100 Fun Facts About the NYC Subway

The New York City subway system is old. But it's also constantly evolving. It's an efficient way to get around the city. But it's also plagued by delays and areas that are underserved. The subway is a microcosm of New York City itself, illustrating the best and worst of urban life.

In 2024, when the subway marked 120 years since opening, we celebrated the system's vibrancy, diversity, and innovation by taking a deep dive into our archives and exploring 100 of our favorite fun facts and secrets about the sprawling subterranean network!

Opening Day

1. Before the Interborough Rapid Transit System, there was Alfred Beach's Pneumatic Subway—a one-block, single-track, single-car line below Broadway from Murray Street that ran from 1870 to 1873.
2. The original subway line had just 28 stops. Today there are 472 subway stations.
3. The silver Tiffany & Co. subway handle made for the first subway ride can be seen at the New-York Historical Society on display in the Objects Tell Stories gallery.

4. New York City Mayor George B. McClellan refused to give up control of the silver handle as he piloted the subway all the way from City Hall Station to 103rd Street!
5. The video below is the earliest footage of the New York City subway, shot on opening day in 1904. Seven months later, another film captured the ride from 14th to 42nd Street.

6. Roughly 150,000 people rode the subway on opening day, compared to today's daily ridership of 3.6 million!
7. It originally cost just five cents to ride the subway.

8. The first crime committed in the subway system (on opening day) was the theft of a diamond horseshoe pin worth $15,000 in today's money.

City Hall Station, the Subway's Crown Jewel

9. The three curved Guastavino & Co. skylights of City Hall Station were tarred over during World War II as a safety precaution. You can see the signature tiled arches of Guastavino all over New York City.
10. An ornamented oak ticket booth once stood on the station's mezzanine.

11. City Hall Station shut down on New Year's Eve 1945, just over 40 years after opening.

12. Even though it's abandoned, there are legal ways you can visit City Hall Station! The New York Transit Museum hosts guided tours for its members. You can also ride through the station on Untapped New York's Underground Subway Tour.

Underground NYC Subway Tour

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13. You can see remnants of City Hall Station above ground, including glass blocks in the sidewalk that served as skylights for the station below.

System-wide Superlatives and Surprises

14. There were originally three separate subway systems: Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT-1904), the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company (BMT-1923), and the Independent Subway System (IND-1932). The city consolidated these systems into one in 1940.
15. The subway had a baseball team, the IRT All-Stars!

16. Broad Channel in Queens is the least used subway station.
17. Times Square is the busiest station.
18. The oldest car model in use is the 1970s R46, running on the A, C, N, W, Q, and Rockaway Shuttle lines. These models boast those bright orange seats!
19. The deepest subway station is 191st Street, Washington Heights.
20. The highest subway station is at Smith and 9th Street in Brooklyn, located 88 feet above street level.

21. The oldest part of the subway system is an elevated structure between Alabama Avenue and the Cypress Hills station on the J, Z line. This stretch of elevated track dates to the 1880s.
22. The newest stations opened in 2017 as part of the Second Ave line at 72nd Street, 86th Street, and 96th Street.
23. The MTA hosted a "Miss Subway" contest from 1941 to 1976. Former Miss Subway 1959, Ellen Hart (owner of Ellen's Stardust Diner), hosts an annual reunion for past winners.
24. Photographer Taylor Chapman photographed the end of every subway line.

25. Parts of Governors Island, City College, a Trump golf course, and more areas of New York City were constructed with rubble from the subway.
26. You can ride New York City's first inclined funicular elevator at the 34th Street-Hudson Yards Station.

27. The deadliest subway car crash in history, the Malbone Street Wreck, took place inside a tunnel beneath the intersection of Empire Boulevard, Flatbush Avenue, and Ocean Avenue in 1918.
28. If you're late for work or school due to a train delay, the MTA can back up your story. Request a delay verification letter online.
29. Subway's BMT sandwich, which stands for "biggest, meatiest, tastiest," was likely inspired by one of New York's earliest subway lines, the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT).
30. Untapped New York tour guide Mandy Edgecombe met one of the voices of the subway, Charlie Pellett...on the subway!

31. Celebrities like Jerry Seinfeld, Whoopi Goldberg, and Awkwafina have lent their voices to special subway announcements.

Subway Car Secrets

32. The MTA operates 13 Maintenance Shops and two Overhaul Shops where workers take care of the system's 6,500+ cars.
33. Over 2,000 decommissioned subway cars were dropped into the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina to become artificial reefs. Other items like crushed toilet bowls, tires, and sunken ice cream trucks have also been used for reef creation!

34. An armored money train transported all subway and bus fares to a secret room at 370 Jay Street in Brooklyn from 1951 to 2006.
35. Women-only subway cars, nicknamed "Suffragette Cars” or “Merry Widow Cars," ran briefly in the early 1900s...and again in the 1950s.
36. Those tiny thermometer stickers on subway car ceilings are target-temperature decals. MTA employees scan these stickers with a laser to find out the temperature of the subway car.
37. The temperature should always fall between 58 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

38. The first air-conditioned subway car was introduced in July 1967.
39. August Belmont, Jr., President of the IRT and one of its main financiers, had his own private subway car to travel from Grand Central to his racetrack at Belmont Park.
40. Subway seats used to be comfortable spring-cushioned, rattan-covered benches, but when those seats became worn, springs would poke out and get stuck on commuters’ clothing.
41. Even subway cars need to sleep. Discover some of the places where off-duty cars are stored.

42. A fleet of all-white cars was introduced in 1981 in an attempt to curb graffiti. They didn't last long...
43. You can ride vintage subway cars during the annual Nostalgia Train Rides.
44. During the 1960s, riders could enjoy a glass of champagne and a pretzel or bagel on the short-lived "bar car" which ran between Times Square and South Ferry.

Subway Signage and Maps

45. All subway signs are made inside this Brooklyn sign shop!

46. One of the first subway maps was a pocket guide mailed out by Wanamakers Department Store.
47. Massimo Vignelli's beloved 1972 subway map is in the Museum of Modern Art’s postwar design collection. Remnants of a Vignelli map posted in the subway were uncovered in 2017 at the 57th Street/6th Avenue station.
48. We called the phone numbers you see on doors throughout the subway system. They all lead to the Rail Control Center.
49. You can own a piece of the subway! The MTA hosts an annual pop-up sale of memorabilia and collectibles such as station signs and fixtures, vintage tokens, and bits of equipment like doors, seating, grabholds, and stanchion poles...even a station garbage can.
50. There is a hidden meaning behind the colors used for subway lines. The colored tiles inside stations are the remnants of a coded system from the IMD. Before the 1970s when a unified color coordination system was adopted, things were a bit complicated. New York Transit Museum curator Jodi Shapiro helps us break it down for you here!