57th Street (IND Sixth Avenue Line)

57th Street is a station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 57th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, it is served by the F train at all times. North of the station, the line turns east and becomes the IND 63rd Street Line.

History

57th Street opened on 1 July 1968 as one of two stations added during construction of the Chrystie Street Connection, the other being Grand Street. Upon its opening, the station acted as the terminus of two services, the B and KK, the former during rush hour and the latter during off-peak hours. The B ran to Coney Island via the Manhattan Bridge and the West End Line while the KK ran to 168th Street via the Williamsburg Bridge and Jamaica Line. The KK was renamed as the K and truncated to Broadway Junction in 1972 and eliminated in 1976 altogether.^[2] In 1978, the MTA created the JFK Express service to the eponymous airport, with 57th Street acting as the northern terminal of the route.

The reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge caused radical services changes at the station. The B was re-routed to its current route down Central Park West via the Seventh Avenue station to the Sixth Avenue Line and was replaced by the S to Grand Street.^[3] In 1988, the Q became a Sixth Avenue service and ran via the Manhattan Bridge to the Brighton Line, acting as an express in Brooklyn; when the 63rd Street Tunnel opened in 1989, the Q was simultaneously extended to the new terminal at 21st Street – Queensbridge. The B, and eventually the F, replaced the Q in 1990.

Station layout

57th Street utilizes a simple two tracks and a single island platform setup common to terminal stations. Except for the removal of exit slam gates at fare controls, much of the station design remains unchanged from 1968 opening. Even the "Next Train" indicator lights are still hanging from the platform ceiling, dating from the period when the station was a terminal. The tower and crew area still exists. They were abandoned after the 1989 63rd Street extension to 21st Street – Queensbridge, but was back in service in 1998 when trains from Sixth Avenue terminated here due to long term construction work that necessitated a shuttle train from Queensbridge to 57th Street – Seventh Avenue on the BMT Broadway Line. Once all construction work was completed on the 63rd Street Connector to the IND Queens Boulevard Line in December 2001, the tower was permanently abandoned.

This station features one of the last surviving telephone booths, located inside one of the three fare control areas at mezzanine level. The door on the booth is broken. A plaque dedicated to retired Colonel John T. O'Neill, who served as the New York City Transit Authority's Chief Engineer until his death in 1978, sits next to the booth on the west wall. The island platform is comparatively wide. There are six staircases to the platform and eight street staircases spread on both sides of Sixth Avenue from 56th to 57th Streets. The station walls are plain white, with "57th St" appearing on the wall.

In film

57th Street Station appears in the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Gangsters Harry and Marv can be seen exiting onto Sixth Avenue from the station. The JFK Express label is still visible.

57th Street Station also appears in the 2011 film "A Very Harold And Kumar 3D Christmas" in the scene when Harold and Kumar are carrying a Christmas tree "Neil Patrick Harris" gave them before getting kidnapped by the Ukrainian mobsters.

References

External links

• nycsubway.org — IND 6th Avenue: 57th Street
• Station Reporter — F Train
• 57th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• 56th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View