81st Street–Museum of Natural History (IND Eighth Avenue Line)

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81st Street–Museum of Natural History New York City Subway rapid transit station
Station statistics
Address	West 81st Street & Central Park West New York, NY 10024
Borough	Manhattan
Locale	Upper East Side
Coordinates	40°46′55″N 73°58′18″W / 40.781971°N 73.971763°W / 40.781971; -73.971763Coordinates: 40°46′55″N 73°58′18″W / 40.781971°N 73.971763°W / 40.781971; -73.971763
Division	B (IND)
Line	IND Eighth Avenue Line
Services	A  (late nights)      B  (weekdays until 11:00 p.m.)      C  (all except late nights)
Structure	Underground
Levels	2
Platforms	2 side platforms (1 on each of 2 levels)
Tracks	4 (2 on each of 2 levels)
Other information
Opened	September 10, 1932[1]
Traffic
Passengers (2008)	4.074 million[2][3] ▲ 4.85%
Rank	111 out of 422
Station succession
Next north	86th Street: A  B  C
Next south	72nd Street: A  B  C
Station service legend Symbol Description Stops in station at all times Stops all times except late nights Stops late nights only Stops late nights and weekends only Stops weekdays only Stops all times except rush hours in the peak direction Stops all times except weekdays Stops rush hours only Stops rush hours in the peak direction only Station is closed (Details about time periods)

81st Street–Museum of Natural History is a local station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. The station has four tracks and two side platforms. However, in this area, the local tracks are stacked, northbound above southbound, and the express tracks are stacked in the same order to the east of them, so both platforms are on the west side, one above the other. The station is at Central Park West and 81st Street rather than the major crosstown 79th Street (although an entrance also exists as this street) to accommodate the American Museum of Natural History, which largely fills what was once Manhattan Square. The 79th Street Transverse Road through Central Park exits the park here. An underground entrance directly to the Museum is at the south end of each platform.

When the station was renovated in the 1990s in coordination with building the new planetarium, the Rose Center for Earth and Space, a program of tile mosaics was undertaken, covering the stairs and platforms, extending to floor inlays. Stairwells evoke descents into the geological strata of the Earth (at 81st Street) or into the Ocean (79th Street) and many creatures are evoked in mosaic vignettes that punctuate the stretches of white tiled wall. Fossil casts seem to emerge from the tiles as though the subway platform itself were an excavation, which indeed it is.

Under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Arts for Transit program, a mixed-media installation was created. Entitled "For Want of a Nail", named after the old proverb, it addresses the interconnections of entities that are as vast as a galaxy and as small as a single cell. Using ceramic tile, glass tile, glass mosaic, bronze relief, and granite as primary materials, the design team depicted the evolution of extinct, existing and endangered life forms—from single celled organisms to the towering T. rex dinosaur. It shows images and symbols ranging from the earth's core, to the sea, the sky and the cosmos beyond. No artist has been identified in this group project.

[edit] Bus connections

• M79

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• nycsubway.org — nycsubway.org IND 8th Avenue: 81st Street-Museum of Natural History
• Station Reporter — B Train
• Station Reporter — C Train
• The Subway Nut - 81st St-Museum of Natural History Pictures
• AMNH press release on completion
• AMNH's Natural history illustrates some of the mosaics, mistaking the earth core for a core of the sun