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The Union Square 14th Street Subway Complex is the 3rd busiest station in the system. There is a connection between the East Side IRT, the Broadway BMT and the 14th Street Canarsie Line. It has recently undergone a $40 million rehabilitation. Most of this was unknown to me, when I was there recently looking for some old mosaic signs. |
Things started innocently enough. I found these signs at the 14th Street stop of the F train. I like seeing diverging arrows. 14th street to the left. 16th street to the right. It sort of represents a decision point in life. Should I go right or left? Usually I remain where I am and ask "Why bother?" After about 2 hours, I decided to go left, for reasons that I seem to have forgotten.
When I reached the end of the station, I found this sign and was delighted. I was at a place in life, where the unity of all things was revealed. Here both 14th & 16th Street were to the right. I now acted without any hesistation and went left.
By going left, I was now on the 6th Ave stop of the Canarsie Line. I studied the mosaic and tried to fathom the connection between the "6" and my location. Before I was able to come to a conclusion, a sudden rush of passengers from upstairs swept past and pushed me into a departing train.
I got off at the next stop which was Union Square. I immediately saw the connection with the mosaic and was able to move on to the main part of my adventure.
I started walking around in my normal aimless style. It wasn't long before I ran into this sign. I was ecstatic. I just loved the sound of it. 14th Street Line. Not the Canarsie Line. Not the L train. But 14th Street Line. It is a cross town line in Manhattan going from 8th Av, to 6th Av, to Union Square, to 3rd Av. and finally 1st Av. before taking the plunge and making its way cross working class Brooklyn.
I was annoyed that the mosaic was framed by a red border, which was more poorly centered than my own attempts to frame a picture.
Then I ran into this equally delightful sign. Broadway Line!! Not the BMT. Not the N train or Q train. But Broadway Line. I was very troubled with the left side of the mosaic being covered by a mirror as well as the red border. I figured that things just aren't done like they were in the old days.
Take a look at this. According to the paperback book "Subway Ceramics" this is the work of Grueby Faience Company of Boston. Faience is an opaquely glazed ceramic which is fired twice. You artsy people must know about that, frankly I don't know what the hell I am talking about.
But again I am kind of troubled with this red border on the right. I was beginning to feel a little bit like I was in Kubrick's 2001, with the monolith showing up in strange places. That image isn't that far off the money when you take a look at the next shot.
When I stepped back from the wall, I noticed that it wasn't really a wall. It was a slab from a wall. This seemed very strange, as most walls I've encountered have been solid continuous hunks of stone. And there were 4 of these slabs standing in the passageway.
You may think I'm playing around, but here is the back of the slab, and even worse there is the red border on top.
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