42nd Street Lower is a very well know, oddly constructed subway station.
It wasn’t until the late 1990s were the entrances to this station from the platform above completely sealed. At the time it showed signs of homeless encampments and frequent use by all manner of unsavory characters. The walls were decorated with a scattering of graffiti, mostly scrawled tags and throwies..
The station consists of a single track platform, built along with the rest of the station in 1932. The stations only documented use was from 1959 to 1981 for a special train that ran to Aqueduct Race Track, as well as some downtown express E trains. The race track trains apparently required extra fare, utilizing gates that allowed boarding the train via a single door where the extra fare was collected.
Extra fare gate
Severed Connection
The tracks to the north of the station were original configured so that only downtown E trains could access the platform. This however changed a few years ago, when the connector track was realigned and the switch taken out entirely, leaving the station isolated from the rest of the 8th avenue line.
7 Line & The Future
Some speculate that the station was built directly in the path of the 7 train so that the IRT could not extend this line past it’s terminal at Times Square. Currently there is much speculation that the 7 train will be extended west to the Javits Center, presumably bifurcating this unused station. Update: This did end up happening, with this station & trackway split apart now)
Graffiti
It seems that much graffiti was removed from the walls after the entrances to the platforms above were sealed up with actual doors, but that hasn’t kept others from tagging up here since then, namely Toper & Scope. These guys were active in the late 1990s, so one can assume the station was cleaned up sometime in the mid 1990s…
The Sea Honk
What is the sea honk? The Sea Honk is strangely referred to in graffiti all around the NYC Subway system. You’ve go to look close to really notice it though, since it’s not the most well known graffiti down here. So what is a Sea Honk? Some mysteries of the subway are best left to the imagination.
Only time will tell the fate of this desolate station. Presently, it is a dimly lit, dark and almost entirely forgotten space.
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How u got in?
Same way them cops do 🙂
Which is the way in??? I wanna see this place.
This station was used in the movie “Ghost” – the part where Patrick Swayze learns how to move objects by force of will from that other ghost who haunted that station. Sadly, this station no longer exists. It was destroyed as part of the construction of the extension of the IRT Flushing line from Times Square to 11th Avenue and 34th Street. The new tunnel runs right through the middle of this station. The two remaining portions of the station are being used as supply closets.
The “exit gate” dates back to the days when the platform was used for the “Bettors’ Special” or “Suckers’ Special,” which ran from 42nd Street to Aqueduct Racetrack.
This special train started on that platform and loaded through that exit gate to one door on a subway train and a conductor collected the fare through the gate.
I do not recall exactly when the special route ran. My father explained it to me when we went through the platform when I was a kid. He knew about the route’s existence from relatives of his who used the line to study the laws of probability at Aqueduct. After taking their lessons on the subject, they would study a different book: “How to bum a ride home.”
Love it…
Keep them secrets!
If people want to know… they have a LOT to go through…
Don’t look at me (obviously) ..though
I am extremely anxious to get down there..
follow my own way.. (maybe to nothing…but not to me)
Hope I can get on one of your private tours
I will get i touch when i can afford it…
right now..i in no way have $
Great post here!
and there and everywhere..
I remember going to this place back in 2015. Came down the ramp and the trackway was a muddy mess. It wasn’t even one minute we were down there that my friends and I got spooked. Had no time to take pics cuz we saw sensors and got paranoid. It was a disaster.
I’d do it again though.
Isn’t it obvious. The train is the sea honk. If the driver sees you trespassing whats he gonna do? That’s right, honk at you. It seas, it honks thats it. You want to sea honks, step right this way kiddo.