Fifth Avenue–59th Street station

Construction and opening

The New York Public Service Commission adopted plans for what was known as the Broadway–Lexington Avenue route on December 31, 1907. This route began at the Battery and ran under Greenwich Street, Vesey Street, Broadway to Ninth Street, private property to Irving Place, and Irving Place and Lexington Avenue to the Harlem River. After crossing under the Harlem River into the Bronx, the route split at Park Avenue and 138th Street, with one branch continuing north to and along Jerome Avenue to Woodlawn Cemetery, and the other heading east and northeast along 138th Street, Southern Boulevard, and Westchester Avenue to Pelham Bay Park. In early 1908, the Tri-borough plan was formed, combining this route, the under-construction Centre Street Loop Subway in Manhattan and Fourth Avenue Subway in Brooklyn, a Canal Street subway from the Fourth Avenue Subway via the Manhattan Bridge to the Hudson River, and several other lines in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company submitted a proposal to the Commission, dated March 2, 1911, to operate the Tri-borough system (but under Church Street instead of Greenwich Street), as well as a branch along Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 59th Street from Ninth Street north and east to the Queensboro Bridge; the Canal Street subway was to merge with the Broadway Line instead of continuing to the Hudson River. The city, the BRT, and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (which operated the first subway and four elevated lines in Manhattan) came to an agreement, and sent a report to the New York City Board of Estimate on June 5, 1911. The line along Broadway to 59th Street was assigned to the BRT, while the IRT obtained the Lexington Avenue line, connecting with its existing route at Grand Central–42nd Street. Construction began on Lexington Avenue on July 31, and on Broadway the next year. The Dual Contracts, two operating contracts between the city and the BMT and IRT, were adopted on March 4, 1913.

The original plan there was to build a pair of single-track tunnels under 59th and 60th Streets, rising onto the Queensboro Bridge and crossing the East River to Queens, with stations at Fifth and Lexington Avenues. In July 1914, the Public Service Commission opened bids for the construction of the two tunnels. The Degnon Contracting Company submitted the lowest of five bids for the project at just over $2.8 million. Degnon received the contract and began constructing the tunnels that September. In 1915, the Public Service Commission approved a request from the New York City Board of Estimate to place both tracks under 60th Street and cross the East River in the 60th Street Tunnel.

A. W. King received a $126,000 contract in December 1918 to install finishes at the Lexington Avenue and Fifth Avenue stations on the Broadway Line. The station opened on September 1, 1919, as part of an extension of the Broadway Line from 57th Street–Seventh Avenue to Lexington Avenue/59th Street. Service originally operated northward to Lexington Avenue and southward to Whitehall Street at the southern end of Manhattan. Service to Queens began when the 60th Street Tunnel opened on August 1, 1920.

Later years

The station was operated by the BMT until the city government took over the BMT's operations on June 1, 1940. This station was overhauled in the late 1970s. The MTA fixed the station's structure and overall appearance, replacing the original wall tiles, old signs, and incandescent lighting with 1970s modern-look wall tile band and tablet mosaics, signs and fluorescent lights. It also fixed staircases and platform edges.

In 2002, the station received a major overhaul. It received state-of-art repairs as well as an upgrade of the station for ADA compliance and restoration the original late 1910s tiling. The MTA repaired the staircases, re-tiling for the walls, installed new tiling on the floors, upgraded the station's lights and the public address system, and installed ADA yellow safety threads along the platform edges, new signs, and new track-beds in both directions.

This underground station has two tracks and two side platforms, with a mezzanine above both the western and eastern ends of the station. The station is served by N trains at all times; R trains at all times except late nights; and W trains on weekdays during the day. The station is between Lexington Avenue/59th Street to the north and 57th Street–Seventh Avenue to the south.

Replicas of BMT directional mosaics "QUEENS TRAINS" and "BROOKLYN TRAINS" are found on the western exit. Each mezzanine has one stair to each platform. Mosaics "5", "Fifth Ave", and the directional signs on each platform, are fully preserved with new tiles encircling around them.

Artwork here was made in 1997 by Ann Schaumburger and is called Urban Oasis. It uses glass mosaic murals to depict families of different types of animals, particularly for the nearby Central Park Zoo.

Exits

The full-time side of the station at the north end, at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue, has three street staircases, one carved into the outer perimeter of Central Park (northwestern corner of that intersection) and the other two on either eastern corner of the intersection. The part-time side at Central Park South, just by the Plaza Hotel, formerly had a booth (closed in 2003) and three street staircases as well: two carved inside Central Park's perimeter, on the northern side of Central Park South, and one to the southern side, inside a building just west of the Plaza Hotel.

Despite its name, the station has no exit at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street.

•   Media related to Fifth Avenue (BMT Broadway Line) at Wikimedia Commons
• nycsubway.org – BMT Broadway Subway: Fifth Avenue
• Station Reporter — N Train
• Station Reporter — R Train
• MTA's Arts For Transit — 5th Avenue–59th Street (BMT Broadway Line)
• Fifth Avenue and 60th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Central Park South entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Central Park South lobby from Google Maps Street View
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View