First Avenue (BMT Canarsie Line)

First Avenue
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Station statistics
Address	First Avenue & East 14th Street New York, NY 10003
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	East Village, Gramercy, Stuyvesant Town
Coordinates	40°43′53″N 73°58′57″W / 40.731324°N 73.982577°WCoordinates: 40°43′53″N 73°58′57″W / 40.731324°N 73.982577°W
Division	B (BMT)
Line	BMT Canarsie Line
Services	L  (all times)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: M14A, M14D, M15 (northbound), M15 Select Bus Service (northbound)
Structure	Underground
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	June 30, 1924
Wireless service	[1]
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	7,702,110[2]  5%
Rank	55 out of 422
Station succession
Next north	Third Avenue: L
Next south	Bedford Avenue: L
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times
Location

First Avenue is a station on the BMT Canarsie Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of First Avenue and East 14th Street at the border of Gramercy, Stuyvesant Town, and East Village in Manhattan, it is served by the L train at all times.

Station layout

Track layout
Legend
to 3 Av to Bedford Av

Entrance

G	Street Level	Exit/ Entrance
M	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent
P Platform level	Side platform, doors will open on the right
	Northbound	← toward Eighth Avenue (Third Avenue)
	Southbound	→ toward Canarsie–Rockaway Parkway (Bedford Avenue) →
	Side platform, doors will open on the right

This station opened on June 30, 1924, as part of the 14th Street–Eastern Line, which ran from Sixth Avenue under the East River and through Williamsburg to Montrose Avenue and Bushwick Avenues.^[3][4]

This is the easternmost Canarsie Line station in Manhattan. East of here, the line travels under the East River to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

This station has two side platforms and two tracks. The platforms are columnless and have the standard BMT style trim-line and name tablets. The former contains "1" tablets in standard intervals while the latter consists of "FIRST AVE" in Times New Roman font.

This station's only entrances/exits are at the extreme west (railroad north) end. From each platform, a single staircase goes up to a small mezzanine that contains a turnstile bank, token booth, and two street stairs to the east side of First Avenue at 14th Street. The ones on the Eighth Avenue-bound platform lead to the northeast corner while the ones on the Brooklyn-bound platform lead to the southeast corner. Each mezzanine has two exits to street level (this is the only difference between this station and the next station north, Third Avenue, whose platforms have no mezzanines and only one exit each). There is no free transfer between directions and the mezzanine on the Brooklyn-bound side has a florist shop outside fare control.

In September 1983 this station was the site of a New York City Transit Police slaying of a black graffiti artist, Michael Stewart, who was writing graffiti on the station wall. The six police officers involved, all of them white, were acquitted by an all-white jury.^[5]

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as part of the wide scope in the rebuilding of the Canarsie Tubes that were damaged during Hurricane Sandy, is going to build new station entrances on both sides of Avenue A to improve service for people living in Stuyvesant Town and the Lower East Side. New elevators would be built in the station.^[6][7]

Image gallery

• 
  Name Tablet
• 
  Trim-line Tablet
• 
  Station wall

Nearby points of interest

• Beth Israel Medical Center
• Stuyvesant High School Old Campus (High School for Health Professions and Human Services, Institute for Collaborative Education, and PS 226)
• Stuyvesant Square
• Stuyvesant Town

References

1. "NYC Subway Wireless – Active Stations". Transit Wireless Wifi. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
2. "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
3. "Subway Tunnel Through". The New York Times. August 8, 1919. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
4. "Celebrate Opening of Subway Link". The New York Times. July 1, 1924. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
5. JURY ACQUITS ALL TRANSIT OFFICERS IN 1983 DEATH OF MICHAEL STEWART, The New York Times
6. "MTA - Press Release - NYC Transit - MTA Seeks Federal Funds to Increase Capacity on Canarsie L Line". mta.info. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
7. "mta.info | Superstorm Sandy: One Year Later". web.mta.info. Retrieved 2016-06-05.

External links

• nycsubway.org – nycsubway.org BMT Canarsie Line: 1st Avenue
• Station Reporter — L Train
• The Subway Nut — 1st Avenue Pictures
• First Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View
• Platforms from Google Maps Street View