21st Street–Queensbridge station

New York City Subway station in Queens
the station actually at 21st Street & Jackson Avenue

This station opened on October 29, 1989, along with the entire IND 63rd Street Line, serving as the line's northern terminal prior to the connection with the IND Queens Boulevard Line. The train served the station on rush hours and weekday middays, the train stopped there on evenings and weekends, and the F terminated here during late nights; all services used the Sixth Avenue Line. The tunnel had gained notoriety as the "tunnel to nowhere" both during its planning and after its opening, with 21st Street being the line's only stop in Queens. The connection to the Queens Boulevard Line began construction in 1994 and was completed and opened in 2001, almost thirty years after construction of the 63rd Street Tunnel began. Since then, the F train has been rerouted to serve this station at all times. The MTA completed a refurbishment of the station in May 2023. The project included repairing the platforms and stairways, adding lighting, fixing the canopy above the main entrance, and renovating employee rooms. From August 28, 2023, through April 1, 2024, F trains were rerouted via the 53rd Street Tunnel between Queens and Manhattan due to track replacement and other repairs in the 63rd Street Tunnel, and an F shuttle train ran between Lexington Avenue 63rd Street and 21st Street–Queensbridge at all times except late nights, stopping at Roosevelt Island.

Outside of fare control, the mezzanine leads to two street stairs at the northeast corner of 21st Street and 41st Avenue. An elevator and escalators are at the northwest corner of the same intersection. requiring passengers to know which track the next train will depart from before going to the platform level. As a terminal from 1989 to 2001, the station had tail tracks that continued eastward as far as 29th Street, ending at bumper blocks. Also, this station has "punch boxes", with buttons to indicate route selection to the train dispatcher; a control tower on the west end of Manhattan bound platform, which can be used if necessary; and a diamond crossover switch to the west which was used to turn trains.

East of the station, before the line connects to the IND Queens Boulevard Line, the tracks veer left while the tunnel wall goes straight, stopping around Northern Boulevard. the lower level tracks opened in 2023. Just above the connection sits the 29th Street Ventilation Complex, built with the connector, in the site of a former parking lot. West of the station, a second ventilation complex lies in Queensbridge Park between Vernon Boulevard and the East River.

In 2019, the station had 3,516,992 boardings, making it the 144th most used station in the station system. This amounted to an average of 11,184 passengers per weekday.