ONE of my favorite subway websites is Vanshnookenraggen, the pseudonym of Andrew Lynch, who writes about a NYC subway system that never was, or one that never will be. Entries talk about subway lines that were never built; Lynch is also a cartographer, and produced detailed system maps of these “lost” systems. One was the IND Second System, which would have placed subways under 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, the northeast Bronx, southeast Queens, places they don’t go today and likely never will. Work actually got started, some stations were built, but depression, war and new recessions happened; you know the rest.
Well, some sections of this Second System would have been elevated. What would an IND Elevated look like? For those unfamiliar with subway history, the IND was developed by NYC beginning in the 1920s to compete with the IRT (the number lines) and BMT (many of the letter lines) and had a much different design esthetic than the older lines; less ornamentation and mosaics, and a much more utilitarian look. It’s immediately apparent when you compare stations on the A/C/E and F lines, say, to the stations of the 4/5/6 train. As it happens, the 4th Avenue and Smith/9th Stations pointed the way to what prospective IND elevateds would have looked like–concrete-clad viaducts instead of iron pillars, for example.
After many years of delay, the south facing arched windows of the 4th Avenue Station, which partially consists of an arch bridge over the avenue, were finally revealed in 2019. The windows are now glazed polyurethane and aren’t opaque, though they do allow sun rays to streak onto the platform. Combined with the metal “ribs” of the superstructure, the effect is unique in the entire subway system. Prior to the 1970s the windows were made of glass and provided a clear view of the avenue; but in that decade the local youth made quick work of the glass and the windows were filled with an opaque material for nearly 40 years before the platforms were renovated. As the above link will show, though, the station retains most of its 1930s IND design elements.
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6/17/23
5 comments
I always remembered those windows as being painted over. When were they painted over ?
The F/G stop at 4th Ave. and 9th St. reminds me of the Paris Metro Line 6, which features an elevated portion from the early 1900s with ornate glass and iron stations. Here’s a link to a photo of one such station, La Motte-Picquet-Grenelle,
https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?123712
Knowing the bureaucracy and nature of the MTA these days, we’ll probably never see the IND Second System let alone the Second Avenue Subway completed in our lifetimes.
BMT trains were not always lettered. I lived on the Jamaica line (listening to the Cypress Hills S curve every night). It was the 15 train then.
I live at the next station on the R. Fourth Ave is now lined with an endless supply of high rise buildings.