The West Fourth Street station contains elevators, which make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

New York City mayor John Francis Hylan's original plans for the Independent Subway System (IND), proposed in 1922, included building over 100 miles (160 km) of new lines and taking over nearly 100 miles (160 km) of existing lines, which would compete with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), the two major subway operators of the time.

[5][6] On December 9, 1924, the New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) gave preliminary approval for the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line.

[16] This required the demolition of dozens of buildings along the route, including a hotel and several houses within the vicinity of the West Fourth Street station.

[25] The E began using the local tracks on August 19, 1933, when the IND Queens Boulevard Line opened.

The contract for the line was awarded to Corson Construction in January 1929,[27] and work officially started in May 1929.

Two local tracks split from a junction with the Eighth Avenue Line south of West Fourth Street–Washington Square, running east under Houston Street and south under Essex Street to a temporary terminal at East Broadway.

[30] The Midtown section of the Sixth Avenue Line was much more difficult to construct because part of this stretch of Sixth Avenue was already occupied by the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M)'s Uptown Hudson Tubes, which ran between Eighth and 33rd Streets.

[34][35] The line was to connect with the lower level of the West Fourth Street station, which had already been constructed.

[40] On April 19, 1961, ground was broken for a $22 million project to build two express tracks between these two stations.

[42] On July 1, 1968, another section of the Chrystie Street Connection opened, allowing Sixth and Eighth Avenue local trains to use the Williamsburg Bridge.

[46] As early as 1965, Manhattan borough president Earl Brown requested that mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. add funding for an escalator at the West Fourth Street station to the city's capital budget.

As part of a $4.3 million project, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) closed the escalators for renovations in 1998.

[54] The West Fourth Street station was built by the Independent Subway System as the major transfer point between its two Manhattan trunk lines.

[59] The Sixth Avenue Line's local tracks are used by the F at all times, the during rush hours in the peak direction,[60] and the M on weekdays during the day.

The elevators, added in April 2005 to make the station ADA-accessible, provide access to both levels and to the mezzanine.

[15] Small tile captions reading "WEST 4" run below the trim lines at regular intervals.