MTA Shares Eerie Photos Of Empty NYC Subway Stations

MTA displayed pics of deserted subway stations after the system was shut down in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy at 7 p.m. Sunday. Brrrr! Feels like the apocalypse! Really weird. *

Guydar: New York Subway

I could make a habit of this. Sure is fun to surreptitiously capture hotties on the subway. *

Oh, The Nerve! 'Guydar' On The NYC Subway

As my pal Matt refers to these on his wickedly popular blog Boy Culture... I had the audacity to frame a "Guydar" subject on the subway Thursday eve, thanks to my iPhone, flash off. I'm going with big score! *

Good Morning, New York!

1960s... not that there are plenty of clowns riding the New York subway today... *

On Board NYC's Subway: Shiny Happy People

Two lovely individuals who didn't mind a bit when I took what I thought were covert picolas on the subway... that is, until I realized the flash had gone off. Lady Blue offered a beautiful smile and he... well, the hair says all. As they departed, she said, "Enjoy the photos," with another wide grin." How could one not love New York?

NYC Image Of The Day: Fulton & Flatbush El, Brooklyn, 1908

On Nov. 5, 1888, the Fifth Avenue Brooklyn Rapid Transit Elevated line opened, carrying passengers from Fulton Ferry just across the Brooklyn Bridge (which opened in 1883) through downtown Brooklyn to Bay Ridge. At the bottom of the top pic, you'll see passengers waiting to board streetcars, while construction is taking place along the tracks.

Like most BK lines, funding in large part came from developers of Coney Island, who wanted to make it easy for all New Yorkers to reach the beach. The line also connected with the Long Island Railroad.

It was efficient, but what a bloody mess, huh? In 1940, the line was demolished, along with the majority of elevated lines in New York City. (Photos: NYC Vintage Images)

NYC Vintage Image: The Precarious Early Days Of The NYC Subway

How the hell did they ever build the New York subway, anyway? The notion of burrowing under established streets, digging deep & precise tunnels and engineering a public transportation system at the beginning in the 20th Century—which continues to transport hundreds of thousands of passengers today—is mind-boggling.

However, as we see in this series of photos from Life magazine, it wasn't always easy going... Above, in 1920, two elevated subway trains collided at a right angle, one of several deadly disasters within a few years time.
1900: Excavation of the Seventh Avenue subway line came to a halt when a taxi lost control and veered into the work site. At that point, construction workers used a cut-and-cover method, which required them to dig into sediment, create a passageway for the subway, then rebuild the road above it.1915: A dynamite blast caused the overhead road to cave in on the Seventh Avenue subway line, sending a streetcar collapsing onto the rubble. Seven died and nearly 100 were injured.

1900: Yikes! It all started with a single train line, the Interborough Rapid Transit, on Oct. 27, 1904, running from City Hall to 145th Street. This is scaffolding precariously balanced inside a newly excavated tunnel.

Some things never change: Times Square at rush hour in 1940; and Coney Island-bound in 1948.

FASCINATING: Where NYC Subway Cars Go To Die... And Live Again

Photographer Stephen Mallon captured these breathtaking images of the new life that comes to retired NYC subway cars, which are dramatically dropped into the ocean to become artificial reefs for sea creatures.

The city decided a decade ago to donate the old cars so that mussels, barnacles and even sharks could glom on and weave in and out of the structures off the Eastern seaboard. His images are from 2008-2010, with cars ending up off the coast of Virginia, Delaware and Maryland.(Photos: Stephen Mallon/Works Artists/Frontroom Gallery)

ENCORE: New York Subway... 100 Years

I posted this long, loving look at the New York subway back in February and now, with The Smoking Nun's new template, I offer an encore look, with the bigger, bolder, brighter images. This is a goodie.

According to MTA, ridership on the New York subway was up by a whopping 24 million rides in 2010 over the year before, totaling 1.60 passengers. The tally is one of the highest since 1950...

For all the whining—mine included—about fare hikes, overcrowding and slow or no service, it's still the best way to travel in NYC, if not the world.

Here's a historic look back over the past 100 years of New York's venerable New York subway system... from the 1920s to the 2010s. (P.S. This was a whopper to put together; I spent more than five hours collecting webbie photos from every conceivable locale.)