Technology has a way of making jobs obsolete. But so does recession. And when the subway station agents (those in the burgundy vest, ready or not to help you) started getting laid off, so their subway booths became abandoned, becoming something of a time capsule. Sometimes you could see leftover food inside. Metrocards started piling up as people discarded them through the small slits in the window. On 66th Street at Lincoln Center, one day they were doing asbestos treatment, the next day the asbestos warning signs were gone. Anything worth anything was ripped out from the booth’s infrastructure. The final nock on the door came when they started to get dismantled. And now, what remains is the outline of what once was. Here is a photo essay on some of the subway booths we’ve come across. Submit yours to our Flickr group.
8th Street N station
157th Street stop on the 1 train in Washington Heights
Inside the booth at 157th Street
66th Street stop on the 1 train at Lincoln Center, before asbestos treatment
Notification at 66th Street
Closeup on the booth at 66th Street
Inside the 66th Street station booth, most things have been ripped out. Today it’s been wooden boards and much or all have been dismantled.
Deconstruction in the Union Square station
The hands of the NYC transit authority at work
Inside the Penn Station booth
Left over McDonalds sweet and sour sauce inside the Penn Station booth
Lincoln Center booth, post-asbestos treatment
And when I caught the MTA desconstructing the booth at Lincoln Center, what was left was Metrocards strewn all over the floor, a technology that will also be phased out at some point in the near future.
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