on January 27. While local trains terminated at the Times Square station, express trains from Brooklyn continued to terminate at Union Square until a northward extension to 57th Street opened in July 1919, allowing express trains to operate to Times Square. To aid navigation, in 1920, the BRT installed illuminated signs on the southbound platforms of Union Square and two other Broadway Line stations.