They aren’t connected to each other, but they’re part of the same neighborhood.
by Rich Watson
Washington Heights, in Manhattan, earns the second part of its name. With step streets to ease pedestrian travel among its hills, you become aware of its topography quickly.
The subway stations in WH are the deepest in New York. The one at 191 Street, for the 1 train, is the deepest of all—and it’s close to Manhattan’s natural peak.
The 1 train and Washington Heights
The 1, part of the IRT-Broadway/Seventh Avenue line with the 2 and 3, travels:
- through the Bronx and into Manhattan at Inwood,
- down St. Nicholas Avenue and Broadway, past the Cloisters and Highbridge Park,
- through Harlem, past City College and the Apollo Theater,
- through the Upper West Side and midtown, and
- down the length of Manhattan to South Ferry.
The short-lived 9 train also stopped at 191 Street, alternating with the 1.
During the Revolutionary War, WH was the site of the Battle of Fort Washington in 1776. Though it was a major loss, it led, a month later, to George Washington crossing the Delaware River on Christmas Night and beating both Hessian and British forces in subsequent battles. By 1783, he would reclaim the fort.
Fun fact: you may know about the George Washington Bridge, which crosses the Hudson River into New Jersey, but there’s also a Washington Bridge, on the east side of WH, over the Harlem River into the Bronx. It preceded the GWB.
The pedestrian High Bridge, New York’s oldest bridge, also lies over the Harlem, nearby.
WH has been depicted in the musical and film In the Heights.
Digging subway tunnels
To create tunnels for subways, you need a tunnel-boring machine. A TBM crushes rock and debris, which is removed by a conveyor. TBMs usually have to be installed in pieces due to their size. When digging tunnels was done by hand, those of the NYC subway required an estimated 8000 laborers.
Often, construction crews would cut a deep trench and cover it. This was a way to avoid bedrock. They’d drive piles on either side of the trench, then put trusses and beams across it. The piles acted as support. This was how NYC began construction of its subway in 1900.
In the past, to make tunnels waterproof, workers used gravel to line tunnel floors and then lined the tunnel with asphalt and brick. Today they use sprayable concrete or a material called shotcrete.
The IRT was notable for its use of electric power, which cut down on pollution.
191 Street: the depths
The 191 Street station opened in 1911. It, along with the stations at 168 and 181 Streets, were part of the two-plus mile Washington Heights Mine Tunnel. The station wasn’t originally part of the plan, but because WH grew unexpectedly fast, it was added, between 181 and Dyckman Streets.
A shaft 177 feet deep had to be built. The tunnel bores had to be widened to make the platforms fit. Space was made in one shaft for four elevators going to the mezzanine level. Initially, the elevators could be as slow as five to ten minutes.
The finished station is 173 feet deep.
A 1000-foot pedestrian tunnel, connecting the station on St. Nicholas Avenue with an entrance at Broadway, was also built, so passengers wouldn’t have to navigate the steep hills in the area. Similar, shorter tunnels exist at WH stations on the A line, but this is by far the longest. You don’t need to pay the fare to walk the tunnel. In recent years, to combat crime, brighter lights were installed and murals added.
This video of the tunnel is from earlier this year. Note the recent addition of the platform barriers.
A short distance from this station lies its polar opposite…
Bennett Park: the heights
Bennett Park, on Fort Washington Avenue by the A train at 181 Street, contains Manhattan’s highest natural point, 265.05 feet above sea level. It’s part of an outcropping of Manhattan schist, a metamorphic rock upon which much of Manhattan was built.
The remains of Fort Washington lay here. The bicentennial of Washington’s birth in 1932 was marked by the planting of an elm tree.
Bennett Park also hosts war reenactments.
By the way, the Smith-9 Street station in Brooklyn is the MTA’s highest station, at 87.5 feet.
@byrichwatson
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December 4: Another Behind the Blind.
December 18: A Christmas post!
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