IND Eighth Avenue Line in the context of "Independent Subway System"

The West Side of Manhattan refers to the side of Manhattan Island that abuts the Hudson River and faces the U.S. state of New Jersey. The major neighborhoods on the West Side are (from north to south) Inwood, Hudson Heights, Washington Heights, West Harlem, Morningside Heights, Manhattan Valley, the Upper West Side, Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea, the West Village, SoHo, and Tribeca. The 8th Avenue and West Side subway lines connect all parts of the West Side.

The main north–south roads servicing the West Side are the Henry Hudson Parkway in the north and the West Side Highway in the south. The Hudson River Greenway separates these highways from the island's western shore.

Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan by Continental Army troops to defend the area from the British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Washington Heights is bordered by Inwood to the north along Dyckman Street, by Harlem to the south along 155th Street, by the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff to the east, and by the Hudson River to the west.

Washington Heights, which before the 20th century was sparsely populated by luxurious mansions and single-family homes, rapidly developed during the early 1900s as it became connected to the rest of Manhattan via the Broadway–Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue lines of the New York City Subway. Beginning as a middle-class neighborhood with many Irish and Eastern European immigrants, the neighborhood has at various points been home to communities of German Jews, Greek Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, African Americans and Russian Americans.

The E Eighth Avenue Local is a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is blue since it uses the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan.

The E operates at all times between Jamaica Center–Parsons Boulevard–Archer Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, and the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan; limited rush hour service originates and terminates at 179th Street instead of Jamaica Center. Daytime service makes express stops in Queens and all stops in Manhattan; overnight service makes all stops along the full route.

The Times Square–42nd Street station is a major New York City Subway station complex located under Times Square, at the intersection of 42nd Street, Seventh Avenue, and Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan. The complex allows free transfers between the IRT 42nd Street Shuttle, the BMT Broadway Line, the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and the IRT Flushing Line, as well as to the IND Eighth Avenue Line a block west at 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal. The complex is served by the 1, 2, 3, 7, N and Q trains at all times, the W train during weekdays; the R and 42nd Street Shuttle (S) trains at all times except late nights; and <7> trains during rush hours in the peak direction. A free passageway from the shuttle platform to the 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station, served by the 7, <7>​​, B, ​D, ​F, <F>, and ​M trains, is open during the day from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m.

The present shuttle platforms were built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as a local station on the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. As part of the Dual Contracts between the IRT and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line platforms opened in 1917, followed by the Broadway Line platforms in 1918 and the Flushing Line platforms in 1928. The original platforms were also reconfigured to serve the shuttle. The complex has been reconstructed numerous times over the years. The free transfer between the IRT and BMT opened in 1948, while the transfer to the IND station was placed within fare control in 1988. The complex was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. In the early 21st century, the shuttle station was reconfigured.

The 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station is an express station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, it is served by the A and E trains at all times, and by the C train at all times except late nights. Passageways connect this station to the nearby station at Times Square–42nd Street, providing a free transfer, and to the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

The 42nd Street station was built as an express station for the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Eighth Avenue Line. The station opened on September 9, 1932, as part of the initial section of the Eighth Avenue Line. The connection to the Port Authority Bus Terminal opened in 1950, and a platform on a lower level operated intermittently between 1952 and 1981. A free transfer to the Times Square station opened in 1988.

The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, often called the Ninth Avenue Elevated or Ninth Avenue El, was the first elevated railway in New York City. It opened in July 1868 as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, as an experimental single-track cable-powered elevated railway from Battery Place, at the south end of Manhattan Island, northward up Greenwich Street to Cortlandt Street. By 1879 the line was extended to the Harlem River at 155th Street. It was electrified and taken over by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in 1903.

The main line ceased operation in June 1940, after it was replaced by the IND Eighth Avenue Line which had opened in 1932. The last section in use, over the Harlem River, was known as the Polo Grounds Shuttle. It closed in August 1958. This portion used a now-removed swing bridge called the Putnam Bridge, and went through a still-extant tunnel with two partially underground stations.

40°51′10″N 73°56′17″W / 40.85278°N 73.93806°W / 40.85278; -73.93806

Bennett Park, also known as James Gordon Bennett Park, is a 1.8-acre (0.73 ha) public park in New York City, named for James Gordon Bennett, Sr., the newspaper publisher who launched the New York Herald in 1835. It is located between Pinehurst and Fort Washington Avenues and West 183rd and 185th Streets in the Hudson Heights neighborhood of Washington Heights in northern Manhattan, on land purchased by Bennett in 1871, the year before his death. It sits opposite the northern Fort Washington Avenue entrance to the 181st Street subway station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line, serviced by the A train. The park contains the highest natural elevation in Manhattan, at 265.05 feet above sea level.