Bowling Green station

A view of the station in 1905

Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864.[6]^: 21 However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act.[6]^{: 139–161} The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer.[7]^: 3 The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900,[8] in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line.[6]^: 165 In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations.[7]^: 4 Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.[6]^{: 162–191}

Several days after Contract 1 was signed, the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners instructed Parsons to evaluate the feasibility of extending the subway south to South Ferry, and then to Brooklyn. On January 24, 1901, the Board adopted a route that would extend the subway from City Hall to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Flatbush Avenue terminal station (now known as Atlantic Terminal) in Brooklyn, via the Joralemon Street Tunnel under the East River.[9]^: 83–84[10]^{: 260–261} Contract 2, which gave the IRT a 35-year lease,was executed between the commission and the Rapid Transit Construction Company on September 11, 1902.[6]^{: 162–191} Construction of the Joralemon Street Tunnel began at State Street in Manhattan on November 8, 1902.[11] There was to be a station at Bowling Green. South of the station, the main line would slope down to the Joralemon Street Tunnel, while a loop underneath Battery Park would allow southbound trains to serve the South Ferry station and rejoin the northbound track.[12][13] The New York Times wrote that the installation of the switches between the loop and the main line presented "an engineering problem of great difficulty".[12]

Work on the section of line from Ann Street (just south of City Hall) to Bowling Green had not started by September 1903, and McDonald blamed Parsons for the delays.[14][15] The dispute was quickly resolved, as neither man had realized that the other did not want the project to disturb daytime traffic along Broadway; work started shortly thereafter.[16] During the Bowling Green station's construction, workers uncovered and removed some of the original lampposts that had illuminated Bowling Green Park.[17] The tunnel between Ann Street and Bowling Green was nearly complete by July 1904.[18] The Bowling Green station opened on July 10, 1905.[19][20] The station was originally built with a single island platform; a station head house at the south end, in Battery Park; and a secondary entrance at the northern end of the platform, adjacent to Bowling Green Park.[21] There was as yet no IRT service to Brooklyn, and all Lexington Avenue trains terminated at South Ferry's outer-loop platform.[19][20]

Former shuttle platform on the Brooklyn-bound side

After the Joralemon Street Tunnel opened in 1908,[22][23] ticket sales increased at Bowling Green and the IRT's other subway stations in Lower Manhattan.[24][25] Some trains continued to terminate at South Ferry, even during rush hours, while others went to Brooklyn. This service pattern was soon found to be inadequate for the high volume of Brooklyn riders.[26] As a result, in 1908, the New York State Public Service Commission applied for authority to build a second, shorter platform and a third track to the west of the existing island platform.[26] Three months after the Joralemon Street Tunnel opened, construction began on the third track and the western island platform at Bowling Green. Once they were completed in 1909, all rush-hour trains were sent to Brooklyn, with a two-car Bowling Green–South Ferry shuttle train providing service to South Ferry during those times.[27] Even after the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line local service (1 train) began to South Ferry in 1918, the shuttle remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1977 due to budget cuts.[28]

To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway.[29]^: 168 As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $47.1 million in 2022) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $15.7 million in 2022) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent.[30]^: 15 The main island platform at the Bowling Green station was extended 110 feet (34 m) to the north.[30]^: 116 On January 23, 1911, ten-car express trains began running on the East Side Line, and the next day, ten-car express trains began running on the West Side Line.[29]^: 168[31] The Lexington Avenue Line north of Grand Central–42nd Street opened on August 1, 1918, and all Joralemon Street Tunnel services were sent via the Lexington Avenue Line.[32][33]

In Fiscal Year 1937, the platform was extended 102 feet (31 m) to the north. This avoided the need to install gap fillers on the curve at the south end of the platform.[34] The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.[35][36] On September 8, 1952, the New York City Board of Transportation made the entrance kiosk at Battery Place and State Street entrance-only instead of exit-only in order to relieve congestion at the station during the evening rush hour. A fare box was installed at the top of the stairway to accommodate the change.[37] The New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced plans in 1956 to add fluorescent lights above the edges of the station's platforms.[38] The lights were installed the next year.[39]

NYCTA architect Harold Sandifer prepared plans in the late 1950s for a modern-style station house within Bowling Green Park, which would contain a brick-and-aluminum facade, along with planters containing dwarf Japanese yew trees. The NYCTA approved the project in February 1958, awarding the construction contract to the Lenmar Construction Company at a cost of $87,200.[40] The next year, the new station house in Bowling Green Park was completed, with new stairways to the platform. Later in 1959, contracts were awarded to extend the platforms at Bowling Green, Wall Street, Fulton Street, Canal Street, Spring Street, Bleecker Street, Astor Place, Grand Central, 86th Street and 125th Street to 525 feet (160 m) to accommodate ten-car trains.[41][42] The NYCTA approved a proposal in September 1960 to install an experimental token-vending machine, which would dispense advertisements along with tokens, at the Bowling Green station.[43][44] Work on the platform extension was still underway in 1962,[45] and the project was substantially completed by November 1965.[46]

The orange tiles on the walls date to the 1970s renovation.

As early as the mid-1960s, local civic group Downtown-Local Manhattan Association had raised concerns that the Bowling Green station was severely overcrowded during rush hours. The association commissioned a study of the neighborhood, which recommended that the station's platform be extended and that its entrances be widened.[47] In 1970, the New York City Planning Commission considered transferring the Custom House's unused air rights to 1 Broadway, where the Walter Kidde Company planned to build a 50-story skyscraper. In exchange, the Walter Kidde Company would have been required to pay for numerous improvements to the surrounding area.[48] Local civic groups also proposed connecting the station to the basements of skyscrapers in the area, as well as to the then-separate South Ferry and Whitehall Street stations and a planned terminal for the Second Avenue Subway.[49] By the early 1970s, the station had 14 million passengers per year.[50]

On March 5, 1972, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that the station would be renovated and expanded, doubling the capacity of the station.[51][52] The work was done in conjunction with the renovation of Bowling Green Park, which was rebuilt to conform with its appearance in the late 18th century.[53][54] A new northbound side platform was built to alleviate congestion on the narrow island platform, which would then only be used by downtown trains.[55] Stairs and a new mezzanine were built below track level, and a new exit with modern escalators was installed just south of Bowling Green.[55][56] The street at the southern end of Bowling Green, in front of the Custom House, was converted into a pedestrian plaza.[57][58] The new mezzanine, excavated under Bowling Green Park using a cut-and-cover method, was connected to the platform and street levels with ten new escalators.[59] The existing subway entrance at the west gate of the park was removed, providing more open space in the park.[51][52] These capacity improvements were made to accommodate increased ridership resulting from the construction of additional office buildings in Lower Manhattan, including the World Trade Center.[52] The station lost its original mosaic tiles,[60][61] which were replaced with bright red tiles, similar to those at 49th Street and the under-construction stations on the 63rd Street lines and Archer Avenue lines.[62] In addition, the station's token booths were renovated.[63]

Work was initially set to be finished in 1974.[52] In July 1975, it was announced that the project's completion had been delayed to March 1976.[64] The southern headhouse entrance was closed for six months beginning in April 1978 as it was being rehabilitated.[65] The renovation was completed in 1978 at a cost of $16.8 million.[64] Funding for the project was provided from the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA)'s capital budget.[52] The Bowling Green station's renovation was supposed to be the first of numerous large-scale station reconstructions in the New York City Subway system.[66][67]

At midnight on February 13, 1977, service on the Bowling Green–South Ferry shuttle was discontinued, and the platform and the track used by the shuttle were abandoned.[68] The service was discontinued as part of a three-phase cut in service that the NYCTA had begun in 1975 to reduce its operating deficits.[69][70] Despite the discontinuation of the service, the shuttle platform was renovated, receiving new tiling, signage, and refinished flooring.[71][72][73] Some time after 1983, a fence was installed on the eastern edge of the island platform, which had been used to board trains prior to the opening of the side platform in 1978.[74]

In June 1999, MetroCard vending machines were installed in this station as part of the second batch of the fare-payment technology's installation.[75] Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, members of the public expressed concerns that the station could be difficult to evacuate in emergencies due to its convoluted layout.[76]

In early 2006, work began to make the station fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The cobblestones around the station entrance near Bowling Green were replaced with granite pavers, an ADA-compliant path was constructed to Bowling Green Park, and a new glass canopy was installed over this entrance. The canopy, which was designed by Dattner Architects in 2003, consists of a curved steel and glass with stainless steel ribs, and is supported by a granite base.[77] The unused shuttle platform was also walled off between 2001 and 2002.[72][78][79] Work to install the canopy was scheduled to begin in late October 2006.[80] In May 2007, the replacement of the cobblestones and installation of the glass canopy were completed. The elevators opened to the public on July 9, 2007, and a formal opening ceremony was hosted the following day.[81][82]

The MTA added a hearing induction loop for passengers on the northbound platform, the first such installation in the subway system, during a pilot program in 2020.[83][84] The MTA announced in December 2021 that it would install wide-aisle fare gates for disabled passengers at five subway stations, including Bowling Green, by mid-2022.[85] The implementation of these fare gates was delayed; none of the wide-aisle fare gates had been installed by early 2023.[86][87]

South of the station, the tracks diverge into two sets. One set (the inner tracks) enters the Joralemon Street Tunnel to travel to Brooklyn,[92] sloping down at a gradient of just over three percent.[12][13] This route is used by the 4 train at all times and the 5 train on weekdays until 8:45 pm.[107] The outer tracks continue to the closed South Ferry inner loop station,[92] which is used by the 5 train when it short turns at this station during weekends and late weekday evenings.[107]

At the south end of the station is the original head house, known as the Bowling Green IRT Control House or Battery Park Control House, on the west side of State Street south of Broadway.[88] This subway entrance was designed by Heins & LaFarge and built in 1905 on the west side of State Street, across from the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House.[115] It was built as one of several station houses on the original IRT; similar station houses were built at 72nd, 96th, 103rd, and 116th Streets.[116]^: 46[117]^: 2 The control house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a New York City designated landmark.[5][4] Although most of the original subway's entry points had steel and glass kiosks (such as at Astor Place), important stations like Bowling Green were marked with a brick and stone control house, so called because they helped control the passenger flow.[5]

The facade is made of yellow brick, with limestone banding and triglyphs at its tops, a base of granite, and a gable roof. The doorways to the control house are located on the north and south of the structure; the northern doorway has an elaborate pediment above it, and the southern doorway has been extended with three exit doors. Inside, the control house has turnstiles at street level and a single stair down to the extreme southern end of the island platform.[5]

Lower Manhattan transit
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