I grew up in a high density residential district in the heart of New York City. While visiting relatives for the holiday the hot topic that everyone was talking about was the 2nd Ave. subway. It is a big deal. Long in the making, expensive as sin itself and still only in the first of several stages to its ultimate goal of crossing town at 125th St. and connecting to the west side lines we have finally arrived at the point where passengers can feel the rumble of approaching trains.
The excitement is palatable. I walked over and snapped a bunch of photos of the station less than a week before opening day. The plan is to throw the doors open to full on public revenue service on Sunday Morning, January 1, 2017.
The place was swarming with workers. Every last minute detail getting hammered down in preparation for opening day. In response to my quizzical look and the obvious question of the day one of the construction workers shouted out the answer I was looking for.
“We’re gonna open on schedule!”
I shot a bunch of photographs to commemorate this historic event. I also enjoyed the excellent service on the E-train from Jamaica Station where it connects the JFK Sky Train to the Lexington Avenue local service (the 6 train). Fantastic rides in both directions. The only way to get to the Upper East Side, in my humble opinion.
There are two stations, one on each side of 2nd Avenue and both are set into the corner lots. One seems to be a ground level and down type deal while the other boasts an entire building of it’s own with a very modern looking glass facade with matching awning. The close up shots are from the North West corner and I stood there to shoot the other station kitty corner.
Opening on Sunday, January 1, 2017!!
In addition to 72nd Street’s vibrant bus line for fast easy crosstown service New York City is also creating a legendary system of bike lanes which also cross this very corner. You can rent or drop off a commuter bike just one block to the East at 72nd & Third Avenue and keep riding to the Madison Avenue stores, should you so choose. Or keep on going to Central Park.
In the interest of objectivity I am posting this excellent article from Vox.com which levels some well grounded criticism of this very expensive, long in the making project. —
With the exception of the two pictures from NYC MTA all the other photographs on this page are by John Entwistle, Jr. and are copyright under Creative Commons non-commercial attribution 2.0.
offtracksanfrancisco 