Culture

Life in East New York’s Sprawling Transit Hub

Much of Broadway Junction’s character derives from its impressive size, maze-like layout, relative isolation, and a design that contains little regard for conventional beauty.
Waiting for the subway to Queens, Broadway Junction Station, Brooklyn, 2018.Camilo José Vergara

Editor’s note: This is the final installment of Camilo José Vergara’s Crossroads project. Previous stories covered Newark’s “Four Corners,” the Bronx’s “Hub” and its corner of Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue, Harlem’s 125th and Lexington, and Bed-Stuy’s Fulton and Nostrand.

In the heart of Brooklyn, Broadway Junction stands as the third-busiest station in the borough—a transfer point for six connected subway lines and buses that line up along Van Sinderen Avenue outside the station’s only exit. A short walk to a spooky underground passage leads to the nearby East New York Avenue Station of the Long Island Railroad. Sections of this station date back to the 19th century and one can still see the remains of the trackways once used by the Fulton Street elevated that closed in 1956.