Located at 59th Street and Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, it is served by the N and R trains at all times.

The 59th Street station was constructed as part of the Fourth Avenue Line, the plan for which was initially adopted on June 1, 1905.

[13][14] Though the Transit Commission ordered the BMT to lengthen these platforms in September 1923, no further progress was made until February 16, 1925, when the New York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT) commissioned its engineers to examine platform-lengthening plans for this and eleven other stations along the Fourth Avenue Line.

[18][19] In the 1960s, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) started a project to lengthen station platforms on its lines in Southern Brooklyn to 615 feet (187 m) to accommodate 10-car trains.

[7] On July 14, 1967, the NYCTA awarded a contract to conduct test borings at eleven stations on the Fourth Avenue Line, including 59th Street, to the W. M. Walsh Corporation for $6,585 (equivalent to $60,172 in 2023) in preparation of the construction of platform extensions.

However, the installation of elevators was delayed due to a column replacement project above this section of the Fourth Avenue Line.

Both the column replacement and the elevator installation required temporary lane closures on Fourth Avenue, a major artery.

[25] Substantial completion was expected in July 2020,[26] but the project was delayed[27] and the elevators opened on November 6, 2020.

The R continues south along Fourth Avenue to Bay Ridge–95th Street while the N and W turn east and branch off to the BMT Sea Beach Line.

[35] The station walls have mosaic trim lines on top of the white tiles, and spell 59th Street at intervals.

[36] The northern sections of the station are where the platforms were extended in 1970, and they have no mosaic trims or tiles along the wall, instead including an extension of the tunnel benchwall.

[39][44] Immediately south of the station, there are tunnel stub headings running straight from the local tracks.

South of this station, the bridge over the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch has four trackways, with the outer tracks occupying the two western ones.

[51][52][53] The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the largest church in Brooklyn, is located one block east on Fifth Avenue between 59th and 60th Streets.