Out: Main exit is at intersection of 162nd St., St. Nicholas, and Amsterdam Aves. At 7:20 a.m., it’s pretty empty at this intersection. A few people waiting for the bus at the corner; the people outside seem mostly Dominican/Hispanic with a few black people. The housing here is mostly typical Washington Heights tenements. The streets are pretty trash-strewn. The retails outlets are all of the small, mom & pop type, but they’re all closed at this early hour. There a few brownstones visible on 162nd St., and a closed-down restaurant on the corner. There’s a second-story Pentecostal church built above some small retail outlets; depicted in the sketch.
In: The layout here is 2 plat, 2 track facing each other. The express tracks are not visible. The platform is narrow. A number of exit staircases are closed off with metal cages and have obviously not been used a long time. There are lots of ads on the walls, along with a mosaic station name (“163rd St. – Amsterdam Ave.” in blocky IND font) with a yellow background. There are yellow metal columns by the platform edge. The station is pretty dirty and the lighting is not great. On the mezzanine level there is a long entryway corridor over about half the length of the platform. The other half of the mezzanine, with exits to 163rd St., is closed off by a metal fence, with no lights and lots of debris.
