In 1981 Minor Threat's self titled EP and song became something of a punk rock anthem. Close to 25 years later, I found it just a little amusing and perhaps a bit ironic too that the three of us standing in this room at the moment are probably some of the only people that have stopped by here for awhile that actually knew where some of those words scrawled on the walls were from, and maybe ever so slightly the mindset behind it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a hint from the title of this post, and the fact that Revs had his own punk rock band at one point.
With that bit of setup mystery - here are the facts: Between 1994 and 1999, Revs painted over 200 'journal pages' in NYC subway tunnels. He created one in nearly every NYC subway tunnel, until he was caught (and many falsely suspected ratted out) right towards the end. His first page was in an emergency exit located along the R line, in Bay Ridge
This first page existed up until a few years ago, and was one of the first ones destroyed when the MTA began throwing away money by repainting all emergency exits.
The entire exit was painted - with graffiti on the walls, ceilings, etc. Some walls were covered in the huge slaps that Revs & Cost became best known for back in the late 1980s.
It's a shame that this room was basically destroyed. Today it's covered in boring MTA gray paint.
So the Chef calls me up with a lead on this old house being taken down. I smell cash in the air, so we meet up with another old school mo fo and go right in that side second floor window.
Once inside it's apparently that the place is so money. A stack of big coins makes it worth the trip, loads of free old stuff ices the cake.
It's not too hard to tell just what happened here: the owners of this house, Louise and her husband, were very old. X rays found on location testify to this fact. One can guess that the husband, apparently ex military and a city gov employee, died first, eventually followed by his wife.
In fact, that is the sad part of this story. Here was this couple who lived a long good life, apparently raised at least one child, and here is there house, sold to a developer bent on bulldozing it. Everything it seems was left behind. old furniture, books dating towards the early 1900s, a refrigerator with some tasty cold treats. One can only wonder if their sibling or siblings died an early death or just plain sold the house as is.
Whatever the case may be, Louise or her husband were pack rats, saving everything right down to the ancient baby carriage.
Sadly, it is all going into a dumpster. The house ready to be bulldozed.
It is a sad fate that is humbling, yet as a vulture capitalist, one can only pay tribute and divide up that stack of silver coins and alcohol..
There is scant little you need to know about this undisclosed NYC Subway tunnel location: it is the original suicide spot. It is a trackless segment of tunnel that is wrong in every possible way. Next to no one seems to know for sure why it exists, not even the track workers we gingerly walked passed in the tunnel on the way to find it.
Not all subway tunnels were created equally, or more correctly, not all were built with future growth in mind.
This subway tunnel is one of those unlucky few tunnels. In its day, this tunnel was a vital subway link that even hosting LIRR trains. Today though, the areas it served are not as central or popular as they once were.
Where the tracks branch off the current subway route.
This particular stretch was practically cut in half to make way for more popular new tunnels. Today, it sits silent. One track occasionally used for layups (parking of out of service trains), the other looking intact yet dirty and disused for quite some time.
Track Filth wedged against the third rail
The Sea Honk, and other weird forms of graffiti along this stretch of track
Where the tracks end, running against a newer tunnel.
The likelihood of this tunnel ever returning to it's former glory is pretty much zero.
So here it sits... Marginalized, but not quite forgotten.
The minute that 383Fury pointed out the Waterside Generating Station was being shut down, I knew it was ON.
Getting in was far from simple. This spot was well secured. That never stops us though. Not when you have a power plant this huge just sitting shut down. It took some doing, but we quickly found our way around security and into the buildings.
Inside? It was LTV time. Everything was intact. Nothing broken, Nothing stolen. Most explorers never get to see buildings in this pristine state. You could hardly tell it was this buildings final hours.
I only got around to visiting here 2 or 3 times before demolition began. If I had it to do over again, I would have went in there every night for a month. There was just that much to see in there. Nevertheless, it was an honor to be amongst the only explorers to ever break into this facility.
History
The Waterside Generating Station located at 1st avenue and 40th street, just south of the U.N. It was a Beaux-Arts style industrial structure designed by C. Wellesley Smith. It was massive in size - covering 9.5 acres of prime Manhattan real estate.
Completed in 1900, the Waterside Generating Station produced both electricity and steam. Steam was, and continues to be, a vital energy source within NYC's older buildings. Grand Central Terminal, for example, is heated with Steam provided by Con Ed, and also cooled by this steam via a chemical reaction between the steam and lithium bromide within a conversion plant located under the main floor of the terminal.
During a typical year, the Waterside Generating Station could produce over 2.4 million pounds of steam and 160 megawatts of electricity.
Today, there is no trace of this facility. It joins the long list of former industrial sites around NYC that have been wiped clean from the maps.
Back when I was nothing but a little toy shitbag scrawling ugly graffiti, RIS crew was running rampant in the subways, painting every tunnel in town. Today, a lot of their stuff is faded, though JA still drops the occasional bomb. There is one spot in particular though that still has some great RIS crew stuff, and this page is a quick tip of the hat to those who Rocked This Shit back in the day, inspiring me to check out tunnels for myself.
Even after the unification of the BMT, IRT and IND in 1940, no effort was ever made to connect this provision to the west side line. Instead, two of the 4 trackways were eventually connected to the 63rd street tunnel. At present, these tracks are only used by detouring R trains, or to park and turn the occasional Q or N train. For a short time, the connection to the 63rd street tunnel hosted a special S shuttle train. These tracks will eventually host the Q train when the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway opens.
Adventure
This spot just plain frustrates me.
When I first walked past it one early morning, it was not the main objective of the mission I was on, thus entering would have been a distraction. Furthermore, we had already seen plenty of homeless people abound, and this place featured a long hallway into who knows where that was full or hobo bits and scurrying rats, along with the smell of bum juice and rotting meat. Not exactly what you want to go play with at 6AM on a Sunday...
PinkSmith & Other Graff
So it took me awhile to get back to this spot. I had heard that HOU (nypd homeless outreach unit) had clear the bums out, but what I didn't anticipate was that the MTA would gate up the entrance and clean the place up real good. I found myself kicking myself for not holding my nose, stepping over the human debris and sleeping zombie corpses, to check this place out when I had the chance.
One day I will get to see every part of this spot, but clearly, that won't be soon...
The gated off area. Today it is filled with ventilation equipment, though you can plainly see the pillars that formed trackways curving to the west.
Amtrak's trains running along the former yard in the early 1990's. Today this area is covered by high rise buildings.
A long time ago, a pussy-grabbing con man and his investor friends bought the former N.Y. Central RR rail yards which once lay just south of the freedom tunnel. The tracks here were abandoned in the 1980s when Conrail stopped servicing the area for some shortsighted reason. All yard tracks were pulled and the land became an open field of tall weeds and, along the water, shattered remains of piers and float bridges.
As we all know, Amtrak revived this line for service into Penn Station from the north, and in the later 1990s, the real estate people bought air rights from Amtrak to connect their property to the streets of the upper west side. In doing so, they were able to build the foundations for their buildings above the tracks.
Today, Amtrak still runs through this new tunnel. A single trackway/space runs next to this tunnel devoid of life. A large space was created and rumored to have been a planned station for this transit route which never came to be.
LTVSquad.com is the blog of NYC's most notorious team of explorers. We bring you a unique roasted blend of content culled from the fringes and dark underbelly of this fine city. Consider us an Autodidact's guide to urban exploration, adventure and fringe art. Mixed with 2 part photography and video, 1 parts social commentary and (ill)legal mentality.
All text and original photographs are copyrighted material. LTV Squad is fully staffed by a team of lawyers and we absolutely love to get our litigation on.
