Wilson Avenue (BMT Canarsie Line)

 Wilson Avenue
 "L" train
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Southbound platform
Station statistics
Address Wilson Avenue & Moffat Street
Brooklyn, NY 11207
Borough Brooklyn
Locale Bushwick
Coordinates 40°41′19″N 73°54′16″W / 40.6885°N 73.9044°W / 40.6885; -73.9044Coordinates: 40°41′19″N 73°54′16″W / 40.6885°N 73.9044°W / 40.6885; -73.9044
Division B (BMT)
Line       BMT Canarsie Line
Services       L  (all times)
Structure Elevated (southbound)
covered at-grade (northbound)
Levels 2
Platforms 2 side platforms (1 on each level)
Tracks 2 (1 on each level)
Other information
Opened July 14, 1928 (1928-07-14)
Station code 130[1]
Accessible Partially ADA-accessible (northbound only)
Wireless service [2]
Traffic
Passengers (2017) 1,471,094[3] Increase 20.7%
Rank 308 out of 425
Station succession
Next north Halsey Street: L 
Next south Bushwick Avenue–Aberdeen Street: L 
Next north Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues: L 
Next south station not accessible southbound
Next accessible station southbound: Canarsie–Rockaway Parkway: L 
Wilson Avenue Subway Station (Dual System BMT)
MPS New York City Subway System MPS
NRHP reference # 05000681[4]
Added to NRHP July 6, 2005

Wilson Avenue is a station on the BMT Canarsie Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Moffat Street in Brooklyn, it is served by the L train at all times.

History

Track layout
Upper level
NYCR
to Hell Gate Bridge
former Evergreen Branch
to Bushwick Av
Bay Ridge Branch
to Bay Ridge
Railroad
 Subway
Lower level
to Halsey St

Wilson Avenue opened on July 14, 1928, as part of an extension of the Canarsie Line. This extension connected Montrose Avenue, which had opened four years earlier, to Broadway Junction, which was the western end of the already-operating elevated line to Canarsie.[5]

On September 21, 1984, Irma Lozada, a New York City Transit Police officer, was murdered at an abandoned lot south of the station. Lozada was part of the Plain Clothes Anti-Crime (PCAC) unit when she was gunned down by Darryl Jeter, a chain snatcher that took her service gun as she attempted to arrest him for stealing a necklace from an L train rider. Lozada was the first policewoman to be killed in action in New York City.[6]

Station layout

Southbound
(2F)		 → "L" train toward Canarsie (Bushwick Avenue–Aberdeen Street) →
Side platform, doors will open on the right
Northbound
(G)		 ← "L" train toward Eighth Avenue (Halsey Street)
Side platform, doors will open on the left
Fare control, passageway to entrance/exit
Street Level Entrance/exit
(Wheelchair ramp at dead-end of Wilson Avenue east of Moffat Street for northbound trains only)
Street entrance prior to wheelchair ramp implementation and staircase raised by one step.

The station, which was designed by Robert Ridgway and Squire J. Vickers,[4] has some features that are not found elsewhere in the system.[7] It is squeezed in between the Most Holy Trinity Cemetery, to the east, and the New York Connecting Railroad (NYCR) and the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) Bay Ridge Branch, to the west. The two tracks and two side platforms are on different levels, making Wilson Avenue the only station on the Canarsie Line where this occurs.[7] Since the platforms are on different levels, each has a different design. The outbound track sits on a low elevated structure; immediately south of the station, the outbound track passes over Central Avenue before descending into a tunnel toward Bushwick Avenue–Aberdeen Street. The inbound track is immediately below the outbound track, and the station gives the impression of being underground, but it is really at street level.[7][8]

The northbound platform

The Rockaway Parkway-bound (upper level) platform has a canopy along the entire length of the platform, supported by a beige concrete retaining wall with curved green supports extending from the wall at regular intervals.[7][8] A fence runs along the track side of the southbound platform, separating the subway station from the Most Holy Trinity Cemetery, which is visible directly through the fence.[7][8] The Manhattan-bound (lower level) platform has tiling and name plaques, which is typical for a Canarsie Line underground station. A concrete wall closes off the east side of the lower level.[7] The mosaic band is predominantly green at edges with a vivid multicolored design throughout, twenty-eight colors in all. The trackside wall once had tiles that matched those of the platform, but these tiles were removed sometime after 1982, and the trackside wall is currently the same plain, dark color as a typical New York City Subway tunnel wall.[7][8]

A renovation, costing between three and five million dollars, added handicapped access to the ground-level Manhattan-bound platform under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) via the use of a ramp from the Wilson Avenue entrance. The elevated Canarsie-bound platform was not proposed to get ADA access since it would be much more costly to add an elevator up to the Canarsie-bound level.[9]

Exit

There is one entrance and exit to the station, which is in a dead-end at the foot of Wilson Avenue, just east of Moffat Street.[10] There are five steps leading up to the station entrance,[7][8] as well as a wheelchair ramp.[11] The entrance feeds directly onto the northbound platform with stairs to southbound service on the upper level.[7][8]

References

  1. ↑ "Station Developers' Information". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  2. ↑ "NYC Subway Wireless – Active Stations". Transit Wireless Wifi. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership 2012–2017". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. July 12, 2018. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  4. 1 2 "NPS Focus". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Last Link of New 14th St-E.D. Subway To Be Opened Today: First Train This Afternoon Will Carry Officials – Citizens to Celebrate". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. July 14, 1928. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
  6. ↑ Dewan, Shaila K. (September 22, 2004). "Recalling a Slain Officer, and the Equality of Peril". The New York Times (N.Y./Region). Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "BMT Canarsie Line: Wilson Avenue". nycsubway.org. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cox, Jeremiah. "Wilson Avenue (L) - The SubwayNut". subwaynut.com. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Wilson L Stop Repairs to Only Make Manhattan-Bound Platform ADA Accessible". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on August 21, 2016. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  10. ↑ "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Ocean Hill" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Accessible Stations in the MTA Network". web.mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved November 29, 2016.

Further reading

  • Lee Stokey. Subway Ceramics : A History and Iconography. 1994. ISBN 978-0-9635486-1-0
  • nycsubway.org – BMT Canarsie: Wilson Avenue
  • Station Reporter — "L Train". stationreporter.net. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013.
  • The Subway Nut — Wilson Avenue Pictures
  • Wilson Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
  • Upper platform from Google Maps Street View (Daytime)
  • Upper platform from Google Maps Street View (Evening)
  • Lower platform from Google Maps Street View
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.