Subway Art
Subway Study, 2015
As
a parent, we are our child's first and most important teacher. When parents and
families are involved in their children's schools, the children do better and
have better feelings about going to school. There are many ways that parents
can support their children's learning at home and throughout the school year. Helping to gather materials and pieces of information for a social study is one way. In no-time you would see a marvelous outcome.
Check some interesting facts about NY Subway we found.
1.
If all of the tracks that make up the NYC subway were laid end to end, they
would stretch from NewYork to Chicago.
2.
The greenor red globes at many subway entrances actually mean something. As a
general rule, entrances with red globes are closed at night, while those with
green globes are open 24-7.
5.
Though the New York City subway is by far the busiest subway system in the
United States with 1.7 billion riders annually, it’s only the seventh-busiest system
in the world. Tokyo, the world’s busiest system, sees nearly twice as many
riders a year.
6.
According to the 14th annual “subway shmutz”
survey, passengers named the D train the dirtiest line, while the L was the
cleanest.
7.
The deepest subway
stop is the 191st Street station where the 1 train stops. The platform is 180
feet below street level.
8.
The Smith-Ninth streets station is the highest at 88 feet
above street level.
9.
There is a black-and-white striped board in the middle of every subway station.
The conductor needs to point at
it to assure that the train has stopped in the right place.
10.
There is a tongue-in-cheek, but fairly accurate, economic principle known as the New YorkPizza Connection, which states that the average price of a slice of pizza
matches the cost of a ride on the subway. When one increases, the other tends
to follow.
11.
Putting your feet on the seat isn’t just rude — it’s a crime that cops can arrest
you for.
12.
When New York’s first subway system opened in 1904, Mayor George B. Mc Clean was
supposed to ceremonially start the train, then turn over control to a
professional motorman. However, the mayor declared that he was “runningthis train,” and ended up driving for most of the journey.
13.
A worker excavating under the East River in 1916 survived being
sucked through the river and shot up into the air after the pressurized tunnel
he was digging cracked.
14.
The first female subway conductor was hired in 1917.
15.
The worstsubway accident in New York’s history occurred in 1918 when a
conductor who was filling in for a striking motorman lost control of his train
while entering a tunnel on Brooklyn’s Malbone Street. The crash killed 97
people and injured more than 200 others.
16.
The subway started taking tokens instead of coins in 1953 when the fare was
raised to 15 cents, as the turnstiles couldn’t accept two different types of
coins.
17.
In the days of tokens, criminals would often intentionally jam turnstiles and
then usetheir mouths to suck tokens out of the slots.
18.
In response to this disgusting form of theft, token booth clerks would often
sprinkle chili
powder or mace into the slots to deter thieves.
19.
Despite the prevalence of MetroCards, it was still possibleto use tokens until spring 2003, when they were officially deemed
obsolete and invalid after 50 years of use.
20.
MetroCard swipes are tracked and have successfully been used as an acceptable alibi to
acquit people accused of committing crimes.
21.
The first air-conditioned subway
cars weren’t introduced until June 1967, meaning summer in New York used to be
even worse.
22.
The 7 train was the last train
to get AC. By 1993, 99% of the cars were cool.
23.
In an attempt to combat rampant graffiti on the subways, officials painted
7,000 subway cars pure white so
as to dissuade potential vandals. However, graffiti artists merely viewed “the
great white fleet” as a much-needed fresh canvas, and the plan failed horribly.
24.
In 1993, 16-year-old Keron Thomas posedas a train conductor and drove an A train for three hours and safely
delivered passengers to their destinations before he accidentally triggered an
emergency brake on a fast curve.
25.
In 2008, 44 old subway cars were dumpedinto the ocean off of the coast Maryland to serve as an artificial reef.
NYC Transportation Timeline
Drawings by BP, 2015
NYC Transportation, diorama by BP, 2015
Other Facts
2. The
A train is the longest line in the subway system, logging 31 miles from
207th Street in Washington Heights to Far Rockaway out in Queens.
3.
There are 660 miles of track in use for passenger service. If you
include service tracks, there are more than 840 miles. Laid end to
end, NYC Transit train tracks would stretch from New York City to Chicago.
4.
In 1993, a 16-year-old assumed the seat of a motorman on an A train without
anyone noticing. He successfully operated it for over three hours until
he rounded a curve too quickly and tripped the train’s emergency brakes.
5. People
used to suck subway tokens out of the slot. In return, MTA police would spray
the token slots with chili powder for a nasty surprise.
6.
The MTA has the largest subway car fleet in the world with over 6,300 New
York City subway cars. Combined, the entire fleet traveled 345 million
miles in 2013.
7.
There are 468 subway stations in operation, up from 28 when the subway
system was opened in 1904. Most of the stations were built by 1940.
8.
The subway lines use so much electricity, it could power the city lights
in Buffalo, NY for an entire year.
9. Three
railroad companies merged to create the MTA — the Interborough Rapid Transit
Company (IRT), Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) and the city-owned
Independent Rapid Transit Railroad (IND). You can tell who built what because
of the size and length of station platforms are all different, as well as the
widths of the subway cars. The thinner the cars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
trains), run on the former IRT lines. The wider cars (A, B, C, D, E, F, M
and G), run on the IND lines.
10. The
4 train was once considered the worst train to be on in the 70s and 80s,
especially during the night. People referred to it as “Mugger’s Express.” Crime
became so bad that people took matters into their own hands to form the
Guardian Angels.
11.
Michael Jackson and Martin Scorsese filmed “Bad” at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn
station (A, C and G) in 1987.
12.
New York City’s subway system ranks #1 in the Americas for annual
ridership. It ranks 7th in the entire world behind Guangzhou, Moscow, Shanghai,
Seoul, Beijing, and Tokyo (which is #1).
13. All
New York City subways currently in use have a ‘ dead-man feature.’ This feature
automatically stops the subway rail if the operator has passed out or let go of
the controls.
14. Between
1904 and 2014, a single fare ride rose from 5 cents to $2.50 – a whopping 5,000
percent.
15. There’s
a moving walkway at the Court Square stop (E, G and 7).
16.
If you ever visit the 58 Joralemon St., you’ll find a fake townhouse that’s
secretly housing subway equipment.
17. In
2006, a mentally unstable man found electric saws in the 1 train 110th Street
station and attacked a postal worker on the platform.
18. When
not filled with masses of people, an empty R160 subway car weighs 85,200 pounds
and spans 60 feet in length
19. A
drunk conductor was at fault for the derailment of a 4 train in 1991. He was
charged with five counts of manslaughter and operating under the influence.
20.
The busiest New York City subway station in service is Times Sq, with over
63 million annual riders.
21.
Only 77 stations out of 468 have open restrooms. (We still wouldn’t use them)
22.
There’s an abandoned secret loop under City Hall that is part of the line 6
train.
23. The
highest-elevated train station is Smith and 9th Street (F and G) in Brooklyn,
at 88 feet; and the deepest train station is the 1 train 191 Street
station in Manhattan, which is located 180 feet below street level.
24. Line
and service are not interchangeable in the MTA. The service is the route that
the train takes along lines. The line is the physical track the train runs on.
NY Subway
