Category: Subway-Exploration

This busy subway tunnel seemed to be one of the more popular ones among graffiti artists. Given it’s open spaces and easy hiding spots, it’s not hard to see why.
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In the age of Holyer Than Thou exploration, fresh tunnels are the thing, and egos are king.
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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.

Most Revs pages remain in their original form, those a few have been destroyed over the years – most by hater-writers, and at least one by the collapse of the world trade center on 9/11.

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.

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.