The Spring Street station is a local

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

on the

IND Eighth Avenue Line The IND Eighth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Opened in 1932, it was the first line of the Independent Subway System (IND); as such, New Yorkers originally applied the ''Eighth Avenue Subwa ...

of the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

. Located at Spring Street and

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas, is a major thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The avenue is commercial for much of its length, and traffic runs northbound, or uptown. Sixth Avenue begins four blocks b ...

(Avenue of the Americas) in the

Hudson Square Hudson Square is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by Clarkson Street to the north, Canal Street (Manhattan), Canal Street to the south, Varick Street (Manhattan), Varick Street to the east, and ...

and

SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

neighborhoods of

lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

, it is served by the C and E trains, the former of which is replaced by the A train during late nights.

History

Construction and opening

New York City mayor

John Francis Hylan John Francis Hylan (April 20, 1868January 12, 1936), also known as "Red Mike" Hylan, was the 96th Mayor of New York City (the seventh since the consolidation of the five boroughs), from 1918 to 1925. From rural beginnings in the Catskills, Hylan ...

's original plans for the

Independent Subway System The Independent Subway System (IND; formerly the ISS) was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway. It was first constructed as the IND Eighth Avenue Line, Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan in 1932. ...

(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

Interborough Rapid Transit Company The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT ...

(IRT) and

Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940. Today, together with the IND subway sy ...

(BMT). On December 9, 1924, the

New York City Board of Transportation The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (NYCBOT or BOT) was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the Mayor of New York City, m ...

(BOT) gave preliminary approval for the construction of the

. This line consisted of a corridor connecting

Inwood, Manhattan Inwood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is bounded by the Hudson River to the west, Spuyten Duyvil ...

, to

Downtown Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn is the third-largest central business district in New York City (after Midtown Manhattan, Midtown and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighb ...

, running largely under Eighth Avenue but also paralleling

Greenwich Avenue Greenwich Avenue, formerly Greenwich Lane, is a southeast-northwest avenue located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It extends from the intersection of 6th Avenue and 8th Street at its southeast end to ...

and

in Lower Manhattan. The BOT announced a list of stations on the new line in February 1928, with a local station at Spring Street and Sixth Avenue. Most of the Eighth Avenue Line was dug using a cheap

cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two Portal (architecture), portals common at each end, though ther ...

method. The Spring Street station was to be one of three Eighth Avenue Line stations underneath Sixth Avenue in Lower Manhattan; the other two stations were to be at

Canal Street Canal Street may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Canal Street (Manchester), Manchester, England * Canal Street, Oxford, Jericho, Oxford, England United States * Canal Street (Buffalo), a street and district at the western terminus of the Er ...

and West Fourth Street. As part of the construction of the Eighth Avenue Line in Lower Manhattan, Sixth Avenue was extended south to Church Street starting in 1926. This required the demolition of dozens of buildings along the route. By August 1930, the BOT reported that the Eighth Avenue Line was nearly completed, except for the stations between Chambers Street–Hudson Terminal and West Fourth Street (including the Spring Street station), which were only 21 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 on September 8, 1932, two days before the official opening. The Spring Street station opened on September 10, 1932, as part of the city-operated IND's initial segment, the Eighth Avenue Line between

Chambers Street Chambers Street may refer to: Streets * Chambers Street, Edinburgh, Scotland * Chambers Street (Manhattan), New York City, U.S. * Chamber Street, once known as Chambers Street, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England New York City Subway station ...

and 207th Street. When the station opened in 1932, it was served by local AA trains. When the

IND Concourse Line The Concourse Line is an IND rapid transit line of the New York City Subway system. It runs from 205th Street in Norwood, Bronx, primarily under the Grand Concourse, to 145th Street in Harlem, Manhattan. It is the only B Division line in th ...

opened on July 1, 1933, all locals became CC trains to the Concourse Line. The E began using the local tracks on August 19, 1933, when the

IND Queens Boulevard Line The IND Queens Boulevard Line, sometimes abbreviated as QBL, is a line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan and Queens, New York City. The line, which is underground throughout its entire route, contains 23 stations. The ...

opened.

Later years

The

announced plans in November 1949 to spend $325,000 extending platforms at several IND stations, including Canal Street, to accommodate 11-car, trains. The lengthened trains began running during rush hour on September 8, 1953, with eleven-car trains operating on weekdays. The project cost $400,000 and increased the total carrying capacity of rush-hour trains by 4,000 passengers. The operation of eleven-car trains ended in 1958 because of operational difficulties. The signal blocks, especially in Manhattan, were too short to accommodate the longer trains, and the motormen had a very small margin of error to properly align the train with the platform. It was found that operating ten-car trains allowed for two additional trains per hour to be scheduled. The station was renovated as part of the 2010–2014 MTA Capital Program. An MTA study conducted in 2014 found that 31% of station components were out of date.

Station layout

Like most local subway stations, Spring Street has two side platforms and four tracks. The two center express tracks are used by the A train during daytime hours. A crossunder just within fare control allows a free transfer between directions. Wall tiling suggests that fare controls and a crossunder have been removed from the north end of the station. The platforms have a blue trim line on a dark blue border (ultramarine blue and cobalt blue, with replacement tiles at the north end that are ultramarine blue and

navy blue Navy blue is a dark shade of the color blue. Navy blue got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with naval white) worn by officers in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. When this color name, ...

). The name tablets consist of "SPRING ST" in white

sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...

font on a dark blue background with a lighter blue border. Beneath the trim line and name tablets are "SPRING" and directional signs in white lettering on a black border tiled onto the walls. Blue

I-beam An I-beam is any of various structural members with an - (serif capital letter 'I') or H-shaped cross section (geometry), cross-section. Technical terms for similar items include H-beam, I-profile, universal column (UC), w-beam (for "wide flang ...

columns run along the entire length of both platforms, with every other one having the standard black and white station signs.

Exits

All

fare control In rail transport, the paid area is a dedicated "inner" zone in a railway station or metro station, accessible via turnstiles or other barriers, to get into which, visitors or passengers require a valid ticket, checked smartcard or a pass. A s ...

areas are at platform level. The station's main ones are at the south end of the platform. Each contains banks of regular and

HEET turnstile A turnstile (also called a gateline, baffle gate, automated gate, turn gate in some regions) is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce one-way human traffic. In addition, a turnstile c ...

s, a token booth, and a single staircase going up to Spring Street and Sixth Avenue. The one on the northbound side is built inside the headquarters for

God's Love We Deliver God's Love We Deliver (GLWD) is an American charitable medically tailored meal organization founded in 1985 based in New York City. Despite its name, the organization is non-sectarian. God's Love We Deliver volunteers prepare and deliver meals t ...

and leads to the northeast corner while the one on the southbound side leads to the northwest corner. The southbound platform has an un-staffed HEET entrance that has a single staircase going up to the southwest corner of Vandam Street and Sixth Avenue. There are also closed fare control areas at the north end of the station, which led to all four corners of the intersection of Prince Street/Charlton Street and Sixth Avenue.

Artwork

In December 1984, Chilean artist

Alfredo Jaar Alfredo Jaar (; ; born 1956) is a Chilean-born artist, architect, photographer and filmmaker who lives in New York City. He is mostly known as an installation artist, often incorporating photography and covering socio-political issues and war—th ...

rented all the ad space in the station for the month, and put up an installation he called "Rushes", which showed 81 photos he had taken of poor Brazilian workers digging in

Serra Pelada Serra Pelada (English: "Naked Mountain Range") is a Brazilian village, district of the municipality of Curionópolis, in the southeast of Pará. Serra Pelada was a large gold mine in Brazil, south of the mouth of the Amazon River. The mine wa ...

, a government-run

gold mine Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to more comple ...

. Scattered amongst them were signs giving world oil prices. The 1994 artwork installed at the stairway of the northbound platform's fare control is a large, lively mosaic called ''New York City Subway Station'' by

Edith Kramer Edith Kramer (1916–2014) was an Austrian social realist painter, a follower of psychoanalytic theory and an art therapy pioneer. Life and work Kramer was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, in 1916. At age 13 Kramer began art lessons with F ...

. It consists of a single painting depicting 14th Street–Union Square on the

IRT Lexington Avenue Line The IRT Lexington Avenue Line (also known as the IRT East Side Line and the IRT Lexington–Fourth Avenue Line) is one of the lines of the A Division (New York City Subway), A Division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Lower Manhatt ...

References

External links

* * nycsubway.org �
New York Subway Station Artwork by Edith Kramer (1994)
* Station Reporter �

* Station Reporter �

Spring Street entrance from Google Maps Street View

Vandam Street entrance from Google Maps Street View

Platform from Google Maps Street View
{{NYCS stations navbox by line, 8ave=yes IND Eighth Avenue Line stations Sixth Avenue New York City Subway stations in Manhattan Railway stations in the United States opened in 1932 1932 establishments in New York City SoHo, Manhattan Hudson Square