The 72nd Street station is an express station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Broadway, 72nd Street, and Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is served by the 1, 2, and 3 trains at all times.
The 72nd Street station was constructed for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. Construction of the line segment that includes the 72nd Street station began on August 22 of the same year. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. The 72nd Street station's platforms were lengthened in 1960 as part of an improvement project along the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. The station's only exit was originally through a head house in the median of Broadway south of 72nd Street. In 2002, the station was renovated and a second head house was built north of 72nd Street, within an expansion of Verdi Square.
The 72nd Street station contains two island platforms and four tracks. The outer tracks are used by local trains, while the inner two tracks are used by express trains. The station's original head house and part of its interior are New York City designated landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The northern head house contains elevators, which make the station compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
History 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 72nd 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. Work for that section had been awarded to William Bradley. 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. As late as October 26, 1904, the day before the subway was scheduled to open, the walls and ceilings were incomplete. The 72nd 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 72nd Street station, helped contribute to the development of the Upper West Side.
1910s to 1930s
After the first subway line was completed in 1908, the station was served by local and express trains along both the West Side (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street) and East Side (now the Lenox Avenue Line). West Side local trains had their southern terminus at City Hall during rush hours and South Ferry at other times, and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street. East Side local trains ran from City Hall to Lenox Avenue (145th Street). Express trains had their southern terminus at South Ferry or Atlantic Avenue and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street, Lenox Avenue (145th Street), or West Farms (180th Street). Express trains to 145th Street were later eliminated, and West Farms express trains and rush-hour Broadway express trains operated through to Brooklyn.
To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission 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. At the 72nd Street station, the northbound platform was extended south and north, while the southbound platform was extended south and north. A new crossover and signal tower were also built in conjunction with these extensions. Work progressed on the platform extensions at 72nd Street during 1910 and 1911. Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910. On January 23, 1911, ten-car express trains began running on the Lenox Avenue Line, and the next day, ten-car express trains were inaugurated on the West Side Line. The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line opened south of Times Square–42nd Street in 1918, and the original line was divided into an H-shaped system. The original subway north of Times Square thus became part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. Local trains (Broadway and Lenox Avenue) were sent to South Ferry, while express trains (Broadway and West Farms) used the new Clark Street Tunnel to Brooklyn.
The original head house had two stairways to each platform, although a third stairway was added to the northbound platform at some point before 1924. In that year, it was proposed to build a third stairway to the southbound platform, and an exit-only staircase from the northbound platform to the traffic island just south of the head house; however, the Transit Bureau advised against this move as it would aggravate overcrowding. In 1930, there was funding allocated to remove the station head house, and replace it with an underpass and sidewalk entrances. In Fiscal Year 1937, space was cut out under parts of two staircases on the southbound platform to increase space for riders on the express side of the platform. Funding was again allocated to remove the station house in 1945.
1940s to 1960s The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. The IRT routes were given numbered designations in 1948 with the introduction of "R-type" rolling stock, which contained rollsigns with numbered designations for each service. The Broadway route to 242nd Street became known as the 1, the White Plains Road (formerly West Farms) route as the 2, and the Lenox Avenue route as the 3.
During the early 1950s, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA; now an agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA) considered converting the 59th Street–Columbus Circle station, a major transfer point to the IND Eighth Avenue Line, from a local stop to an express stop. This would serve the anticipated rise of ridership at the stop resulting from the under-construction New York Coliseum and the expected redevelopment of the area. In conjunction with that project, the NYCTA considered converting the 72nd Street station to a local station by walling off the express tracks from the platforms. While the work was never completed, the firm Edwards, Kelcey and Beck was hired as Consulting Engineers in 1955 for the construction of the express station.
The original IRT stations north of Times Square could barely fit local trains of five or six cars depending on the configuration of the trains. Stations on the line from Times Square to 96th Street, including this station but excluding the 91st Street station, had their platforms extended in the 1950s to to accommodate ten-car trains as part of a $100 million rebuilding program (equivalent to $ million in ). The platforms at 72nd Street were extended in 1960, and the track layout was changed accordingly. Once the project was completed, all 1 trains became local and all 2 and 3 trains became express, and eight-car local trains began operation. Increased and lengthened service was implemented during peak hours on the 1 train on February 6, 1959. Due to the lengthening of the platforms at 86th Street and 96th Street, the intermediate 91st Street station was closed on February 2, 1959, because it was too close to the other two stations. In 1959, work was underway to install fluorescent lighting in the station.
1970s and 1980s In 1973, funding was allocated to study removing the headhouse and replacing it with sidewalk entrances. The project would have created entrances on either sidewalk between 71st and 72nd Streets, connected to the platforms by a passageway under the tracks. The city government allocated a $1.35 million grant for the project, which was withdrawn in February 1976. Afterward, U.S. representative Bella S. Abzug continued to advocate for the station's renovation. By 1979, there were plans to build a new station entrance and convert the existing headhouse into a newsstand.
In the 1980s, the developers Abe Hirschfeld and Carlos Varsavsky pledged to spend $30 million renovating the 72nd Street station, in exchange for receiving the city government's approval for the nearby Lincoln West development. When the developer Donald Trump took over the Lincoln West site in 1984, he said he would consider renovating the station but did not commit to the renovation. In 1987, the founders of Ben & Jerry's proposed to spend $200,000 to $250,000 a year to maintain, clean, paint the station, install mosaics, and pipe in music into the station. Though their proposal was supported by the MTA, the Transport Workers Union was opposed to the proposal as Ben & Jerry's wanted to hire non-union labor for the project. The proposal had stalled by the end of 1987. Ultimately, the contract expired at the end of March 1988. Rather than adopting the 72nd Street station for maintenance, Ben & Jerry's chose to sponsor a theater of geese.
From September 2 to 5, 1989, the station was closed so the station house could be reconfigured to reduce crowding at its northern end. The southern end of the station house was converted to an entrance, and two smaller token booths were installed, replacing the large token booth that blocked passenger flow through the middle of the station house. Turnstiles were moved to create separate fare control areas for northbound and southbound trains, eliminating free transfers between directions. In addition, the newsstand at the station house's northeastern corner was moved to the southwestern corner. The lack of a free transfer between northbound and southbound trains persisted through the early 2000s.
Renovation and 21st century