Seriously though. Home aside, I've probably spent the most amount of time under- and above-ground on the subways of New York City. It's a torrid, intense love-hate relationship, one that regularly fills me with commuter rage. The subway can of course be a hostile, stinky place but when it comes down to it, it's there for me at 3 in the morning when I'm tired, incoherent and without any wherewithal.
I get irrationally nostalgic about the subway of yesteryear. The graffiti, the crime, the little Chinese ladies selling cheap plastic toys for a dollar that I would beg my mom to buy.
Here is a compilation of photos that captures the gritty and vivid spirit of New York's bygone subway era. As if this city needs more romanticizing.
On the Times Square - Grand Central shuttle, 1969
A mother with her children in a graffiti-bombed subway car, 1979
A nun wading through Grand Central Station after severe flooding, 1980
The end of an era; new graffiti-resistant subway cars from Japan are introduced, 1983
Transit officers guarding suspected turnstile jumpers in the Bronx, 1987
More from the NYTimes's amazing subway slideshow
Bruce Davidson's Subway series, 1980-1985
Thanks for the photos. I will never forget how miserable the 1970s were for New York. Even thought I can't afford to live there now, it's a heck of a lot better than it was (but not just because I don't live there!)
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