Two of us on the 2

Today I start out on the 2 train. I have a companion today, Maria, who is a great friend of mine. She lives out in Brooklyn so I decided to travel to some stops out in Brooklyn first. The first stop we go to is the Clark stop. This stop is located in downtown Brooklyn and has some artwork in it noticeably on the floor. The passageway from the stairs to the elevators has a marble terrazzo floor done by Ray Ring in 1987. He named it the Clark Street Passage. After you take the elevator to street level there is food stores and some places to eat inside the station and you discover that the hotel St. George is overhead. The area is pretty nice as it is downtown Brooklyn. The next stop is the Borough Hall stop. The stop is not that interesting but outside you will fine a hustling and bustling Brooklyn downtown right at the base of the New York Supreme Court building. It is a very busy square and not to mention that it was soo cold that day so standing above ground to take pictures was a quick event. Hoyt stop was next and it was really a beautiful station stop however the station looked like it was in two parts. One part being in a red color scheme and just looked very new and the other part looking older with pastel color scheme. It was weird that the station wasn't overdone fully. The last stop on this trip was the Nevins stop. This stop was a smaller station but had some artwork displayed. It is called Work & Nature by Anton van Dalen done in 1997. Porcelain enamel on steel frieze. This mosaic is 14 inches high by 83 feet long along both walls of the mezzanine. The work is in tones of soft blue, green and ochre like the original platform mosaics. It features stenciled silhouettes in black of a woman operating a sewing machine, a mother taking cvare of a child, a man planting a tree, an architect reading a blueprint, a female executive addresseing a meeting, and famous musician Furry Lewis. Source: mta.info. I only ended up visiting 4 stops today but plan to do a lot more the next time I venture out. It was great to have someone with me who may see things in a different light then I do as we travel through the subway stations.

Last of this 1

On this journey I finally complete the 1 line by venturing out to the last 7 stops uptown. Today, is probably one of the coldest days of the year and the wind is fierce. I jump on the train and pray that most of the stops will be underground. Well, first stop is Dyckman Street. Guess what?! It is above ground. The platform itself was quite long and the train comes out of the underground tunnel which is much warmer than standing on the cold platform waiting for the wind to hit your face. I take my pictures that I need and jump on the next uptown train. Next stop is 207th Street/10 Avenue. Once again this stop is above ground. I can't catch a break can I? On this trip I am using two cameras. My Nikon digital camera and the Diana plastic film camera. I have never used a camera like that before and wanted to see what came out of it. Needless to say my hands are freezing but I gotta keep going and hope that the next stop is underground. This stop was pretty typical but what I am really liking about each of these stops is the fact that there are no tall buildings so therefore I can see for miles. I love taking pictures in that way. Next stop is 215th Street/ 10 Avenue. Once again above ground. I really can't catch a break here. Good thing that the 1 train is very efficient and runs about every 3-5 minutes. This stop overlooks the NYC Department of Sanitation Plant which is in fact huge. Never thought I would be discovering that. Also, the station entrances look quite old and I always like to this on my journey, some preservation of how the subways looked long ago. Ok, so I am hoping now maybe I could get an underground stop because at this point my hands are numb and it is getting harder and harder to take pictures especially with two cameras. 225 Street - Marble Hill is the next stop and above ground. My luck. This stop however is really beautiful and you can see for miles. The Metro North trains are nearby and you can see them the midst of their routes. The subway crosses the Broadway Bridge and the station is on the Bronx side. Goodbye Manhattan for the remainder of the trip. The body of water that is crossed is called the Harlem River Ship Canal. Never heard of that in my life and that is why I love doing this project soo much. Who knew?! The canal is also called the Spuyten Duyvil Creek which is a one-mile-long channel connecting the Hudson and Harlem Rivers in New York City, separating the island of Manhattan from the mainland. This stop also has some artwork. It is about time. I haven't seen a lot of artwork on this journey and I was wondering if all my pain and suffering due to the cold would allow me to see some subway art. Elevated Nature I-IV, by Wopo Holup in 1991 depicts fossil-like imprints above the station seats as you will see in my pictures. Onto the next stop because by this time my hands are popsicles. This stop is 231st Street which also had some great artwork and also is another above ground stop. This artwork is very recently done in 2007 by Felipe Galindo called Magic Realism in Kingsbridge. It is beautiful stained glass works that are throughout the station. I really love stained glass and love the colors that were used for this layout. Next stop is 238th Street which didn't have any art but had tons of these huge lamp post about a foot away from each other on both the downtown and uptown platforms. The look of them just made the whole station a piece of art. Not sure if it was beautiful art or just plain ugly. You will have to see for yourself. Once again it was above ground. Onto the next stop which is the last stop on the 1 line called Van Cortlandt Park - 242 Street. This stop looked quite old and the area where you would walk to street level was a wooden porch-type corridor. In this area you felt like you were out off of some expressway in Long Island. Manhattan is long forgotten up in these parts. The subway station is literally above a highway. You have to take a bus to get to shops and restaurants in that area. Well, at this point in my travels my hands are blue and my whole body is just freezing due to each and every stop being outside but physical pain aside these stops were some of my favorites thus far. I felt like I was in a totally different world and I can't believe I live a half hour or so away from all of it. The 1 line is completed now onto the express lines of the 2 and 3!

Today, I trek out in the cold on the 1 train uptown covering stops from 116th Street to 191st Street. This stretch of stations was a great treat for me. Alot of different stations and each area provided some very interesting surroundings. The first stop at 116th was a pretty traditional station however when I walked outside I was familiar with the area because I live only a few blocks away. The 116th Street stop is Columbia University. It is such a beautiful campus to visit as well. At this point I decided to walk to the next stop because I knew up ahead was a great view of the trains going in and out of the 125th Street stop. The 125th Street is really beautiful. It is an above ground stop and the architecture around this stop is amazing. The skyline of the buildings show this is an older part of New York City that still has its old school charm. I love this part of the city. It is soo "real" to me. There is also some artwork in this station titled River to River, Wopo Holup done in 1991. It is cast stone relief and ceramic tiles. 137th Street is the next station and also the stop to City College. This station is quite different as well and has beautiful pillars throughout. Also, the artwork at this stop is called Fossils by artist Steve Wood in 1988 which are cast bronze relief tiles. 145th Street was typical but the area around peaked my interest. Walking out the subway I saw signs leading to the Riverbank State Park. I had no idea this park even existed. This is what I love most about this project. I find out about things I would never know about otherwise. It is a scenic park that when you walk out to the viewing landing you can see a perfect landscape of the George Washington Bridge. This park as an ice skating rink, a music venue, sports courts and a restaurant. Such a great place and I hope to show my sister this treasure uptown. 157th is the next stop and was probably the must uninteresting out of all the stations I went to today but still the signs of the 1 line always present some artfulness. 168th is one of my favorite stops because it is truly an older stop but the architecture is timeless. I have seen this stop before because you can catch the C train here as well. I was impressed with it then and still impressed with it. I love the bridge you have to take to get from the downtown to the uptown platforms and vice versa. The one thing I don't like in this station is the fact that you have to take elevators and elevators only to get to street level. It kind of freaks me out. I couldn't deal with that station in the middle of the night. 181st Street was laid out the same way as 168th Street with a bridge to get back and forth from each platform and also the elevator situation. Weird thing about this station was as I stood on the platform I kept smelling chlorine. I felt like I was near a swimming pool or something to that effect. Also, as I reached the street level the area was Washington Heights and as I was walking through the station I took some pictures as I always do. However a gentlemen stopped me because he thought I took a photo of him and wasn't happy about it. I told him he was not in the photo at all and that it was just the wall I was taking. I have never had that happen to me and it scared me a bit. But I just put it behind me and moved onto 191st Street. There was plenty of artwork in there as well one installation called Primavera by Raul Colon. I have a picture of the first installation of his work which is a ceramic mosaic mural. However, I couldn't figure out how to get to the other one. It seemed like it was closed off but it is two faceted glass panels, cut and faceted by hand. On my travels uptown next week I might stop off and see if I can get to it. The next piece of artwork is this long walkway to the exit. There is no title for it and it was done in 2008. One side of the wall is blue and the other green and there are a number of different images throughout. It is really an amazing walkway to go through. The other way to exit this station is yet another elevator. This time however there was an MTA employee who regulated the elevator and was soo nice and would always say "Hola" to everyone and to have a nice day. Obviously everyone speaks Spanish in this area. Once again I felt like I was in another world. This concludes my journey today and next time I will be finally completing the 1 line.