Bay Ridge – 95th Street (BMT Fourth Avenue Line)

Bay Ridge – 95th Street
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Station platform.
Station statistics
Address	95th Street & Fourth Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11209
Borough	Brooklyn
Locale	Fort Hamilton
Coordinates	40°36′56.4″N 73°1′52.9″W / 40.615667°N 73.031361°WCoordinates: 40°36′56.4″N 73°1′52.9″W / 40.615667°N 73.031361°W
Division	B (BMT)
Line	BMT Fourth Avenue Line
Services	R  (all times)
Transit connections	New York City Bus: B8, B63
Structure	Underground
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	October 31, 1925[1]
Former/other names	95th Street – Fort Hamilton
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	1,865,038[2]  0.4%
Rank	258 out of 422
Station succession
Next north	86th Street: R
Next south	(Terminal): R
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times
Location

Bay Ridge – 95th Street (originally 95th Street – Fort Hamilton) is the southern terminal station on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Despite the name, the station is actually located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Hamilton (as its original name implies) at the intersection of 95th Street and Fourth Avenue. It is served by the R train at all times.

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit/Entrance
M	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent
P Platform level	Northbound	← toward Forest Hills – 71st Avenue (36th Street late nights) (86th Street)
	Island platform, doors will open on the left or right
	Northbound	← toward Forest Hills – 71st Avenue (36th Street late nights) (86th Street)

Mosaic directional signs at the unstaffed mezzanine

This underground station, opened on October 31, 1925, with the first train leaving at 2 p.m.,^[1] and was refurbished in the late 1970s, has two tracks and one island platform.^[3] The tracks end at bumper blocks at the south end of the platform. It was the last to be built for the Fourth Avenue Line and is geographically the westernmost in the subway.

Both platform walls have their original mosaic trim line with name tablets reading "95TH STREET." in Times New Roman font along the entire station except for a small section at the north end, where the platform was extended in the 1950s to accommodate the current standard "B" Division train length of 600 feet. Here, the wall is bare black. The platforms were originally 530 feet in length.^[3]

The station was constructed with a signal tower and dispatcher's office.^[3] It has two mezzanines above the platform and tracks, but mosaic directional signs indicate they were originally one full-length mezzanine. The closed-off sections are now used for employee-only spaces. The station's larger, full-time mezzanine is at the south end. It has two staircases from each platform, turnstile bank, token booth, two restrooms, and two staircases going up to either western corners of Fourth Avenue and 95th Street. A passageway leads to another staircase on the east side of the intersection, built inside an alcove of 9425 Fifth Avenue. The station's other mezzanine is unstaffed, containing one staircase from the platform, High Entry/Exit Turnstiles, and two staircases going up to either southern corners of 93rd Street and Fourth Avenue.^[4] Additional exits were planned at 94th Street, but were never built.^[5]

North of this station, a center layup track forms just north of the diamond crossover, before ending at a bumper block just south of 86th Street.

Provisions for proposed extensions

Entrance at 95th Street and 4th Avenue.

The station is built on the west side of Fourth Avenue due to plans for a possible extension of the express tracks south of 59th Street.^[6] This station had been built mainly to facilitate the Staten Island Tunnel, which never materialized, which would have necessitated express service.^[7][8]

South of this station, there is a false wall at the end of the tracks for a planned extension to 100th or 101st Street^[9] and into the never-built Staten Island Tunnel, connecting this BMT line with the Staten Island Railway (SIRT) Main Line near its Grasmere station. The station would have also connected with the now-defunct South Beach Branch by disconnecting it from the SIRT main line, with the BMT Fourth Avenue Subway taking over service from the SIRT's Fort Wadsworth station to the Wentworth Avenue terminal. At the time it would have been a very different line had this tunnel been built, with through BMT service from Queensboro Plaza to Wentworth Avenue in Staten Island stopping at this station before proceeding to Staten Island, since this station is also the closest point to Staten Island. There were also plans to construct an underground storage yard here. The SIR had been electrified in preparation for the tunnel, and had purchased subway cars similar to the AB Standards of the BMT.^[10] The tunnel plan was amended in 1919, moving its location north to Shore Road in Bay Ridge.^[11]

Later proposals surfaced to connect the station to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, one of the world's longest suspension bridges, which follows the route of the planned tunnel. The bridge was built without provisions for rail traffic.^[7][10][12]

References

1. "95th St. Subway Extension Opened At 2 P. M. Today". http://bklyn.newspapers.com. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 31, 1912. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
2. "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership". New York: Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
3. "Subway Bids Announced: For 95th Street Terminal, Brooklyn, and Corona Yard". nytimes.com. The New York Times. March 1, 1925. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
4. "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Bay Ridge" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York). 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
5. "Locates Extension Station: Transit Board Decides on 93d-95th St,. Brooklyn, Site.". nytimes.com. The New York Times. September 13, 1922. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
6. "Brooklyn Subway Extension Plan: Fourth Ave. Line to 86th St., Tunnel to Staten Island, and Eventually a Through Route to Coney Island". nytimes.com. The New York Times. February 16, 1912. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
7. "To Extend Subway to Fort Hamilton". nytimes.com. The New York Times. August 26, 1922. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
8. "Three Rapid Transit Contracts are Let". nytimes.com. The New York Times. December 29, 1922. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
9. "Discuss Subway Work: Fort Hamilton Taxpayers Want 100th Street Extended". nytimes.com. The New York Times. September 24, 1911. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
10. Leigh, Irvin; Matus, Paul (January 2002). "State Island Rapid Transit: The Essential History". thethirdrail.net. The Third Rail Online. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
11. "To Act This Year on the Richmond Tube: Route Approved in 1912 Still Alive-May Soon Be Adopted Anew or Amended". nytimes.com. The New York Times. February 13, 1919. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
12. Martin, Douglas (November 17, 1996). "Subway Planners' Lofty Ambitions Are Buried as Dead-End Curiosities". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2015.

External links

• nycsubway.org—BMT 4th Avenue Line: 95th Street/Fort Hamilton
• Station Reporter — R Train
• The Subway Nut - Bay Ridge – 95th Street Station Pictures
• 95th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View