Ocean Parkway Station (Dual System BRT)

About this property

The Ocean Parkway station is an express station on the New York City Subway's BMT Brighton Line. It is located at Brighton Beach Avenue and Ocean Parkway on the border of Brighton Beach and Coney Island in Brooklyn. The station is served by the Q train at all times. The Ocean Parkway station opened on April 22, 1917. It was served only by a single-track shuttle that ran to Brighton Beach, which was the southern terminal for all trains on the Brighton Line. When the West Eighth Street station opened in 1919, all four tracks were extended west to serve that stop, which was a two-level station. The local tracks remained at the same elevation and connected to the lower level (which was also served by the IND Culver Line) while the express tracks rose up and connected to the upper level. As a result, all Brighton Line service was extended to Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue. A reconfiguration in 1954 resulted in the discontinuation of Brighton Line service on the lower level of West Eighth Street, as well as express service at Ocean Parkway. West of this station, the local tracks merge into the express tracks, which continue to serve the upper level of West Eighth Street. The structures connecting the Brighton Line to the lower level, which the Culver Line continues to serve, remain intact, but are trackless. In April 1993, the New York State Legislature agreed to give the MTA $9.6 billion for capital improvements. Some of the funds would be used to renovate nearly one hundred New York City Subway stations, including Ocean Parkway. The station was closed in August 2002 in conjunction with the reconstruction of the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue terminal. Service was restored on May 23, 2004. This elevated station has two curved island platforms and four tracks; the center express tracks are not normally used. The station is built on a decorated masonry viaduct to keep with Ocean Parkway's status as a city parkway. The concrete viaduct, designed with elements of the Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, and Streamline Moderne styles, contains molded surfaces with inlaid ceramic tiles. Much of the viaduct has a bush-hammered concrete surface. The northern and southern facades of the viaduct contain projecting vertical piers with brackets and vertical panels. Between the piers on each facade are three arched openings for Ocean Parkway and its service roads; the tops of these arches contain recessed spandrel panels. A frieze with blue and green ceramic tiles runs horizontally under the arches. Structurally, the masonry viaduct consists of a steel structure encased in wire mesh and surrounded by cast-in-place concrete. The wire mesh was first placed around the steel beams, and the concrete was poured into large timber formwork that was placed atop the wire mesh. Expansion joints were then placed at the bents of the steel structure; this allowed the steel beams to vibrate, expand, and contract while reducing concrete spalling. The station has two mezzanines at its western and eastern ends, directly above Brighton Beach Avenue and below the tracks and platforms. Between the mezzanines is a set of three groin vaults directly above Ocean Parkway. The trackbeds contain a waterproof layer of burlap, coated in coal tar.

Location

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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