Grand Central (IRT Flushing Line)

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Two tracks, one island platform. Recently renovated with the addition of new lighting and an ADA-compliant elevator at the Lexington Avenue exit.

The Grand Central station was originally constructed as part of August Belmont's "Steinway Tunnels" project, described in the Flushing line overview and more completely in a 1960 Electric Railroaders' Association publication entitled The Steinway Tunnels. The length of line from here at Grand Central to Vernon-Jackson Aves. was constructed between 1905 and 1907, designed for operation by streetcars. The original station, with its western edge at Lexington Ave. was accessible through a temporary building at 156 East 42nd St. via a long staircase down to the single platform 65 ft. below street level. The streetcar operation lasted only a month due to legal issues and the tunnel and stations lay fallow until 1915.

For subway operation the 181 foot platform at Grand Central needed to be extended and widened. The original tube tunnels ran all the way to a loop under Park Avenue, so the plaform extension effort took advantage of this by removing the rock from in between the existing tunnels. At the western end, the southern tube was pushed outwards to allow a wider platform and a shaft containing three elevators and a stairwell up to Grand Central Depot near the east side of Park Avenue. The former tubes and new platform were roofed by a concrete arch ceiling. Another exit, at around the west side of Lexington Avenue, leads directly to the IRT Lexington line platforms. In later renovations the Park Avenue-end elevators were removed and the stairs replaced by an escalator bank with a mid-point landing, and an elevator was added to the Lexington Avenue exit as well as to the Lexington subway platforms.

A diagram indicating the respective locations of the Flushing line and Lexington line subway stations. The Lexington subway transfer and Park Avenue former elevator shaft locations are visible. (Click to enlarge.)

Cross-section of the station. (Click to enlarge.)

Some relative depths of stations in the Grand Central complex are as follows, +/- 10 feet.

• Shuttle, 20 feet below street
• Lexington/East Side Subway Platforms, 50 feet
• Flushing/#7 Subway Platforms, 80 feet
• Metro North, Upper Level, 20 feet
• Metro North, Lower Level, 60 feet

Artwork: V-Beam, Christopher Sproat (2000)

Selected Images