West Fourth Street–Washington Square station


West Fourth Street–Washington Square is an express station and transfer stop on the IND Sixth Avenue and IND Eighth Avenue Lines of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of West Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It is served by:
West Fourth Street opened on September 10, 1932, as part of the city-operated Independent Subway System 's initial segment, the Eighth Avenue Line between Chambers Street and 207th Street. At the time, only the upper level was used, with service on the lower level beginning on December 15, 1940 with the opening of the Sixth Avenue local tracks. The Sixth Avenue express tracks were built later and were put into through service on November 27, 1967; prior to then, the express tracks here and at 34th Street–Herald Square were used as terminal tracks only.
The station was named "West Fourth Street" as opposed to merely "Fourth Street" because the planners of the Independent Subway System believed there would be confusion between this station and "South Fourth Street", a proposed transfer station on the never-built IND Second System in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Station layout

West Fourth Street station was built by the IND as the major transfer point between its two Manhattan trunk lines. It can be considered the "heart" of the IND system as it is the location of the zero point on the IND chaining. It is a bi-level station with a connecting concourse between the two platform levels. The Eighth Avenue Line occupies the upper level, while the Sixth Avenue Line uses the lower level. Both levels use identical platform arrangements–two island platforms between four tracks, allowing for cross-platform interchanges between local and express trains in each direction.
There are three fare control areas - two at the northern end of the station, and one at the southern end. All lead directly to the Eighth Avenue Line on the upper level platforms; access to the Sixth Avenue Line on the lower level is via stairs and elevators from the upper level and/or the full-length mezzanine between the two levels. Several escalators are present, which go directly between one of the lower level platforms to its corresponding upper level platform. The elevators, added in April 2005 to make the station ADA-accessible, provide access to both levels and to the mezzanine.

Exits

The station does not have an exit to Fourth Street itself anymore, though an exit formerly existed there. The northern exits are on the northern side of 6th Avenue and Waverly Place. Two staircases go up to the northeast corner, both built into alcoves of stores, and one to the northwest corner. The southern exits are at West Third Street, on the east and west sides of 6th Avenue.
There are also four additional closed exits that directly led to the mezzanine. Two went to Washington Place, and the other two went to West 4th Street itself. There is a fifth closed exit at one northern fare control area; it led to the southwestern corner of Greenwich Avenue and Sixth Avenue.

Nearby points of interest