The Wilson Avenue station is a
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
BMT Canarsie Line of the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
. Located at the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Moffat Street in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, it is served by the
L train at all times.
History
Wilson Avenue opened on July 14, 1928, as part of an extension of the Canarsie Line. This extension connected
Montrose Avenue
Montrose Avenue is a street in Chicago. Located north of Madison Street, it is 4400N in Chicago's grid system. It is served by stations on the Chicago Transit Authority
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit ...
, which had opened four years earlier, to
Broadway Junction, which was the western end of the already-operating elevated line to
Canarsie
Canarsie ( ) is a mostly residential neighborhood in the southeastern portion of Brooklyn, New York City. Canarsie is bordered on the east by Fresh Creek Basin and East 108th Street; on the north by Linden Boulevard; on the west by Ralph Aven ...
.
On September 21, 1984,
Irma Lozada
Irma Lozada (April 26, 1959 – September 21, 1984), a.k.a. "Fran", was a member of the New York City Transit Police who was killed in 1984, becoming the first female police officer to die while at work in New York City.
Early years
In the 1950s, ...
, 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 a rider. Lozada was the first policewoman to be
killed in action in New York City.
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
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 19 ...
(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.
Station layout
![Wilson Av BMT sta jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Wilson_Av_BMT_sta_jeh.JPG)
The station, which was designed by
Robert Ridgway
Robert Ridgway (July 2, 1850 – March 25, 1929) was an American ornithologist specializing in systematics. He was appointed in 1880 by Spencer Fullerton Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to be the first full-time curator of bird ...
and
Squire J. Vickers
Squire Joseph Vickers (1872–1947) was an "underground Renaissance man", according to ''The New York Times''. He was a chief architect of the New York City subway system.
Vickers began work in the subways in 1906, as a young architect, and worke ...
,
has some features that are not found elsewhere in the system.
[ It is squeezed in between the Most Holy Trinity Cemetery, to the east, and the ]New York Connecting Railroad
The New York Connecting Railroad or NYCR is a rail line in the borough of Queens in New York City. It links New York City and Long Island by rail directly to the North American mainland. Amtrak, CSX, Canadian Pacific Railway, Providence a ...
(NYCR) and the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) Bay Ridge Branch, to the west. The two tracks and two side platform
A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...
s are on different levels, making Wilson Avenue the only station on the Canarsie Line where this occurs. 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 this portion of the station gives the impression of being underground, but it is really at street level.
The Rockaway Parkway-bound (upper level) platform has a canopy along the entire length of the platform, supported by a beige concrete retaining wall
Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides.
Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...
with curved green supports extending from the wall at regular intervals. 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. 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.[ The mosaic band is predominantly green at edges with a vivid multicolored design throughout, 28 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.]
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. There are five steps leading up to the station entrance, as well as a wheelchair ramp. The entrance feeds directly onto the northbound platform with stairs to southbound service on the upper level.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
* Station Reporter —
* The Subway Nut â€
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
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York
BMT Canarsie Line stations
Railway and subway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in New York City
New York City Subway stations in Brooklyn
New York City Subway stations located aboveground
New York City Subway stations located at-grade
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1928
Bushwick, Brooklyn
National Register of Historic Places in Brooklyn