City Hall Station

The City Hall Station opened with the first Interborough Rapid Transit Trains in 1904.  This station served as the flagship of New York City subway.  Due to increased ridership, the IRT lengthened trains and could not expand the City Hall station to meet safety requirements.  You can no longer visit the vaulted ceilings or read the plaques.  The station was closed in 1945, and has since been left to some measure of obscurity.

There is a lot of this city that is not being explored, where layer over layer has covered our original landscape.  We frequent the crust, and dive down to tear through tunnels carved generations ago.  New lines are built, repair is constant.  The MTA reports 660 miles of track mostly beneath NY, and an estimated 120 more that are out of service.  While most of underground NY is frequented by the daily commuters, some places are left behind to share a rich history with only the train conductors at the end of the 6 line. 

Photo by Ben Simon

Ben Simon

Ben Simon

Ben Simon

The Bayside/Acacia Cemetery

If you have ever wondered what our public spaces would look like after 20 plus years of no human touch, then the Bayside Cemetery in Queens is one of those places.  It has gone into a state of extreme disrepair; I noticed only one fresh headstone, otherwise they all date back decades.  Who knows how long the brush has been allowed to grow, or roots to push and topple over the granite slabs.  In some locations, it looks like crews have cut back bramble, and chopped limbs that would threaten to break the stone markers.  They have piled the brush and bramble high, only to pile it over grave sites and  mausoleum steps.  There also seems to be a lot of vandalism, and even in some cases break ins to mausoleums.  The purpose of photographing this place was not to shock, so I did not include those images.  If you want to see more, you'll have to go there yourself.