Dual Contracts construction After the opening of the
original subway line, operated by the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), the
New York City government began planning new lines. As part of the proposed Tri-borough system, both the IRT and the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT; later the
Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation or BMT) wished to develop an east–west line under
14th Street in
Manhattan. The IRT also sought to operate a north–south route in Manhattan along
Seventh Avenue south of
Times Square. The Seventh Avenue and 14th Street lines were both assigned to the BRT in 1911 after the IRT refused to agree to a compromise over the Tri-borough system. By mid-1912, the Public Service Commission was determining the locations of stations on the Seventh Avenue Line. The commission wished to add express stops at
34th Street–Penn Station to the north and
Chambers Street to the south, but
The New York Times reported that the 14th Street station would likely be a local stop because businesses had begun moving away from 14th Street. In September 1912, merchants near 14th Street began advocating for the construction of an express station there, saying the Chambers Street and 34th Street stations were apart. Merchants on
23rd Street, conversely, advocated for the construction of an express stop on that street because businesses were moving to 23rd Street.
Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line The
Dual Contracts between the
government of New York City, the BMT, and the IRT were signed in 1913. As part of Contract 4, the IRT agreed to build a branch of the original subway line south down Seventh Avenue,
Varick Street, and
West Broadway to serve the
West Side of Manhattan. The construction of this line, in conjunction with the construction of the
Lexington Avenue Line, would change the operations of the IRT system. Instead of having trains go via Broadway, turning onto 42nd Street, before finally turning onto Park Avenue, there would be two trunk lines connected by the
42nd Street Shuttle. The system would be changed from looking like a "Z" system on a map to an "H" system. One trunk would run via the new Lexington Avenue Line down Park Avenue, and the other trunk would run via the new Seventh Avenue Line up Broadway. In order for the line to continue down Varick Street and West Broadway, these streets needed to be widened, and two new streets were built, the Seventh Avenue Extension and the Varick Street Extension. It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the Lower West Side, and to neighborhoods such as
Chelsea and
Greenwich Village. As part of the Dual Contracts, the IRT was authorized to construct an express station on its Seventh Avenue Line at 14th Street. This contract was awarded in March 1914 to the United States Realty and Investment Company, who made a low bid of $1.837 million. By early 1917, the section of the Seventh Avenue Line from 14th to 42nd Street was nearly complete, and workers were restoring the portion of Seventh Avenue between 14th and 42nd Streets. A short section of the new line opened between 42nd Street and
34th Street–Penn Station in June 1917. A further extension from 34th to 14th Street was initially scheduled to open by the end of the year, but the extension to 14th Street was still incomplete by that December. 14th Street opened as part of an extension of the line from 34th Street–Penn Station to
South Ferry on July 1, 1918. Initially, the station was served by a shuttle running from
Times Square to South Ferry. The new "H" system was implemented on August 1, 1918, joining the two halves of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and sending all West Side trains south from Times Square. An immediate result of the switch was the need to transfer using the 42nd Street Shuttle. The completion of the "H" system doubled the capacity of the IRT system. In late 1915, the Public Service Commission began receiving bids for the construction of the 14th Street Line.
Booth and Flinn was awarded the first contract for the line, namely a tunnel under the
East River, in January 1916. At the time, the Public Service Commission was completing plans for the rest of the line; the commission began accepting bids for two parts of the line within Manhattan, sections 1 and 2. in April 1916. The next month, Booth and Flinn won the contract for section 1, which was to cost $2.528 million. By early 1919, the section of the line under 14th Street was about 20 percent completed. In 1922, the Charles H. Brown & Son Corporation was contracted to build out the Canarsie Line's stations in Manhattan, including the Sixth Avenue station. Track-laying in the tunnels between Sixth and
Montrose Avenues started in the last week of October 1922. The Canarsie Line's Sixth Avenue station opened on June 30, 1924, as the terminal of the 14th Street–Eastern Line, which ran from
Sixth Avenue under the East River and through Williamsburg to Montrose and Bushwick Avenues. Service was extended east to Canarsie on July 14, 1928, but continued to terminate at Sixth Avenue. The new line reduced overcrowding at the
Canal Street station in Lower Manhattan.
Sixth Avenue Line New York City mayor
John Francis Hylan's original plans for the
Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in 1922, included building over of new lines and taking over nearly of existing lines, which would compete with the IRT and the BMT, the two major subway operators of the time. The
New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) approved the
IND Sixth Avenue Line in 1925; the line was to run from
Midtown Manhattan underneath Sixth Avenue,
Houston Street,
Essex Street, and the
Rutgers Street Tunnel to Downtown Brooklyn. The IND Sixth Avenue Line was designed to replace the elevated
IRT Sixth Avenue Line. The Midtown section of the Sixth Avenue Line was difficult to construct because part of this stretch of Sixth Avenue was already occupied by the
Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M)'s
Uptown Hudson Tubes, which ran between Eighth and 33rd Streets. As a result, negotiations between the city and the H&M continued for several years. The IND and H&M finally came to an agreement in 1930. The city had decided to build the IND Sixth Avenue Line's local tracks around the pre-existing H&M tubes, and add express tracks for the IND underneath the H&M tubes at a later date. However, the IND had not yet finalized the locations of Sixth Avenue Line stations between
42nd and
Fourth Streets because it was still negotiating with the H&M. The Midtown section of the Sixth Avenue Line did not begin construction until March 1936. The final contract for the line, covering the section between 9th and 18th Streets, was awarded to Spencer White & Prentis in June 1937. Workers had to navigate around the various utilities and tunnels above, below, and beside the line. The section of the line between 9th and 18th Streets was constructed using compressed air and
tunneling shields, in contrast to much of the rest of the line, which was built using a
cut-and-cover method. Builders had to use very small charges of dynamite so that they would not disrupt the H&M tunnels alongside the route, the street and elevated line above, and the water main below. The Sixth Avenue Elevated had to be underpinned during construction, and workers had to be careful not to cause cracks in the
Catskill Aqueduct, which was located around below the avenue's surface. The opening of the Sixth Avenue Line relieved train traffic on the Eighth Avenue Line, which was used by all IND services except for the
G Brooklyn–Queens Crosstown service. When the Sixth Avenue Line's 14th Street station opened, the
F train served the station at all times.
Consolidation as a station complex The city government took over the BMT's operations on June 1, 1940, and the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. In 1947, the
New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) replaced the incandescent lightbulbs in the Sixth Avenue Line's 14th Street station with
fluorescent lamps as part of an experiment to improve illumination in subway stations. A free transfer between the Canarsie Line platform and the Sixth Avenue Line platforms opened on May 9, 1966. On January 16, 1978, a free transfer passageway connecting the 14th Street station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and the stations on the BMT Canarsie Line and the IND Sixth Avenue Line opened.
Accessibility improvements In 2018, the MTA allocated some funding for
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) improvements at the Sixth Avenue/14th Street station. Originally, the improvements were scheduled for the Sixth Avenue and Canarsie Lines only. The entire station complex except for the PATH station was to receive elevators starting in 2022. , funding had been committed to accessibility renovations at the 14th Street/Sixth Avenue station. A contract for nine elevators at the station complex was awarded in November 2021. Between February 27, 2023, and December 11, 2023, the transfer passageway between Sixth and Seventh Avenues was closed for the installation of elevators and reconfiguring of the ramp as a part to make the station compliant with the ADA. A free out-of-system transfer was available while the passageway was closed. The work involves constructing nine elevators: two from the IRT platforms to the mezzanine; one from the mezzanine to street level at Seventh Avenue; two from the lower mezzanine levels to the BMT platform; two from each IND platform to upper mezzanine; and two more from both the BMT and IND mezzanine levels to street level at Sixth Avenue. On August 19, 2024, the first three elevators opened, making the northbound IND Sixth Avenue Line platform and the BMT Canarsie Line platform accessible. An additional two elevators – one from street level at Seventh Avenue to the IRT mezzanine and another from that mezzanine to the northbound IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line platform – opened on November 2, 2024. The remaining four elevators were opened in mid-December 2024, making the southbound IND Sixth Avenue Line platform, the southbound IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line platform, and the transfer passageway between the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line platforms and the BMT Canarsie Line platform accessible. Work also included the renovation of 39 stairs, the addition of 25 more stairs, == Station layout ==