Smith/9th Street (IND Crosstown)
 
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| Aerial view of Smith/9th St. Station (at lower right), from TerraServer. |
Smith/9th Street Station · Opened 7/1/1933Local station with two side platforms and four tracks. It
at first looks like there is some steep ramping of the tracks from
Carroll Street to here and then from here down to Fourth Avenue.
Actually the slope is gentle. It's the terrain that dips from the
crest of South Brooklyn to the Gowanus Creek, and then rises to the
crest of Park Slope.
This station is the highest elevated station in the
system, at 91 feet. It is so high due to now-antiquated navigation
rules for tall-mast shipping in the Gowanus Creek under the
station. It's the same rule that makes the Gowanus Expressway hump
over the Gowanus Creek a little distance south of the station. In
fact, west of the southbound platform a good view is afforded of the
Gowanus Expressway, one of Robert Moses' and the Triborough Bridge and
Tunnel Authority's creations. Despite the height of this station and
the expressway, most of the other bridges that carry streets across
the creek are low level ones. They must be opened (slid aside, lifted,
swung, etc.) to let ships pass. Obviously the higher traffic of the
expressway and railroad required high level crossings.
This station is made of concrete, with no windscreen at
the south end, just chain link fence. There are mosaics along the
concrete platform walls reading "Smith-9th Street". A close
examination of the canopied area suggests windows existed which were
covered or removed. At the north end, the platforms afford a postcard
view of the lower Manhattan skyline and the trains descending toward
the Carroll Street tunnel portals.
The mezzanine is reached by two flights of stairs to the
crossunder and then two long escalators with an intermediate level
between the escalators. The crossunder has closed windows and a
closed center exit. When we finally reach the fare control we are at
street level.
A note about the route of the crosstown "G" train. Even
the earliest maps of the IND show this route to end at Smith-9th
Street. Runs to Church Avenue were infrequent. Terminating a train
here is totally unbecoming of the IND mentality. From Carroll Street
the G comes into Smith-9th street, dumps its riders, then moves toward
4th Avenue station. At the switchyard there it slides onto the
downtown express track and takes a nap. When it's time to start the
return trip, the G crawls thru the switchyard onto the uptown local
track and enters Smith-9th Street, where it receives its first riders
and continues on its way. The whole works around 4th Avenue is
original construction, even the extra switches within the station to
reverse the G train and the stub reversing track. Clearly, such a
setup precluded any regular service on the express tracks right from
the start of IND operations.
A note about Brooklyn street names, in particular "West
9th Street". One might assume that West 9th Street was near the West
8th Street station, which in turn is near Coney Island. Not so! Yes,
there is a West 9th Street in that area (but it doesn't reach Coney
Island proper; it ends at 86th Street just north of the Coney Island
Yards). At the Gowanus Creek the streets on the east side are
numbered. Although most of them don't cross the creek, their
"continuations" on the west side are given proper names, i.e. 8th
Street becomes Huntington St., 10th Street becomes Garnet St., and so
on. Except for 9th Street. On the west side of the creek, right next
to this Smith-9th Street station, it becomes West 9th Street!
(image 101138) (211k, 1044x705)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R160A (Option 1) (Alstom, 2008-2009, 5 car sets) 9348
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 5/22/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 5 / 595
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(image 101144) (229k, 1044x705)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R160A (Option 1) (Alstom, 2008-2009, 5 car sets) 9367
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 5/22/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 5 / 505
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(image 101145) (207k, 1044x705)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R160B (Option 1) (Kawasaki, 2008-2009) 9173
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 5/22/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 3 / 326
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(image 101146) (208k, 1044x705)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R160B (Option 1) (Kawasaki, 2008-2009)
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 5/22/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 8 / 474
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(image 101147) (209k, 1044x705)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R42 (St. Louis Car, 1969-1970) 4698
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 5/22/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 6 / 395
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(image 101576) (156k, 1044x788)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R160B (Kawasaki, 2005-2008) 9348
Photo by: John Barnes
Date: 5/21/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 5 / 382
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(image 101577) (169k, 1044x788)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: G
Car: R46 (Pullman-Standard, 1974-75) 6210
Photo by: John Barnes
Date: 5/21/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 2 / 265
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(image 104039) (177k, 820x552)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: G
Car: R46 (Pullman-Standard, 1974-75)
Photo by: Richard Chase
Date: 5/16/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 6 / 288
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(image 100411) (214k, 1044x788)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: D reroute
Car: R68 (Westinghouse-Amrail, 1986-1988)
Photo by: Christopher Henderson
Date: 5/1/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 5 / 683
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(image 98520) (226k, 1044x950)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R160A (Option 1) (Alstom, 2008-2009, 5 car sets) 9238
Photo by: Christopher Henderson
Date: 3/25/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 3 / 682
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(image 98189) (263k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: G
Car: R46 (Pullman-Standard, 1974-75) 5586
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 2 / 303
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(image 98188) (364k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R46 (Pullman-Standard, 1974-75)
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 5 / 455
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(image 98187) (201k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R46 (Pullman-Standard, 1974-75) 5708
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 2 / 266
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(image 98190) (252k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: G
Car: R46 (Pullman-Standard, 1974-75) 5586
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 3 / 261
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(image 98191) (251k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R42 (St. Louis Car, 1969-1970) 4569
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 3 / 354
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(image 98192) (256k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: F
Car: R42 (St. Louis Car, 1969-1970) 4569
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 3 / 396
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(image 98247) (174k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Notes: Punch box at Smith/9th
Viewed (this week/total): 5 / 899
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(image 98240) (259k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: Testing
Car: R160B (Option 1) (Kawasaki, 2008-2009) 9173
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 4 / 951
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(image 98241) (207k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: Testing
Car: R160B (Option 1) (Kawasaki, 2008-2009) 9175
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 4 / 579
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(image 98242) (202k, 1044x700)
Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Line: IND Crosstown
Location: Smith/9th Street
Route: Testing
Car: R160B (Option 1) (Kawasaki, 2008-2009) 9177
Photo by: Gin Yee
Date: 3/23/2009
Viewed (this week/total): 2 / 642
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