191st Street (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)

191st Street
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Station statistics
Address	West 191st Street & Saint Nicholas Avenue New York, NY 10040
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Washington Heights
Coordinates	40°51′18″N 73°55′44″W / 40.855°N 73.929°W / 40.855; -73.929Coordinates: 40°51′18″N 73°55′44″W / 40.855°N 73.929°W / 40.855; -73.929
Division	A (IRT)
Line	IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
Services	1  (all times)
Transit connections	NYCT Bus: M3, M101
Structure	Underground
Depth	180 feet (55 m)
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Other information
Opened	January 14, 1911 (106 years ago) (1911-01-14)
Wireless service
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	2,713,440  0.5%
Rank	186 out of 422
Station succession
Next north	Dyckman Street: 1
Next south	181st Street: 1
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops all times
Location Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York Show map of the US

191st Street is a station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of St. Nicholas Avenue and 191st Street in Manhattan, it is served by the 1 train at all times.

The West Side Branch of the first subway was extended northward to a temporary terminus of 221st Street and Broadway on March 12, 1906 with the station at 191st Street not yet open. The elevators and other work had not yet been completed, and 191st Street did not open to the public until January 14, 1911.

In 1948, platforms on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line from 103rd Street to 238th Street were lengthened to 514 feet to allow full ten-car express trains to platform. Previously the stations could only platform six car local trains. The platform extensions were opened in stages. On April 6, 1948, the stations from 103rd Street to Dyckman Street had their platform extensions opened, with the exception of the 125th Street, which had its extension opened on June 11, 1948.

The 191st Street station has two tracks and two side platforms. There are also covered pedestrian footbridges connecting the two platforms, so people on the footbridges cannot see the tracks and platforms (and vice versa).

At approximately 180 feet (55 m) below street level, it is the deepest station in the New York City Subway system. In 1947, Victor Hess, who won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of cosmic rays, wrote to the Board of Transportation asking if he could use the station "to carry out experiments on the radiation emitted from rocks at a location well protected from cosmic rays." Hess ultimately was allowed to conduct his experiments in the nearby 190th Street station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line, which is also located far below ground. Despite the depth of the 191st Street station, the next station north, Dyckman Street, is just above ground level. This is because 191st Street is at nearly the highest point on the island of Manhattan and this station is deep in the Washington Heights Mine Tunnel, while Dyckman Street runs along a deep valley almost at sea level and its station is at the tunnel portal, despite the fact that both stations are at the same elevation above sea level.

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Wikipedia