45th Street is a local station on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at 45th Street and Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. It is served by the R train at all times except late nights northbound and the N train late nights only.
This underground station, opened on September 13, 1915, has four tracks and two side platforms. The two center tracks are used by N trains during daytime hours as well as late-night northbound R trains. The platforms are offset as the Manhattan-bound platform is more to the north than the Bay Ridge-bound one.
This station was overhauled in the late 1970s. The Transit Authority repaired the station's structure and appearance, particularly the staircases and platform edges. The overhaul also replaced the original wall tiles, trim line, signs, and incandescent lighting with cinder block tiles (colored gray with dark gray indentation), black and white signs, and fluorescent lights.
On the platforms, street signs and arrows leading to the station's exits are painted white on the wall tiles. Columns run along the entire length of both platforms and are painted dark blue. Every other column has a "45 Street" sign on it in black with white text. All are round except for the ones near the staircases to the station's main entrance, which was where the platforms were extended in the 1960s. These columns are I-beams.
The station's main entrance is a mezzanine above the platforms and tracks at the south end. It has two staircases to the Manattan-bound platform and one to the Bay Ridge-bound one at the extreme south end, a waiting area that allows a free transfer between directions, turnstile bank, token booth, and two staircases to the northern corners of 45th Street and 4th Avenue.
The mezzanine contains some of the original mosaic directional and arrow signs. The one by the staircases to the southbound platform says "Down Town trains" while the one by the Manhattan-bound platform staircases says "Up Town Trains."
The Bay Ridge-bound platform formerly had an exit-only at the center that led to 46th Street. Evidence of this includes a gated door on the platform wall and adjacent "EXIT" signs.
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