[6] The original plan there was to build a pair of single-track tunnels under 59th and 60th Streets, rising onto the Queensboro Bridge and crossing the East River to Queens, with stations at Fifth and Lexington Avenues.

[13] The station opened on September 1, 1919, as part of an extension of the Broadway Line from 57th Street–Seventh Avenue to Lexington Avenue/59th Street.

[2][14] Service originally operated northward to Lexington Avenue and southward to Whitehall Street at the southern end of Manhattan.

It received state-of-art repairs as well as an upgrade of the station for ADA compliance and restoration the original late 1910s tiling.

The artwork at the station, Urban Oasis by Ann Schaumburger, was commissioned in 1997 as part of the MTA Arts & Design program.

[23][24] It uses glass mosaic murals to depict families of different types of animals, particularly for the nearby Central Park Zoo.

[23] The mosaics in the station include polar bears, snails, parrots, monkeys, and a golden horse.