81st Street–Museum of Natural History (IND Eighth Avenue Line)

81st Street–Museum of Natural History
New York City Subway rapid transit station
Station statistics
Address West 81st Street & Central Park West
New York, NY 10024
Borough Manhattan
Locale Upper West Side
Coordinates 40°46′55″N 73°58′18″W / 40.781971°N 73.971763°W / 40.781971; -73.971763Coordinates: 40°46′55″N 73°58′18″W / 40.781971°N 73.971763°W / 40.781971; -73.971763
Division B (IND)
Line       IND Eighth Avenue Line
Services       A  (late nights)
      B  (weekdays until 11:00 p.m.)
      C  (all except late nights)
Transit connections NYCT Bus: M10, M79
MTA Bus: BxM2
Structure Underground
Levels 2
Platforms 2 side platforms (1 on each level)
Tracks 4 (2 on each level)
Other information
Opened September 10, 1932 (1932-09-10)[1]
Wireless service [2]
Traffic
Passengers (2015) 4,584,041[3] Increase 0.5%
Rank 106 out of 422
Station succession
Next north 86th Street: A  B  C 
Next south 72nd Street: A  B  C 

81st Street–Museum of Natural History is a local station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is served by the C train at all times except nights, when the A train takes over service. The B train provides additional service here on weekdays except nights.

Station layout

G Street Level Exit / Entrance
B1 Northbound express ← do not stop here
Northbound local ← toward Bedford Park Boulevard rush hours, 145th Street other times (86th Street)
← toward 168th Street ( toward 207th Street late nights) (86th Street)
Side platform, doors will open on the left
Mezzanine Fare control, station agent, MetroCard vending machines
B2 Southbound express → do not stop here →
Southbound local → toward Brighton Beach (72nd Street) →
→ toward Euclid Avenue ( toward Far Rockaway late nights) (72nd Street) →
Side platform, doors will open on the right
Track layout
Legend
to 86 St
Superimposed tracks section
 (Left tracks above right ones)
to 72 St
Upper level
 Lower level

The station opened on September 10, 1932,[1][4] and has four tracks and two side platforms. On this section of the line, the local tracks are stacked, uptown above downtown, and the express tracks are stacked in the same order to the east of them, so both platforms are on the west side, one above the other. The station is at Central Park West and 81st Street, rather than the major crosstown 79th Street (although an entrance also exists at this street), in order to accommodate the American Museum of Natural History,[5] which largely fills the area of what was once called the Manhattan Square. The 79th Street Transverse Road, through Central Park, exits the park here. An underground entrance directly into the museum's lowest level is at the south end of the uptown (northbound or upper) platform.[6]

South of this station are storage/lay up tracks between the local and express tracks on each level. Both ends of the tracks merge with the express tracks, with switches to the local tracks.[7][8]

The station was renovated in 1998–2000, in coordination with building the new Hayden Planetarium, within the Rose Center for Earth and Space.[9] The floors were replaced, new lighting installed, the token booth upgraded, and the walls and staircases re-tiled. Structural improvements were also made during the renovation.[9]

Artwork

Dinosaur artwork on one of the station walls

In 1976, with funding from the Exxon Corporation, this station, as well as three others citywide, received new "artfully humorous graffiti" murals and artwork.[10] Local designer Mayers and Schiff received $5,000 to add murals of dinosaurs such as "Thesaurus Rex, the dinosaur that had a vocabulary of a thousand words" and "Elongatomus, an elongated critter that stretched from coast to coast whose pelvic remains support a highway interchange in Missouri."[10]

As part of the 1998–2000 station renovation, a program of tile mosaics was undertaken, covering the stairs and platforms, extending to floor inlays. Stairwells evoke descending into the geological strata of the Earth (at 81st Street) or into the Ocean (79th Street). Many creatures are evoked in mosaic vignettes that punctuate the stretches of white tiled wall. Fossil casts seem to emerge from the tiles as though the subway platform itself were an excavation, which it actually is.[11] Under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Arts for Transit program, a mixed-media installation was created in 2000.[9][11][12][13] Entitled "For Want of a Nail",[12] named after the old proverb, it addresses the interconnections of entities that are as vast as a galaxy and as small as a single cell. Using ceramic tile, glass tile, glass mosaic, bronze relief, and granite as primary materials, the design team depicted the evolution of extinct, existing and endangered life forms, from single celled organisms to the towering T. rex dinosaur.[11][14] It shows images and symbols ranging from the Earth's core, to the sea, the sky and the cosmos beyond. No artist has been identified in this group project.[11][14]

References

  1. 1 2 The New York Times, List of the 28 Stations on the New Eighth Ave Line, September 10, 1932, page 6
  2. ↑ "NYC Subway Wireless – Active Stations". Transit Wireless Wifi. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  3. ↑ "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  4. ↑ Crowell, Paul (September 10, 1932). "Gay Midnight Crowd Rides First Trains In The New Subway: Throngs at Station an Hour Before Time, Rush Turnstiles When Chains are Dropped". New York Times. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  5. ↑ "American Museum of Natural History". AMNH. 2014-05-01. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  6. ↑ "Directions and Transportation". AMNH. 2014-05-01. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  7. ↑ "NYC Subway Track Map (Midtown Manhattan) (Zoom to section by clicking)". www.nycsubway.org. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  8. ↑ Marrero, Robert (2015-09-13). "469 Stations, 846 Miles" (PDF). B24 Blog, via Dropbox. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
  9. 1 2 3 Siegal, Nina (1998-09-13). "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: UPPER WEST SIDE/UPPER MANHATTAN; At This Stop, B and C Spell Walk". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  10. 1 2 Burks, Edward C. (1976-11-18). "A Subway Elongatomus? Why, It's Preposterous!". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "81st Street-Museum of Natural History: ARTS FOR TRANSIT COLLABORATIVE: For Want of a Nail, 2000". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  12. 1 2 "Review of the A and C Lines" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. December 11, 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  13. ↑ "81st Street Museum of Natural History Station Reopening". AMNH. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
  14. 1 2 Kennedy, Randy (June 15, 2000). "Where Stepping Off the Subway Means Stepping Into the Wild". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-01.

External links

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