A Guide to the Second Avenue Subway: Underground and On the Street

The long-awaited Second Avenue Subway is finally open, and its new art-filled stops make the subway a destination all on its own. With installations by artists Sarah Sze (96th St.), Chuck Close (86th St.), Vik Muniz (72nd St.), and Jean Shin (Lexington Ave/ 63rd St.), a ride on the Uptown Q becomes an underground art museum with the stops serving as galleries. It's tempting to keep riding to all the stops and never go above ground.

Entrance to 96th Street Subway station, 96th Street and Second Avenue

Don't be tempted. After seeing the art installations, get some fresh air and enjoy life in the streets.

From “Elevated” by Jean Shin, Lexington Ave/ 63rd St.

It's true that metro stops in many European cities have long incorporated contemporary design and art as part of their transportation networks - in Stockholm, Vienna, Milan, and Paris, for example, so New York may seem like a late bloomer. One of our first and most most beautiful subway stops, the fancy Romanesque Revival station at City Hall, opened in 1904 but is no longer in service.

At the same time, the MTA Arts & Design Program has enriched many subway riders with art, poetry, posters, and music since its beginnings in 1985. Most of these projects have come along as older stations required renovation.

So, in New York, we've waited a long time to get excited about a new subway line. The one exception may be the 34 Street-Hudson Yards Subway Station on the city's far west side, opened in 2015, but the future mini-city of Hudson Yards is not quite there yet.

On the other hand, the Second Avenue Subway stretches through established older parts of the city, at least the parts that have not been torn down in building contemporary New York. The historic neighborhood of Yorkville along the northern stops of the subway and the areas of Lenox Hill and the Upper East Side that surround the southern stations await your exploration and rediscovery.

To help summon the history and changing landscape of the Second Avenue Subway neighborhoods, I recommend delving into two offbeat guides. First, the story of the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Gummo, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo), begins in Yorkville at their boyhood home at 179 E 93rd St. (See related post.) Follow them through the old neighborhood, and you'll pick up what it was like to live in an ethnically rich neighborhood, though predominantly German at the time, that differed block by block.

Also, the 2009 novel Chronic City by writer Jonathan Lethem is set in the Upper East Side, not in the old guard luxury blocks near Central Park but east of Lexington Avenue in the East 80s near Second Avenue. Read the novel to get a glimpse of the changing landscape in Bloomberg's New York and the collapse of the old order.

Subway 96th St. Q

“Blueprint for a Landscape” by Sarah Sze

Artwork: “Blueprint for a Landscape” by Sarah Sze
Neighborhood: Yorkville
Attractions: Marx Brothers boyhood home at 179 E 93rd St.; 92nd Street Y; President Barack Obama lived in a Yorkville tenement building at 339 E 94th St. while attending Columbia University.

“Blueprint for a Landscape” by Sarah Sze

"I still talk with an East-93rd-Street-New York accent. - from Harpo Speaks, by Harpo Marx with Rowland Barber (Limelight Editions, 1961), explaining what his voice sounds like.

Subway 86th St. Q

“Subway Portraits” by Chuck Close (Philip Glass)

Artwork: “Subway Portraits” by Chuck Close
Neighborhood: Yorkville
Attractions: Gracie Mansion; Carl Schurz Park; MTA Second Avenue Subway Community Information Center; Yorkville Glockenspiel, E 83rd St and York Ave., a mural by artist Richard Haas (2005)

“Subway Portraits” by Chuck Close (Lou Reed)

"The secret of this place is its quarantine from the boom-and-bust of Manhattan's trends and fashions. Maybe someday, if the rumors are true, they'll build a Second Avenue subway line and all of this will change." - Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday, 2009)

Subway 72nd St. Q

“Perfect Strangers” by Vik Muniz

Artwork: “Perfect Strangers” by Vik Muniz
Neighborhood: Lenox Hill
Attractions: John Finley Walk; St. Catherine's Park; Sotheby's.

“Perfect Strangers” by Vik Muniz

Subway Lexington Ave/ 63rd St. F-Q

“Elevated” by Jean Shin

Artwork: “Elevated” by Jean Shin
Jean Shin's installation draws on archival photographs of the old elevated trains in the neighborhood.
Neighborhood: Lenox Hill
Attractions: Park Avenue Armory; Society of Illustrators

“Elevated” by Jean Shin, Lexington Ave/ 63rd St.

From the Lexington Ave/ 63rd St. F-Q station, the Q continues to the 57 Street Subway station at 7th Avenue (N Q R W). From there, the Q runs all the way down to Coney Island. Subway riders on the West Side interested in exploring the Second Avenue Subway may want to transfer to the uptown Q at the 57th Street Station.

The embedded map offers a few suggestions for places to eat and drink near the Second Avenue Subway, but the streets are lined with many more dining establishments. They would appreciate your patronage after a long and challenging wait.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from January 2017.

25 Things To Do Near the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

(updated 2016) The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at 11 W. 53rd Street is near many other New York City attractions, so before or after a trip to the museum, a short walk in any direction could easily take in additional experiences. Drawing a square on a map with the museum at the center, a shape bounded by 58th Street to the north and 48th Street to the south, with 7th Avenue to the west and Park Avenue to the east, proves the point of the area's cultural richness. (A map follows the list below.) While well-known sightseeing stops fall with these boundaries, most notably Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the great swath of famous Fifth Avenue stores, cultural visitors may also want to check out places such as the Austrian Cultural Forum, the 57th Street galleries, the Onassis Cultural Center, and the Municipal Art Society. The image above shows an intriguing glimpse of the tops of two Beaux-Arts buildings through an opening of the wall inside MoMA's scu

Museums in New York Open on Mondays

Please see this post for current announcements of reopenings . Please consult the museum websites for changes in days and hours. UPDATED September 23, 2020 Advance tickets required for many museum reopenings. Please check museum websites for details. • The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) reopened to the public on August 27 , with new hours for the first month, through September 27: from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday to the public; and from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on Mondays for MoMA members on ly. Admission will be free to all visitors Tuesday through Sunday, through September 27, made possible by UNIQLO. See this new post on WOTBA for a sense of the experience attending the museum . • New-York Historical Society reopened on August 14 with an outdoor exhibition, "Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine,” in the rear courtyard. The exhibit by activist Kevin Powell and photographer Kay Hickman will highlight how New Yorkers weathered the quarantine

25 Things to Do Near the Metropolitan Museum of Art

(updated) Sitting on the steps in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of those iconic things to do in New York City. On a sunny day, the wide steps can become crowded with the young and old, the tourist and the resident. It's tempting to stay awhile and soak in the sun and the sights. Everyone has reasons for lingering there, with one being the shared pleasure of people watching along this expansive stretch of Fifth Avenue, a painting come to life. Certainly, just getting off one's feet for a moment is welcome, especially if the previous hours involved walking through the entirety of art history from prehistoric to the contemporary. The entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue The Metropolitan Museum of Art should be a singular pilgrimage, uninterrupted by feeble attempts to take in more exhibitions along Museum Mile. Pity the poor visitor who tries "to do" multiple museum exhibitions in one day, albeit ambitious, noble, and uplift

25 Things to Do Near the American Museum of Natural History

After visiting the American Museum of Natural History, explore attractions on the Upper West Side or in Central Park. Visitors to New York often run around from one major tourist site to the next, sometimes from one side of the city to the other, and in the process, exhaust themselves thoroughly. Ambitious itineraries often include something like coffee in the Village in the morning, lunch near MoMA, a couple of hours in the museum, a ride on the Staten Island Ferry in the afternoon, cocktails at the midtown hotel, a quick dinner, and then a Broadway show. It's a wonder people don't pass out at the theater. While sitting on the steps of the American Museum of History, consider exploring the Upper West Side and nearby sites of interest in Central Park. There's a better way to plan a New York trip. Consider grouping attractions together geographically. Several posts on this site address this recommended approach. The Wild West of the Tecumseh Playground Groupin

The High Line and Chelsea Market: A Good Pairing for a Walk

(revised 2017) The advent of spring, with its signs of growth and rebirth, is apparent both on the High Line , where volunteers are cutting away the old growth to reveal fresh blooms, and inside the Chelsea Market, where new tenants are revitalizing the space. A walk to take in both can become an exploration of bounty and surprise, a sensual walk of adventure and sustenance. A good pairing for a walk: The High Line and Chelsea Market Walking the High Line for a round trip from Gansevoort to W. 30th and then back again adds up to a healthy 2-mile walk. Regular walkers of the elevated park look for an excuse to go there. Especially delightful is showing off the park, a model of its kind, to visitors from out of town. A stroll through Chelsea Market. Time check. If you haven't stopped into Chelsea Market lately, you may want to take a detour from the High Line at the stairs on W. 16th St. and walk through the market for a quick assessment or a sampling. Among the sampli

Visiting New York on a Monday

Mondays are OK. Let's have a look at some of the museums open Mondays - • American Museum of Natural History • Jewish Museum • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) • National Museum of the American Indian • Neue Galerie • Guggenheim Museum • South Street Seaport Museum Any of these museums could be paired with a nearby restaurant or bar, making a complete full afternoon or day in New York. Monday is especially good for a museum visit, because the crowds tend to be thinner, and restaurants, too, tend to be less busy than on a weekend. A fun museum and bistro walk on the Upper West Side would be a combination of the American Museum of Natural History and the nearby Cafe Lalo on W. 83rd St. I also would suggest a pairing of the Neue Galerie with a nearby cafe, but the two cafes inside the musuem are so good, why go anywhere else? Image above: The Guggenheim on left and Beaux-Arts townhouse on right. View from E. 88th St. by Walking Off the Big Apple.

Taking a Constitutional Walk

A long time ago individuals going out for a walk, especially to get fresh air and exercise, often referred to the activity as "taking a constitutional walk." The word "constitutional" refers to one's constitution or physical makeup, so a constitutional walk was considered beneficial to one's overall wellbeing. (Or, as some would prefer to call it, "wellness.") The phrase is more common in British literature than in American letters. As early as the mid-nineteenth century, many American commentators expressed concern that their countrymen were falling into lazy and unhealthy habits. Newspaper columnists and editorial writers urged their readers to take up the practice of the "constitutional" walk. One such essay, " Walking as an Exercise," originally printed in the Philadelphia Gazette and reprinted in New England Farmer , Volume 11, 1859, urges the people of farm areas to take up walking. City dwellers seemed to have the

14 Useful Mobile Apps for Walking New York City

Texting and walking at the same time is wrong. Talking on the phone while strolling down the street is wrong. Leaving the sidewalk to stop and consult the information on a cellphone, preferably while alone, is OK. What's on Walking Off the Big Apple's iPhone: A List Walkmeter GPS Walking Stopwatch for Fitness and Weight Loss . While out walking, Walkmeter tracks routes, time, speed, and elevation. This is an excellent app for recording improvised or impromptu strolls, especially with many unplanned detours. The GPS function maps out the actual route. The app keeps a running tally of calories burned while walking, useful for weight loss goals. Another welcome feature is the ability to switch over to other modes of activity, including cycling. An indispensable app for city walkers. $4.99 New York City Compass , designed by Francesco Bertelli, is an elegant compass calibrated for Manhattan, with indications for Uptown, East Side, Downtown, and West Side. While facing a cert

Spring Training: Conquering the Hilly Terrain of Northern Manhattan

Visitors to the Northern Manhattan neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Inwood may realize at some point that we don't call them the "heights" for nothing. Walking a street uptown can involve a steep climb. In several places, the difference between elevations is so great that "step streets" are required. The step street at W. 215th connects Park Terrace East with Broadway below. Photo from February 29, 2016. The W. 215th Street step street in the Inwood neighborhood (above) connects Park Terrace East, a residential street high above Broadway, with the busy thoroughfare below. The nearby Isham Park sits on high land that was once a family estate. The climb to get there makes it feel like a secret park. There are nearly a hundred of these step streets in New York City, with many of them over a hundred years old. There are 63 step streets in the Bronx and 20 in Washington Heights and Inwood.* The city is currently renovating some of the more popularl

From Penn Station to New York Landmarks: Measuring Walking Distance and Time in Manhattan

(revised 2017) How long does it take to walk from Penn Station/Madison Square Garden to well-known destinations in Manhattan? What are the best walking routes ? What if I don't want to see anything in particular but just want to walk around? In addition to the thousands of working commuters from the surrounding area, especially from New Jersey and Long Island who arrive at Penn Station via New Jersey Transit or the Long Island Rail Road, many people arrive at the station just to spend time in The City. Some have questions. Furthermore, a sporting event may have brought you to Madison Square Garden (above Penn Station), and you want to check out what the city offers near the event. This post if for you. The map below should help you measure walking distances and times from the station to well-known destinations in Manhattan - Bryant Park , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , the Empire State Building , Times Square , Rockefeller Center , Washington Square Park , the High Line

Walking Off the Big Apple

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