Second Ave. Sagas

Throwback Thursday: Canal St. ca. 1980

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

in

[Canal Street station.]

I recently found myself exploring the voluminous image archives the Museum of the City of New York has made publicly available via their Collections website, and wow, is that a great way to get lost on the Internet for good chunk of time. They have, unsurprisingly, a good number of images showing subway construction and subway history, and I’m going to showcase some of my favorites in the coming weeks.

The week’s entry is a glimpse inside the Canal St. station from around 1980. I love the old signage with the QB and RR trains, the Jennifer Convertibles add and the general sense of decay that pervades the station. A similar photo from this set shows signage from the time when both of the BMT Nassau St. platforms were in service. The western most set of tracks is now no longer in use but remains visible from today’s J/M/Z platform. The garbage can in front of the sign in that one is a nice touch.

Comments

5 responses to “Throwback Thursday: Canal St. ca. 1980”

  1. JMB

    Oh man, I go down this staircase everyday on my from the uptown 6 to the Brooklyn-bound N. That electronic sign is still there to this day! I can’t believe it was around in 1980 (probably telling riders back then useless info as well).

    Any idea where that little door goes to? I don’t seem to recall seeing it during my commute,…wondering if they tiled it over.

    Reply
    1. JMB

      Actually, just realized my error: this must be the other side. Reason is that i always hook left to go to BK, but in this pic its to the left. Im guessing this is the transfer for the downtown 6 to N train.

      Reply
  2. JMB

    *argh, right! I always hook right

    /long day

    Reply
  3. Woodwind

    I think I ordered a couch from Jennifer Convertibles based on that ad. I’m still waiting for it.

    Reply
  4. alek

    Ben,

    The (7) work schedule is posted on the MTA website:

    http://web.mta.info/nyct/servi…..hedule.htm

    It doesn’t look good on the weekend of May 3rd and May 15th no 7 between 74th st and Times Square. Then reduced service btwn Queensboro and 74th st.

    Reply

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