14th Street side platforms

14 Street station once had side platforms. It opened 1904 and possibly closed 1910 due to platform extensions.

Construction and operation
The first subway in New York had five express stations on its four-track mainline: Brooklyn Bridge, 14 St, Grand Central, 72 St, and 96 St. 14 St is one of the three with side platforms in addition to the island platforms between the express and local tracks. The side platforms may have closed as early as 1910 since they were not lengthened to accommodate longer local trains, as they were at local stations.

Diagram
14 St station is much distorted in shape as the line runs around the reverse curve from Fourth Ave into Union Square East. The downtown island platform has an especially sharp curve and comes to a narrow point at the south end. The location of the side platforms can be spotted, when the local track is clear because the platform edges were not removed when the platforms were walled up.

The island platforms were extended in 1910 to handle longer express trains. The downtown platform was extended northward into space originally occupied by a siding that was removed. The uptown platform was extended at both ends, and the siding to the south is still there today. At the same time, more stairs were provided to new extensions of the mezzanine level. The side platforms had already been written off as useless by this time. The full length of the station is about 900 feet, because of the offset platforms, while an IRT train is only 510 feet.

Gap fillers were installed at a few points on the sharp curve of the downtown platform in 1914. Also known as moving platforms, they slide out to fill the space at the points where doors open and made it possible to open all the doors. More were added in 1916, and also on the South Ferry outer loop. When the modern design of the subway car came into service, with doors located at different points, the gap fillers were relocated, probably in 1955 for the local side and 1962 for the express side.