Division B (BMT) Transit connections NYCT Bus: M103 Borough Manhattan Locale Lower East Side, Bowery | Line BMT Nassau Street Line Structure Underground Opened 4 August 1913 | |
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Services J (all times)
Z (rush hours, peak direction) Platforms 2 island platforms (1 in regular service) Address Bowery Street & Delancey Street, New York, NY 10002, USA Similar 121st Street, Broad Street, Cypress Hills, Flushing Avenue, Cleveland Street | ||
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Bowery is a station on the BMT Nassau Street Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Bowery and Delancey Street in the Lower East Side and Bowery neighborhoods, it is served by the J train at all times and the Z train during rush hours in peak direction.
Contents
History
Construction of this underground station began in August 1907 and was almost completed by the end of 1910. However, the BMT Nassau Street Line to the south did not open until August 4, 1913 when Chambers Street was ready for service.
This station was originally configured like a typical express station with two island platforms and four tracks; express service ran on the inner tracks and local service on the outer tracks. When it was built, the station was an important connection point for elevated and streetcar lines. With those lines long gone, a four-track station was no longer considered necessary. A renovation of the Nassau Street Line, completed in October 2004, resulted in the former northbound platform being sealed off with service in both directions now provided on the former southbound platform, so that northbound trains now use the former southbound express track. On the abandoned side, only the outer track remains.
Station layout
The station has three tracks and two island platforms. The fourth track, the former northbound express on the abandoned side, was removed in the aforementioned 2004 renovations.
The station has two mezzanine areas on each side of Bowery. One part of the station has a high ceiling which was built for a proposed subway to pass through it. There is also a "Future Doorway" at this station where an opening could be made to the never-built subway station if it had side platforms. At the curve between Bowery and Canal Street, there is a small provision for a line into Spring Street, for which no definite plan was ever provided. Due to the depth, there were escalators that were provided in the original construction, one on each platform running to the east mezzanine. The escalator on the south platform was either not installed or removed long ago.
The station has a high ceiling at the north and south ends. Mosaics include the name tablet, "B," "newsstand," "Women," and "Men" in raised letters. The news-stand, restrooms, mezzanine, and its stairways at the south end have long been closed. The north mezzanine is reached via three flights of stairs or an escalator from the downtown platform. A unique feature of the station is the arched wall niches at the north end, rather than the standard rectangular niches.
Exits
Two exits lead from the east mezzanine to either eastern corner of Delancey Street and Bowery. These are the only open entrances to the station.
In popular culture
The Punks, a gang from the 1979 film The Warriors, have turf in the Bowery subway station.