What am I looking at?
34th Street–Penn Station is an express station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway.
The quick answer
34th Street–Penn Station is an express station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 34th Street and Seventh Avenue in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, it is served 24 hours a day by the 1, 2 and 3 trains. Connections are available to the LIRR, NJ Transit and Amtrak at Pennsylvania Station. It is the southern terminal for late-night 3 trains.
How it came to be
The station was built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the Dual Contracts with New York City, and opened on June 3, 1917.
The detail most people miss
The Dual Contracts, which were signed on March 19, 1913, were contracts for the construction, rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the City of New York. The contracts were "dual" in that they were signed between the city and two separate private companies, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT), all working together to make the construction of the Dual Contracts possible. The Dual Contracts promised the construction of several lines in Brooklyn. As part of Contract 4, the IRT agreed to build a branch of the original subway line south down Seventh Avenue, Varick Street, and West Broadway to serve the West Side of Manhattan.
Why it still matters
The construction of this line, in conjunction with the construction of the Lexington Avenue Line, would change the operations of the IRT system. Instead of having trains go via Broadway, turning onto 42nd Street, before finally turning onto Park Avenue, there would be two trunk lines connected by the 42nd Street Shuttle. The system would be changed from looking like a "Z" system on a map to an "H" system. One trunk would run via the new Lexington Avenue Line down Park Avenue, and the other trunk would run via the new Seventh Avenue Line up Broadway. In order for the line to continue down Varick Street and West Broadway, these streets needed to be widened, and two new streets were built, the Seventh Avenue Extension and the Varick Street Extension. It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the Lower West Side, and to neighborhoods such as Chelsea and Greenwich Village.
Look closer
34th Street–Penn Station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line was opened on June 3, 1917, as part of an extension of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the dominant subway in Manhattan at the time, from Times Square–42nd Street to South Ferry. Concrete-laying for the platforms had started shortly before the station opened, and only the northern part of the express platform was in service on the station's opening day. The passageways to Pennsylvania Station were still under construction, forcing passengers to exit the subway station and walk along the street to access the railroad station. Once the passageways were complete, passengers could access both the railroad station and the neighboring Hotel Pennsylvania at 32nd and 33rd Streets without leaving the subway station.
