New York - NY City Subway

New York City Subway



This is Day and Night, one of five "Ghosts Series" murals installed by Andrew Leicester in Penn Station in 1994. True to being a ghost, it evokes the former Day and Night sculpture by Adolph Wineman over the original Penn Station. The date 10/28/63 is in black on black, engraved in the center of what was originally a clock face in the old building. Click to see it as large as I photographed, and see if you can make out the "63" or any other part of the date.


Down I go into the first of many nicely restored stations.


Tiles of different sizes and ages at the next major cross street south. Every Manhattan line has both a 23rd St. station and a 14th St. station, but the 1 line also stops at 18th.


While we're at 14th Street, the connected L/F/M station includes some beautiful routing information to connect to the neighboring PATH station, originally the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad until bankruptcy in 1954.


On a different day, making my way from the 14th St. 1/2/3 station at 7th Avenue to the L/F/M station at 6th Avenue.


Sights along the outbound (southern) L track.


And sights as I return to the inbound (northern) platform and walk (fully underground) to the 14th St. PATH station. Yes, the last photo is on PATH, which is technically not the subway, but I wanted to show you the column that dates back to the Hudson & Manhattan (H&M) Railroad. It's been very repainted, but structurally untouched.


Between the trip ends on the L train, I grabbed photos at the stations out to Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. The last one features all I saw of unrestored tile as of 2024.


The tiled artwork at Bedford Ave. may be modern, but it's still cool because it's tiled. And features cats!


And the inbound tiles on the way back to Manhattan's 6th Avenue.


From Wall St., you don't just enter the subway, you enter the IRT. The IRT was Manhattan's contracted subway company at the time that the BRT belonged to Brooklyn (same last two letters). Later on the BRT became the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) and the city build the IND (INDependent of any corporation). Ultimately they all got folded into the NYC Transit Authority, but their vestiges remain: former IRT lines are numbered and BMT/IND lines are lettered. This is now the 2/3.


Back underground to this artistic station, featuring the work of Milton Glaser (untitled, 1986 for the beaver).


What the subway actually looks like at Astor Place (and much of the rest of the Manhattan system). The express tracks run down the middle, bypassing most stations. It would take billions upon billions to get these stations to look bright and airy like the DC Metro, so this is what you get. The sound systems have been improved enough that you can almost make out that there's a voice speaking (that's as good as it gets, but it's a huge improvement), except you can't hear anything when a train comes squealing and screeching in every few minutes. It may not be glamorous, but the system sure gets you places.


I believe this is the Whitehall St. station on the N and R lines. After I took this 2012 photo, Hurricane Sandy drove New York Harbor waters into the subway tunnels and destroyed a lot of the station, including original tilework similar to these photos.


Return of the small tiles, way out in Brooklyn.


The High St. station is just across the Brooklyn Bridge on the A and C lines, but they cross in their own tunnel. The directional signs are arrayed around the same 1st-level landing.


What would you expect at the museum stop but art?

Up into Manhattan
Up into Brooklyn


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