"Subways - Underground & Elevated."
I have been a transit fan for as long as I can remember. My earliest subway remembrance is when my mom took my sister & me to the Howdy Doody Show & to our seats in the Peanut Gallery. Since then I’ve taken every opportunity to take public transit whenever & wherever I can in my travels. I was born in Brooklyn & lived in Queens & Manhattan.
Our children have lived in Brooklyn & we frequently visit. As a result, the great majority of these photos will depict the NY Transit system.
Manhattan, NY.
86th Street station (Second Avenue Subway).
Vik Muniz "Perfect Strangers" 2017 Glass mosaic.
“Mr. Muniz cooked up slightly off-kilter characters for his life-size portraits. ‘I wanted them to be normal people’…”
In high school, on the weekends I’d ride the trains for hours. alone or with pals. It was fun & challenging to change cars while the train was in motion. It was not illegal then.
In those days, the train conductors stood between the cars to open & close the passenger doors at subway stations. This must have been awful on the el’s (elevated lines) in inclement weather.
By Patrick Cashin who for 20 years was MTA’s official photographer.
This photo was shown by him in the fabulous March 16, 2023 NY Transit Museum - TRANSIT PHOTOGRAPHY: THEN AND NOW, virtual/digital presentation.
They’re in a much safer space now-a-days.
This S shuttle looks like the toy trains I played with as a child.
Here’s our guys at 7 & 9 y.o.a. on a visit to N.Y.C. I introduced them early to the N.Y.C. subway system. Little did I know that someday they would be living there.
This is one of many Amelia “Oppy” Opdyke Jones’ signs that were in subway cars. The NY Transit Museum presented a program on her work last year.
Fortunately, for me, now “Photography, filming or video recording in any facility or conveyance is permitted except that ancillary equipment such as lights, reflectors or tripods may not be used.”
I have been inspired by the 1938-1941 subway photos of Walker Evans. “The guard is down and the mask is off,” he wrote, ...” Evans worked by concealing his camera in his coat.
https://publicdelivery.org/walker-evans-many-are-called/
I have the sound turned off & often with the screen tilted up. Sometimes I take several exposures in the general direction of the subject I’m interested in.
I love history & have taken many virtual digital discussions presented by the NY Transit Museum.
This presentation in particular was great & encouraged me to purchase…
...this book.
Who could resist with chapters on stations & structures, station ceramic designs, metal works & lighting, station furnishings, fare collection, signage & graphics, route & system maps, advertising & rolling stock:car design?
The main museum (there’s an outpost in Grand Central Station) is in an decommissioned downtown Brooklyn subway station. They on display vintage cars there on a rotating basis.
I used to ride this line frequently. I took any excuse to ride an elevated line.
This photo was taken in the NY Transit Museum’s downtown Brooklyn subway station location.
I loved these old, wide, with fans & rattan upholstered seats, BMT (Brooklyn Manhattan Transit) cars. We’d take them on the elevated line down to Coney Island.
The light bulbs’ threads were reverse of the ones available in stores so you couldn’t use them at home. This was to prevent them from being stolen.
By the 1962-63 World’s Fair, the configuration of the seats had changed & they were now fiberglass.
This photo is c. 1979 on the Flushing/Times Sq. IRT (Independent Rapid Transit) line that went past the old World’s Fair grounds to Times Sq.
This is c. 2021 during the COVID pandemic, At off hours, we took front or rear cars as they usually had few passengers.
Back to the rattan seated elevated BMT line to Coney Island.
It was pretty thrilling to see the rides appear as we approached Coney Island and…
It's "the southernmost terminal in the N. Y. C. Subway system.
The trains are better & more modern now & getting even better with a new car introduced in March 2023.
When we used to stay at the Hotel Elysée we frequented this Lexington Ave. Line station often.
Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
In 1976, the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) joined the MTA (The Metropolitan Transportation Authority; North America's largest transportation network.)
Manhattan, NY.
Manhattan, NY.
You can learn your alphabet, albeit not always in the correct order.
Brooklyn, NY.
Imagine the noise & vibrations in this house being right above a subway station.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, N Y.
The coffee cups must rattle when trains go by under the diner.
Manhattan, N Y.
I imagine the folks living in The Dakota, (think John & Yoko) do not experience much, if any, subway noise nor vibrations.
“Architect Henry J. Hardenbergh purposely avoided fire escapes by slathering mud from Central Park between the layers of brick flooring to fireproof and soundproof the building.”
DUMBO, Manhattan NY.
The noise from B trains on the Manhattan Bridge must be intolerable in the adjacent buildings.
Boro Pk, B'klyn, NY.
Ft. Hamilton P'kway Sta.
Sometimes one has to walk up to the station.
This looks like a scene from the film “The French Connection."
Brooklyn, N Y.
Brooklyn, NY.
Recently renovated station over Atlantic Avenue.
Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY.
Brooklyn, NY.
Brooklyn, N Y.
Inside the walkway pictured in the previous photo.
Prospect Hts., Brooklyn.
We use the Franklin Ave. station quite often when visiting Brooklyn.
As one descends down (or up) to a subway train, there’s so much to see: art (mosaics, terrra cotta, advertisements…), signage (to read obey or ignore), windows & platforms to gaze out from with sometimes awesome views, people to watch, clothing to admire & discuss, music to be heard & apparatus to marvel at. Just waiting for one’s train to arrive can be an experience. Keep an eye out for future blogs.