21st Street

21st Street is a station on the IND Crosstown Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 21st Street and Jackson Avenue in the Hunters Point section of Long Island City, Queens, it is served by the '' train at all times.Station layout21st Street was part of the first phase of the IND Crosstown Line, with service south to Nassau Avenue. The site of the station was excavated by April 1929. The station opened on August 19, 1933. The secondary name "Van Alst" refers to Van Alst Avenue, the former name of 21st Street. The Van Alst family had settled in Long Island City in 1652 during Dutch colonization, and constructed a family cemetery (now an empty lot at the former site of the West Disinfecting Company facility) on Jackson Avenue and Orchard Street near modern Queens Plaza. The Van Alst name is shared with the Van Alst Playground, on 21st Street and 30th Avenue in Astoria.The station has two tracks and one island platform, built with a slight curve, as is Jackson Avenue at this location. The trackside wall trim line is Hunter green with a black border and "21" underneath in white numbering on a black background. The platform and mezzanine columns are painted a matching shade of Hunter green (they had previously been painted violet) with every other column having the standard black and white name signs. A booth for NYPD Transit Police District 20 is located at the southern end of the platform. There is a full length mezzanine above the platform; however, only the northern half is open and has two staircases from the platform. The southern half had three staircases to the platform and is used for storage and employee offices.