West Fourth Street–Washington Square station

The West Fourth Street–Washington Square station 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 (Avenue of the Americas) in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It is served by:
* A, D, E, and F trains at all times;
* B and M trains on weekdays; 
* C train at all times except late nights; and
* <F> train during rush hours in the peak direction.
==History==
===Construction===
New York City mayor John Francis Hylan's original plans for the Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in 1922, included building over of new lines and taking over nearly of existing lines, which would compete with the IRT and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), the two major subway operators of the time. The New York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT) gave preliminary approval to the IND Eighth Avenue Line in 1924. This line consisted of a corridor connecting Inwood, Manhattan, to Downtown Brooklyn, running largely under Eighth Avenue but also paralleling Greenwich Avenue and Sixth Avenue in Lower Manhattan. An additional line, the IND Sixth Avenue Line, was approved in 1925, running from Midtown Manhattan underneath Sixth Avenue, Houston Street, Essex Street, and the Rutgers Street Tunnel to Downtown Brooklyn. The IND Sixth Avenue Line was designed to replace the elevated IRT Sixth Avenue Line. The transfer hub between the Eighth Avenue and Sixth Avenue lines, at Sixth Avenue and West 4th Street in Greenwich Village, 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.
Work on the IND Eighth Avenue Line began in 1925. The first portion of the Sixth Avenue Line to be constructed, comprising the Houston–Essex Street Line south of the West Fourth Street station, officially started in May 1929. Because of complexities in the construction of the Midtown section of the Sixth Avenue Line, that section did not begin construction until April 1935.
===Opening and modifications===
The upper level of the West Fourth Street station opened on September 10, 1932, as part of the city-operated Independent Subway System (IND)'s initial segment, the Eighth Avenue Line between Chambers Street and 207th Street. When the station opened in 1932, express (A) and local (AA) trains served the line; expresses did not run during late nights or Sundays. When the IND Concourse Line opened on July 1, 1933, the C was added to the express service, while all locals became CC trains to the Concourse Line. The E was added to the local tracks south of 50th Street on August 19, 1933, when the IND Queens Boulevard Line opened.
The lower level opened on January 1, 1936, as one of four stations on the first part of the Sixth Avenue Line. Two local tracks split from a junction with the Eighth Avenue Line south of West Fourth Street–Washington Square, running east under Houston Street and south under Essex Street to a temporary terminal at East Broadway. Initially, E trains would split from the upper level and run to Church Avenue. When further sections of the Sixth Avenue Line opened on December 15, 1940, the F train replaced the E train at the lower level of the West Fourth Street station.
The Sixth Avenue Line's Midtown section, comprising the section between the West Fourth Street and 34th Street–Herald Square stations, originally did not have express tracks. On April 19, 1961, ground was broken for a $22 million project to build two express tracks between these two stations. On November 26, 1967, the express tracks started to be used by the B and D trains. At that time, the first part of the Chrystie Street Connection opened, connecting the express tracks at the Broadway–Lafayette Street station one stop south to the Manhattan Bridge. On July 1, 1968, another section of the Chrystie Street Connection opened, allowing Sixth and Eighth Avenue local trains to use the Williamsburg Bridge. The Williamsburg Bridge connection has been used by the M train since 2010.
In 2002, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that elevators would be installed at the West Fourth Street station. The elevator installation was delayed by over a year and was finally completed in April 2005, but the elevators then suffered from frequent breakdowns. In 2005 alone, the three elevators were out of service for a cumulative nine months, and one elevator was closed off for 134 days. That year, passengers made 57 complaints about the elevators, including seven instances in which riders were trapped in the elevators. Consequently, disability-rights groups sued the MTA over the elevators.
==Station layout==
The 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.
The track walls on both levels have a green trim line with a forest green border, though in many places the green tiles have been replaced with hunter green ones. Small tile captions reading "WEST 4" run below the trim lines at regular intervals. Hunter green I-beam columns run along all the platforms, alternating ones having the standard black station name plate; The signs read "West 4 Street", replacing the older signs which simply read "W4". 
===Exits===
thumb|right|250px|Street stair
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.
*Two to the northwest corner (within building), one to the northeast corner (within building) of Sixth Avenue and Waverly Place
*One to the east side of Sixth Avenue north of Waverly Place
* One elevator and staircase on the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and West Third Street
*One on the west side of Sixth Avenue at West Third Street
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 ==
* New York University
* Washington Square Park
* West Fourth Street Courts
== References ==
== External links ==
nycsubway.org
* 
* 
Station Reporter
* Station Reporter – A Lefferts
* Station Reporter – A Rockaway
* Station Reporter – B Train
* Station Reporter — C Train
* Station Reporter – D Train
* Station Reporter – E Train
* Station Reporter — F Train
* Station Reporter – M Train
Google Maps Street View
* Waverly Place entrance from Google Maps Street View
* Entrance north of Waverly Place from Google Maps Street View
* West Third Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
* Mezzanine from Google Maps Street View
* Upper level from Google Maps Street View
* Lower level from Google Maps Street View
Category:IND Eighth Avenue Line stations
Category:IND Sixth Avenue Line stations
Category:Sixth Avenue
Category:Greenwich Village
Category:Railway and subway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
Category:New York City Subway stations in Manhattan
Category:New York City Subway stations located underground
Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1932
Category:1932 establishments in New York City
Category:New York City Subway transfer stations
Category:West Village
Category:New York City Subway stations at university and college campuses