Broadway–Lafayette Street/Bleecker Street station

The Broadway–Lafayette Street/Bleecker Street station is a New York City Subway station complex in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and the IND Sixth Avenue Line. It is served by the 6, D, and F trains at all times; the B and M trains on weekdays during the day; the <6> and <F> trains during rush hours in the peak direction; and the 4 train during late nights.

The complex comprises two stations, Bleecker Street and Broadway–Lafayette Street. The Bleecker Street station was built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), and was a local 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. The Broadway–Lafayette Street station was built as an express station for the Independent Subway System (IND) and opened on January 1, 1936.

The Bleecker Street station has two side platforms and four tracks; express trains use the inner two tracks to bypass the station. The Broadway–Lafayette Street station has two island platforms and four tracks. The transfer between the downtown IRT platform and the IND platform has been within fare control since May 19, 1957, and the corresponding free transfer from the uptown IRT platform to the rest of the station opened on September 25, 2012. The station complex contains elevators, which make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The original portion of the Bleecker Street station's interior is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

IRT Lexington Avenue Line

Construction and opening

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, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. 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 concerning 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 (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.

The Bleecker Street station was constructed as part of the route segment from Chambers Street to Great Jones Street. Construction on this section of the line began on July 10, 1900, and was awarded to Degnon-McLean Contracting Company. In the vicinity of the Bleecker Street station, the subway was to run under Lafayette Street, a new thoroughfare constructed between 1897 and 1905. This involved widening, connecting, and renaming two formerly unconnected streets: Elm Street, which ran south of Houston Street, and Lafayette Place, which ran north of Great Jones Street to an intersection with Astor Place. The southward extension of Lafayette Street and the construction of the subway required the demolition or underpinning of several buildings in the street's path. This resulted in the creation of narrow land lots on either side of Lafayette Street between Houston and Great Jones Streets, an area that included the Bleecker Street station's site. Even after the subway was completed, many of the narrow lots on Lafayette Street remained undeveloped for decades.

During the station's construction in 1903, a portion of the ceiling collapsed, reportedly because of poor workmanship. 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. Except for the collapsed section of the ceiling, the station itself was finished by January 1904. The Bleecker 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 first subway line, and particularly the Bleecker Street station, helped contribute to more development in the East Village, which at the time was already densely populated.