A Change of Scenery.
A Church Ave-bound D train approaches Smith-9th Sts Station, with the iconic Lower Manhattan skyline in the background. This past weekend D service was rerouted via the Culver Line in Brooklyn, and F service via the 4th Avenue and West End Lines due to maintenance work on the 53rd Street Line.
Smith-9th Sts is the highest rapid transit station in the world (above ground level), having been built on a viaduct over a drawbridge, as the Gowanus Canal below was still subject to shipping requirements for tall-masted ships at the time of the line's construction.
The D service ran this route until 1967, when the Chrystie Street Connection opened. According to Wikipedia, D service via the Culver began in 1954, however a Board of Transportation map in my collection from 1948 states that D trains ran to Church Ave.
