14th Street/Eighth Avenue station
The 14th Street/Eighth Avenue station is an underground New York City Subway station complex shared by the IND Eighth Avenue Line and the BMT Canarsie Line. Located at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan, the station is served by the A, E, and L trains at all times and the C train at all times except late nights.
The whole complex is ADA-compliant, with an accessible station entrance at 14th Street. This complex was renovated at the beginning of the 21st century. There are several MTA New York City Transit Authority training facilities located in the mezzanine. The station complex contains an artwork by Tom Otterness called Life Underground, which features whimsical bronze sculptures, including a sewer alligator, scattered about the station.
History[edit]
Construction and opening[edit]
The Dual Contracts, which called for the expansion of the New York City Subway system, were formalized in early 1913.[4] As part of the Dual Contracts, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (later the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, or BMT) was to construct a subway from 14th Street in Manhattan to Canarsie in Brooklyn; this became the BMT's Canarsie Line. Booth and Flinn was awarded the contract to construct the line on January 13, 1916.[5] Clifford Milburn Holland served as the engineer-in-charge during the construction.[6] The line opened in phases, reaching Sixth Avenue in 1924.[7]
Meanwhile, New York City mayor John Francis Hylan's original plans for the Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in 1922, included building over 100 miles (160 km) of new lines and taking over nearly 100 miles (160 km) of existing lines. The lines were designed to compete with the existing underground, surface, and elevated lines operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and BMT.[8][9] On December 9, 1924, the New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) gave preliminary approval for the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line.[10] This line consisted of a corridor connecting Inwood, Manhattan, to Downtown Brooklyn, running largely under Eighth Avenue but also paralleling Greenwich Avenue and Sixth Avenue in Lower Manhattan.[10][11] The BOT announced a list of stations on the new line in February 1928, with an express station at 14th Street.[12]