Smith-9th Streets
Smith-9th Streets is the highest station on the entire subway system and the MTA claims the world at 80 feet above street level, located high up on a bridge over the Gowanus Canal; this subway station gets an A for having the best view of the waterfront and Manhattan skyline. Entering the station from street level on the north side of 9th Street just before the Ninth Street Bridge, a vertical lift bridge across the Canal. Passengers enter the station by going through fare control (on street level) and up two sets of long escalators. There is a right angle curve in the middle where the direction of the escalators shift. The escalators are completely enclosed meaning that the view can't get better and better as you go up. There is evidence though of windows at one time, but these squares have been boarded up. Both escalator banks have 3 escalators plus a staircase. At the top is a small mezzanine where a staircase leads to each platform at its eastern most end. It is one of two IND stations that are elevated (not including the World's Fair Line), the other station is the next stop east, 4 Avenue, this means it is completely different then all other elevated stations. The large elevated super structure is made out of concrete and is literally falling apart, weathering away, that is why there are black platform sheaths covering a portion of the platform's canopy and the rest of the elevated structure.
The station was the terminus of the G train before the Culver Viaduct Restoration Project began. This first started with the closure to rebuilt the express tracks that G trains used to use to terminate in the middle of the 4th Avenue Station. This required the G train's extension to Church Avenue effective July 5, 2009. It last was regularly scheduled to run to Church Avenue in 1976. Originally the extension was supposed to be temperary and only for five years during the duration of construction, community pressure and high ridership led to the extension becoming perminate so Smith-9th Street isn't scheduled to become a terminus again.
Station Closure and Rebuilding: Under the Culver Viaduct Restoration Project Smith 9th Street was closed to Manhattan-bound F trains in January 2011, with G trains still stopping at a temperary paltform that fits only its 4 cars, with all trains stopping on the Manhattan-bound Express Track. The station was then fully closed for a complete rebuilding in a project that took close to two years on June 20, 2011, it finally reopened on April 26, 2013, 4 months late.
1: December 30, 2003; 2-12: March 4, 2005; 13-16: October 21, 2005; 17-39: June 9, 2009; 40-64: June 8, 2011; 65-77: September 3, 2012
