subwaysights.com

Helvetica

subwaysights — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:27:55 +0000

Our last post mentioned Helvetica, the ubiquitous font found throughout the New York City subway system. A long and wonderful writeup by Paul Shaw discusses the history of the NYC subway system’s use of the font in its attempts to unify its signage.

Meanwhile, an eagle-eyed reader sent in this image of a sign at the 8th Street NR platform. Although the sign appears to be new, the font is certainly not Helvetica.

Circa 1624

subwaysights — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:55:50 +0000

The Dutch founded Brooklyn (Breuckelen) in 1624, but the Swiss didn’t invent the Helvetica font until 1957.

-Submitted by Fallopia Tuba, seen in the Delancey/Essex station

Huge Machine Gun Battles at Borough Hall

subwaysights — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:16:36 +0000

The Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, and Triads have apparently moved their turf wars to Downtown Brooklyn’s transit hubs.

-Submitted by Kate S., taken at the Jay St./Borough Hall A/C station.
[Edit: This is just Borough Hall. Thanks for the tips.]

The Best Busker

subwaysights — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:50:19 +0000

SPREAD JOY LIVE YOU DREAM – COSMOS

- Submitted by Kate S., taken at the 116th 1 station.

The Least Likely Conspiracy Theory

subwaysights — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:39:03 +0000

Why won’t Heath Ledger answer our questions about his role in 9/11?

Oh.

- Submitted by Adam N., taken at the 116th Street 1 Station

This Man Will Not Win the Lottery

subwaysights — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:10:18 +0000

Life Imitates Art

subwaysights — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:47:30 +0000

There’s an episode of Seinfeld in which Elaine Benes, while riding on the subway, points out the irony that women have earned so many rights in the past decades but still wish men would be more willing to give up their subway seats for them:

Elaine: “It’s ironic.”
Woman: “What’s ironic?”
Elaine: “This. That we’ve come all this way, we made all this progress, but, you know, we lost the little things, the niceties.”
Woman: “No, I mean, what does `ironic’ mean?”

Well, today after the Yankees victory parade, I overheard a man say this:

“I loved that – how they put Rivera in the last float. He’s the best closer ever and they put him the last float at the end of the parade. You know, it’s ironic.”

A closer closing out a parade to celebrate the World Series that he helped to win. This event is irony only in the most ironic sense.

Progress at Cortlandt Street

subwaysights — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:00:19 +0000

The Cortlandt Street RW Station was wrecked up good on 9/11. For the past 8 years you’ve had to either get off at City Hall or at Rector Street, leaving a half mile gap between the stations. It looks like the grand reopening is edging nearer, as workers recently removed the wood shed covering up the street level entrances. They’re still blocked off to pedestrians, but they look nice.

And here’s the green globe lit up with WTC7 (also rebuilt after 9/11) in the background.

Sex Sells

subwaysights — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:53:00 +0000

Duct Tape isn’t for Everything

subwaysights — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:19:09 +0000

In response to this post, we received a photograph of a long piece of dangling duct tape tasked with supporting the entire crumbling structure of the Broadway Nassau 456 stop.