Wilson Avenue station explained

Wilson Avenue
Accessible:part
Acc Note:northbound only
Address:Wilson Avenue & Moffat Street
Brooklyn, NY
Borough:Brooklyn
Locale:Bushwick
Coordinates:40.6885°N -73.9044°W
Division:BMT
Line:BMT Canarsie Line
Service:Canarsie
Platforms:2 stacked side platforms (1 on each level)
Tracks:2 (1 on each level)
Levels:2
Structure:Elevated (southbound)
covered at-grade (northbound)
Embedded:
Embed:yes
Wilson Avenue Subway Station (Dual System BMT)
Added:July 6, 2005
Mpsub:New York City Subway System MPS
Refnum:05000681[1]

The Wilson Avenue station is a station on the BMT Canarsie Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Moffat Street in Brooklyn, 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, done as part of the Dual Contracts, connected Montrose Avenue, which had opened four years earlier, to Broadway Junction, which was the western end of the already-operating elevated line to Canarsie.[2] The station opened next to the Most Holy Trinity Cemetery, making the eastbound platform overlook the pre-existing cemetery. [3]

On September 21, 1984, Irma Lozada, 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 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.[4]

In the 2010s, the ground-level Manhattan-bound platform was made accessible at a cost of between three and five million dollars under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (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.[5]

Station layout

2FEastbound toward
Side platform
GWestbound← toward
Side platform
Street levelStation house, entrance/exit, fare control, station agent
The station, which was designed by Robert Ridgway and Squire J. Vickers,[1] 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 (NYCR) and the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) Bay Ridge Branch, to the west. The two tracks and two side platforms are on different levels, making Wilson Avenue the only station on the Canarsie Line where this occurs.[6] 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 with curved green supports extending from the wall at regular intervals.[6] [7] 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.[6] 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.[6] 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.[8] There are five steps leading up to the station entrance, as well as a accessible ramp.[9] The entrance feeds directly onto the northbound platform with stairs to southbound service on the upper level.

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: NPS Focus . National Register of Historic Places . . December 12, 2011.
  2. News: Last Link of New 14th St-E.D. Subway To Be Opened Today: First Train This Afternoon Will Carry Officials – Citizens to Celebrate. August 25, 2015. Newspapers.com. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. July 14, 1928.
  3. Web site: Most Holy Trinity Cemetery .
  4. News: Dewan. Shaila K.. Recalling a Slain Officer, and the Equality of Peril. June 30, 2016. The New York Times . September 22, 2004.
  5. Web site: Dai. Serena. October 16, 2014. Wilson L Stop Repairs to Only Make Manhattan-Bound Platform ADA Accessible. DNAinfo New York. July 7, 2016. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160821174048/https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20141016/bushwick/wilson-l-stop-repairs-only-make-manhattan-bound-platform-ada-accessible. August 21, 2016. mdy-all.
  6. Web site: BMT Canarsie Line: Wilson Avenue. nycsubway.org. August 14, 2016.
  7. Web site: Wilson Avenue (L) - The SubwayNut. Cox. Jeremiah. subwaynut.com. August 14, 2016.
  8. Web site: MTA Neighborhood Maps: Ocean Hill. mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. July 20, 2016. 2015.
  9. Web site: Accessible Stations in the MTA Network. web.mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. November 29, 2016.