RUTH Bader Ginsburg Tribute Seen in NYC Subway Station

Over the weekend, a tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (aka “RBG) appeared in the 50th Street subway station in Manhattan. When a well-known figure passes away, New Yorkers often take to the city’s transit system and public spaces to express their grief. We saw this with Kobe Bryant, Aretha Franklin, Prince, and David Bowie in recent years. This subway tribute took inspiration from the tiled mosaics, and altered the number 50 to “RU”, keeping the TH in 50th to spell out “RUTH” on two locations. [Update: turns out the mosaic tribute is the work of photographer Adrian Wilson, who also did guerrilla tributes in New York City to Prince and Davie Bowie previously].

On Sunday, Mickey Blank (@mickmicknyc), a social media influencer (and Untapped New York Insider!) who has a great collection of streaming content about New York City, went to the station. The tributes were located on the downtown platform of the station along the A/C/E line. In a live video, she says, “New York has been very good in doing tributes in subway station. People here are very innovative.”

Early Sunday afternoon, there were no trains stopping either uptown or downtown due to the derailment on the train line, so Mickey had the opportunity take clear shots after being allowed in by an MTA representative. During Mickey’s visit, an MTA staffer told her it would be removed soon and by Monday it was gone. She tells Untapped New York, “I felt very honored and lucky to see this tribute.”

Meanwhile, other formal and informal tributes to Ruth Bader Ginsburg took place all over New York this weekend, including on Fearless Girl who an RBG collar on for a brief period of time. We stopped by Ginsburg’s childhood home in Midwood, Brooklyn and to see her synagogue and schools she attended.