Planning and construction As early as March 1918, soon after the
BMT Broadway Line opened to
Times Square–42nd Street, plans were being considered for an extension of that line beyond the stubs at
57th Street–Seventh Avenue to the
Upper West Side and
Washington Heights via
Central Park West (Eighth Avenue). On August 3, 1923, the
New York City Board of Estimate approved the
Washington Heights Line, an extension of the Broadway Line to Washington Heights. The line was to have four tracks from Central Park West at 64th Street under Central Park West, Eighth Avenue,
Saint Nicholas Avenue, and private property to 173rd Street, and two tracks under
Fort Washington Avenue to 193rd Street. South of 64th Street, one two-track line would connect to the Broadway Line stubs at 57th Street, and another would continue under Eighth Avenue to
30th Street at
Penn Station, with provisions to continue downtown. Mayor
John Hylan instead wanted to build an independent subway system, operated by the city. The
New York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT) gave preliminary approval to several lines in Manhattan, including one on Eighth Avenue, on December 9, 1924. The main portion of the already-approved Washington Heights Line—the mostly-four track line north of 64th Street—was included, but was to continue north from 193rd Street to 207th Street. South of 64th Street, the plan called for four tracks in Eighth Avenue,
Greenwich Avenue, the planned extension of
Sixth Avenue, and
Church Street. Two tracks would turn east under
Fulton Street or
Wall Street and under the
East River to
Downtown Brooklyn. A
groundbreaking ceremony was held at St. Nicholas Avenue and 123rd Street on March 14, 1925. Most of the Eighth Avenue Line was dug using a cheap
cut-and-cover method, where the street above was excavated. Still, the construction of the line was difficult, as it had to go under or over several subway lines. At
59th Street–Columbus Circle, workers had to be careful to not disrupt the existing
IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line overhead.
42nd Street, the longest station along the line at , was expected to be a major express station with large platforms, so the platforms were staggered away from each other in order to avoid going under property lines. Additionally, several workers died in cave-ins during construction. In the summer of 1926 the BOT held a public hearing and agreed upon the details of the construction of the subway line under
Church Street. As part of the construction of the line, Church Street was widened from being wide to being wide to accommodate the subway underneath and was connected with a southern diagonal extension of Sixth Avenue, which was . Had the street not been widened the construction would have cost an additional $7 million for the construction of a two-level subway structure. In January 1929, the city paid money awarded to adjacent property owners for property taken and awarded contracts for -wide sidewalks and a -wide roadway. The sidewalks had been wide and the roadway had been wide. New buildings were built on the west sides of Church Street. The east side of the street was not affected by the construction. $9,631,760 was awarded to 161 property owners whose property had been taken. 168,888 square feet of land had to be acquired to widen Church Street between Park Place and Canal Street. In 1926 construction began on the extension of Sixth Avenue south from Carmine Street to Canal Street, to allow for the construction of the Eighth Avenue Line (which runs under the street south of Eighth Street), and to provide access to the
Holland Tunnel. The construction of the extension was completed in 1930. The city condemned entire lots, displacing 10,000 people, to build the extension and used leftover land for parks. The stations on the line were built with long platforms, but they had provisions to lengthen them to to accommodate eleven-car trains. Four of the express stations (at Fulton, 14th, 42nd, and 59th Streets) were built with long mezzanines so that passengers could walk the entire length of the mezzanines without having to pay a fare. It was proposed to develop the mezzanines of these four stations with shops, so that they would become retail corridors, similar to the underground mall of the under-construction
Rockefeller Center. The new IND subway line also used
a five-color pattern of tiles to facilitate navigation for travelers going away from Manhattan; the colors of the tiles changed at each express station.
Early operation ) The majority of the Eighth Avenue Line, from
Chambers Street north to
207th Street, was opened to the public just after midnight on September 10, 1932, after three days of operation on a normal schedule but without passengers. The
Cranberry Street Tunnel, extending the express tracks east under Fulton Street to
Jay Street–Borough Hall in Brooklyn, was opened for the morning rush hour on February 1, 1933, with the exception of the station at
High Street, which opened on June 24, 1933. Initially, only the Fulton Street entrance was open; the Adams Street entrance would open later once its escalators were completed. When the subway opened in 1932, express (
A) and local (
AA) trains served the line; expresses did not run during late nights or Sundays. the
C was added to the express service, while all locals became
CC trains to the Concourse Line, forcing A trains to run local north of
145th Street. The
E was added to the local tracks south of
50th Street on August 19, 1933, when the
IND Queens Boulevard Line opened. The final major change came on December 15, 1940, when the
IND Sixth Avenue Line opened. The AA was brought back as a non-rush hour local service, becoming the
BB and switching to the Sixth Avenue Line at
59th Street–Columbus Circle during rush hours. The CC was kept only during rush hours to provide local service south past 59th Street. Additionally the C became a rush hour-only service, replaced by a full-time
D over the express tracks between the Concourse and Sixth Avenue Lines. This created the pattern that has remained to this day, with five services during normal hours: the A express, B part-time local via Sixth Avenue (then BB), C local (then AA and CC), D express via Sixth Avenue, and E local from Queens.
Later years In 1953, the platforms were lengthened at
Spring Street and
Canal Street to to allow E trains to run eleven-car trains. The E began running eleven-car trains during rush hours on September 8, 1953. The extra train car increased the total carrying capacity by 4,000 passengers. The lengthening project cost $400,000. Southbound E trains began stopping at the lower level of the 42nd Street station during rush hours on March 23, 1970, to reduce delays by relieving congestion on the station's platforms. On August 28, 1977, late night AA service was eliminated. The A began making local stops in Manhattan during late nights, when the AA was not running. On May 6, 1985, the IND practice of using double letters to indicate local service was discontinued. The AA was renamed the K and rush hour CC service was renamed C. This change was not officially reflected in schedules until May 24, 1987. On December 10, 1988, the K designation was discontinued and merged into the C, which now ran at all times except late nights. The C ran from Bedford Park Boulevard to Rockaway Park during rush hours,
145th Street to Euclid Avenue during middays, and from 145th Street to World Trade Center during evenings and weekends. The A now ran express in Brooklyn during middays, and the B was extended to 168th Street during middays and early evenings. On September 3, 1989, a water main lined with
asbestos in the vicinity of 53rd Street and Eighth Avenue broke and caused major disruptions to service between
59th Street–Columbus Circle and
34th Street–Penn Station due to the tunnels becoming flooded with water and asbestos. A and C trains originated and terminated at 34th Street instead of their normal northern terminals, and E trains were rerouted via Sixth Avenue in both directions; the 50th, 42nd and 23rd Street stations were closed while the cleanup process was underway. Full service was restored on October 1. On May 29, 1994, weekend C service between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. was extended to
168th Street to allow A trains to run express. Beginning April 30, 1995, C service was extended to 168th Street during middays as construction on the Manhattan Bridge cut B service from Manhattan. On November 11, 1995, midday service was cut back to 145th Street after B service to 168th Street was restored. The change was made to reduce crowding on the C and to reduce passenger confusion about the C's route. The B and the C, which both ran local along Central Park West, switched northern terminals on March 1, 1998, ending the connection between the C and the Bronx. Instead of alternating between three different terminals depending on the time of day, all C service now terminated at 168th Street. A report for the
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation looking at the
Lower Manhattan Rail Link, an idea to connect Lower Manhattan with the
Long Island Rail Road and
JFK International Airport, presented several alternatives that would utilize the Cranberry Street Tunnel instead of building a new East River Tunnel. These alternatives would have required that C trains be rerouted through the
Rutgers Street Tunnel. In the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacks, World Trade Center station was temporarily unusable as a terminal for the E. C service was suspended until September 24, 2001. Local service along
Central Park West was replaced by the A and D, and the E was extended from
Canal Street to Euclid Avenue replacing C service in Brooklyn. On January 23, 2005, a fire at the
Chambers Street signal room crippled A and C service. C service was suspended until February 2 and was replaced by the A, B, D, E, and
V trains along different parts of its route. Initial assessments suggested that it would take several years to restore normal service, but the damaged equipment was replaced with available spare parts, and normal service resumed on April 21. The 2015–2019
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Plan called for five of the Eighth Avenue Line's stations, along with 28 others, to undergo a complete overhaul as part of the
Enhanced Station Initiative. The stations receiving renovations are
34th Street–Penn Station,
72nd Street,
86th Street,
Cathedral Parkway–110th Street, and
163rd Street–Amsterdam Avenue. Updates included cellular service, Wi-Fi, USB charging stations, interactive service advisories and maps, improved signage, and improved station lighting. As part of the renovations, 72nd Street was closed from May 7, 2018, to October 4, 2018, and 86th Street was closed from June 4, 2018, to October 26, 2018. In addition, the Cathedral Parkway–110th Street station was closed from April 9, 2018, to the week of September 2–4, 2018, and 163rd Street was closed from March 12, 2018, to September 27, 2018. In March 1930, public hearings were held by the BOT concerning the construction and planning of this line. At the March 12 hearing, the project's construction was endorsed by east side civic organizations. In June 1930, the Board of Estimate approved the construction of the line, and in July Chairman Delaney sent letters to 450 real estate owners outlining the planned route and requested their consent for the construction of the project, of which the Board needed 50%. On August 23, 1930, bids on the construction of the connection (bellmouths) between the Eighth Avenue Line and the proposed Worth Street Line were put up for bid by the Board of Transportation. These bellmouths were constructed to allow work on the Worth Street Line to be done without interrupting service on the Eighth Avenue Line. This route was expected to the first line of the IND Second System to be built. At the time it was anticipated that the line would open a year or so after the completion of the Eighth Avenue Line under the East River to Brooklyn. However, the construction of the line was delayed due to the city's lack of funding after 1932. The Board of Transportation resumed efforts to build the line after a study of existing conditions in the area was completed, and on the basis that funding would be provided from government and private sources. The plans were truncated to a three-stop crosstown line entirely within Manhattan. Stops would have been located at Foley Square, Rutgers Street, and Lewis Street. The Lewis Street stop, located on the Lower East Side, would have been the line's terminal. Construction was expected to begin in 1937 and be complete by 1944. In 1938 the cost of the line was pegged by the BOT to be $16.73 million. Even though these bellmouths were never used and the line was never completed, the bellmouths are still visible south of
Canal Street adjacent to the local tracks. Other provisions were built in anticipation of the construction of the line. A large open space above the platform level at the
East Broadway station on the Sixth Avenue Line was intended to become a two-track station. Above the tunnel north of the
Broadway station on the Crosstown Line, a six-track station shell was partially completed. This station would have provided service to the IND Worth Street and the Houston Street Lines. ==Station listing==