The 59th Street–Columbus Circle station is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and the IND Eighth Avenue Line. It is located at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, where 59th Street, Broadway and Eighth Avenue intersect, and serves Central Park, the Upper West Side, Hell's Kitchen, and Midtown Manhattan. The station is served by the 1, A, and D trains at all times; the C train except at night; the B train only on weekdays during the day; and the 2 train during late nights.
The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line 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 Eighth Avenue Line station was built as an express station for the Independent Subway System (IND) and opened on September 10, 1932, as part of the IND's first segment. The complex was renovated in the 2000s, following unsuccessful attempts to raise money for such a restoration during the late 20th century.
The IRT station has two side platforms and four tracks; express trains use the inner two tracks to bypass the station. The IND station has three island platforms and four tracks, but only two of the platforms are in use. The transfer between the IRT platforms and the IND platforms has been within fare control since July 1, 1948. The station complex contains elevators, which make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. There is also a New York City Police Department (NYPD) transit precinct at the station. The original portion of the IRT station's interior is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. , the station is the eighth-busiest in the system.
History
Original IRT subway
Construction and opening
Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864, but development of what became 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 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, under 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 59th Street station was constructed as part of the IRT's West Side Line (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) from 60th Street to 82nd Street, for which work had begun on August 22, 1900. These sections had been awarded to William Bradley. The section of tunnel near Columbus Circle had been completed by late 1901. At the time, the uptown platform was planned to be named 60th Street, while the downtown platform was to be named 59th Street. On March 14, 1903, the 59th Street station hosted a ceremony in which mayor Seth Low drove the first spike for the IRT subway's first track. 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 59th 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 West Side Branch. The opening of the first subway line, and particularly the 59th Street station, helped contribute to the development of Columbus Circle and the Upper West Side.
Operation
To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) 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 (equivalent to $ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. Platforms at local stations, such as the 59th Street–Columbus Circle station, were lengthened by between . The northbound platform was extended to the south, while the southbound platform was extended to the north and south. Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910.
As early as March 1914, local business owners and workers began advocating for the 59th Street–Columbus Circle station to be converted into an express stop. That August, the PSC published a report outlining two alternatives for the station's conversion. The first option called for building a mezzanine under the tracks and relocating the platforms, while the other option called for lowering the tracks and erecting a new mezzanine above. IRT president Theodore Shonts opposed the plan, saying that the plan was too costly. Such a conversion would require underpinning the Columbus Monument directly above the station, as well as the relocation of a water main next to the subway line. In 1915, the city awarded the PSC the right to build an entrance inside a building on the north side of Columbus Circle, replacing an entrance on the sidewalk.
The Broadway Association recommended in mid-1922 that a new entrance be built on the south side of Columbus Circle, since pedestrians had to cross heavy vehicular traffic in the circle. In December 1922, the Transit Commission approved a $3 million project to lengthen platforms at 14 local stations along the original IRT line, including 59th Street and five other stations on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. Platform lengths at these stations would be increased from . The commission postponed the platform-lengthening project in September 1923, at which point the cost had risen to $5.6 million.
IND expansion New York City mayor John Francis Hylan's original plans for the Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in 1922, included building over of new lines and taking over nearly of existing lines. The lines were designed to compete with the existing underground, surface, and elevated lines operated by the IRT and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). On December 9, 1924, the New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) gave preliminary approval to the construction of a subway line along Eighth Avenue, running from 207th Street. The Eighth Avenue Line station was originally planned to be located at 57th Street, with entrances extending up to 61st Street. By 1927, the IND station had been relocated to be nearer the IRT station, forming a major transit hub under Columbus Circle. The BOT announced a list of stations on the new line in February 1928, with an express station at 58th Street.
Though most of the Eighth Avenue Line was dug using a cheap cut-and-cover method, workers at 59th Street–Columbus Circle had to be careful to not disrupt the existing IRT line overhead. Workers blasted out a portion of the station site, but they had to halt the work when an IRT train passed by. The Columbus Monument was shored up during the work. The underpinning process was overseen by John H. Myers, the engineer who had been responsible for underpinning the monument during the construction of the IRT station. In October 1928, the BOT awarded a $444,000 contract to Charles Mead & Co. for the completion of the 50th Street, 59th Street, and 72nd Street stations on the Eighth Avenue Line. The finishes at the three stations were 20 percent completed by May 1930. By that August, the BOT reported that the Eighth Avenue Line was nearly completed and that the three stations from 50th to 72nd Street were 99.9 percent completed. The entire line was completed by September 1931, except for the installation of turnstiles.
A preview event for the new subway was hosted at Columbus Circle on September 8, 1932, two days before the official opening. The Eighth Avenue Line station opened on September 10, 1932, as part of the city-operated IND's initial segment, the Eighth Avenue Line between Chambers Street and 207th Street. There was a direct connection with the IRT station at Columbus Circle; initially, passengers had to pay an additional fare to transfer between the IRT and the IND. The New York Herald Tribune described the 59th Street station as one of three "showplaces" on the new IND line, the others being the 14th Street and 42nd Street stations. The construction of the Eighth Avenue Line caused real-estate values along Eighth Avenue to increase by as much as 400 percent. One developer predicted that the IND station's construction would spur development around Columbus Circle, similar to the development boom that had taken place around Times Square when the original IRT had been built.
Although the IND station was built with three island platforms, the center platform (between the two express tracks) was not used for the first two decades of the station's operation. IND employees did use the center platform for musical performances during Christmas. In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) proposed decorating the 59th Street station and other IND stations with murals. Supporters of the WPA's plan created a mockup of two murals for the 59th Street station in early 1939. One mural would have depicted a map of Manhattan's subway lines, flanked by "typical street scenes", while the other mural would have depicted Christopher Columbus, flanked by scenes depicting Central Park. In addition, relief panels would have been placed above the stairways leading to the northbound and southbound platforms, respectively depicting personifications of winter and summer.
Modifications and later changes 1940s and 1950s The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. A large sporting arena was then proposed for the western side of Columbus Circle in 1946, with a tunnel connecting directly to the 59th Street–Columbus Circle station. The arena plan, originally envisioned as a replacement for Madison Square Garden, ultimately evolved into the New York Coliseum convention center. As part of the unification of the New York City Subway system, the passageways between the IRT and IND stations were placed inside fare control on July 1, 1948. Later the same year, a candy store opened in the mezzanine of the 59th Street station, one of the first such stores approved in the subway system.
Starting on March 24, 1953, the IND station's center express platform was opened for passenger service during rush hours; express trains opened their doors on both sides in the peak direction only. Southbound trains served the center platform in the morning, and northbound trains served the platform in the afternoon. In addition, a loudspeaker system was installed at the IND station to help regulate passenger flow. Access to the center express platform was via seven staircases, which were closed during off-peak hours. This was the first time the center express platform had been used in regular service.