NYC Subway Facts - Social Study

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.

3. Only 60% of the subway system is underground.

4. All of the top 10 busiestsubway stations are in Manhattan. Times Square takes the No. 1 spot with more than 63 million riders per year.

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

1. In 2013, the average weekday subway ridershipin New York City was 5.5 million. Annual ridership was 1.7 billion. However, that doesn’t match the all-time annual ridership record which is 2.1 billion passengers set back in 1946.

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