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

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 West Side

Coordinates

40°46′55″N 73°58′18″W / 40.781971°N 73.971763°WCoordinates: 40°46′55″N 73°58′18″W / 40.781971°N 73.971763°W

Division

B (IND)

Line

IND Eighth Avenue Line

Services

      A (late nights)
      B (weekdays until 11:00 p.m.)
      C (all except late nights)

Transit connections

NYCT Bus: M10, M79

MTA Bus: BxM2

Structure

Underground

Levels

Platforms

2 side platforms (1 on each level)

Tracks

4 (2 on each level)

Other information

Opened

September 10, 1932^[1]

Wireless service

^[2]

Traffic

Passengers (2015)

4,584,041^[3]

0.5%

Rank

106 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 all times except late nights
	Stops late nights only
	Stops weekdays only

Location
Show map of New York City Subway Show map of New York City Show map of New York Show map of the US

81st Street–Museum of Natural History is a local station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is served by the C train at all times except nights, when the A train takes over service. The B train provides additional service here on weekdays except nights.

Station layout

G	Street Level	Exit / Entrance
B1	Northbound express	← do not stop here
	Northbound local	← toward Bedford Park Boulevard rush hours, 145th Street other times (86th Street) ← toward 168th Street ( toward 207th Street late nights) (86th Street)
	Side platform, doors will open on the left
	Mezzanine	Fare control, station agent, MetroCard vending machines
B2	Southbound express	→ do not stop here →
	Southbound local	→ toward Brighton Beach (72nd Street) → → toward Euclid Avenue ( toward Far Rockaway late nights) (72nd Street) →
	Side platform, doors will open on the right

Track layout

Legend

to 86 St

Superimposed tracks section

(Left tracks above right ones)

to 72 St

Upper level

Lower level

The station opened on September 10, 1932,^[1]^[4] and has four tracks and two side platforms. On this section of the line, the local tracks are stacked, uptown above downtown, 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 at this street), in order to accommodate the American Museum of Natural History,^[5] which largely fills the area of what was once called the Manhattan Square. The 79th Street Transverse Road, through Central Park, exits the park here. An underground entrance directly into the museum's lowest level is at the south end of the uptown (northbound or upper) platform.^[6]

South of this station are storage/lay up tracks between the local and express tracks on each level. Both ends of the tracks merge with the express tracks, with switches to the local tracks.^[7]^[8]

The station was renovated in 1998–2000, in coordination with building the new Hayden Planetarium, within the Rose Center for Earth and Space.^[9] The floors were replaced, new lighting installed, the token booth upgraded, and the walls and staircases re-tiled. Structural improvements were also made during the renovation.^[9]

Artwork

Dinosaur artwork on one of the station walls

In 1976, with funding from the Exxon Corporation, this station, as well as three others citywide, received new "artfully humorous graffiti" murals and artwork.^[10] Local designer Mayers and Schiff received $5,000 to add murals of dinosaurs such as "Thesaurus Rex, the dinosaur that had a vocabulary of a thousand words" and "Elongatomus, an elongated critter that stretched from coast to coast whose pelvic remains support a highway interchange in Missouri."^[10]

As part of the 1998–2000 station renovation, a program of tile mosaics was undertaken, covering the stairs and platforms, extending to floor inlays. Stairwells evoke descending into the geological strata of the Earth (at 81st Street) or into the Ocean (79th Street). 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 it actually is.^[11] Under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Arts for Transit program, a mixed-media installation was created in 2000.^[9]^[11]^[12]^[13] Entitled "For Want of a Nail",^[12] 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.^[11]^[14] 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.^[11]^[14]

References

1 2 The New York Times, List of the 28 Stations on the New Eighth Ave Line, September 10, 1932, page 6
↑ "NYC Subway Wireless – Active Stations". Transit Wireless Wifi. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
↑ "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
↑ Crowell, Paul (September 10, 1932). "Gay Midnight Crowd Rides First Trains In The New Subway: Throngs at Station an Hour Before Time, Rush Turnstiles When Chains are Dropped". New York Times. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
↑ "American Museum of Natural History". AMNH. 2014-05-01. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
↑ "Directions and Transportation". AMNH. 2014-05-01. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
↑ "NYC Subway Track Map (Midtown Manhattan) (Zoom to section by clicking)". www.nycsubway.org. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
↑ Marrero, Robert (2015-09-13). "469 Stations, 846 Miles" (PDF). B24 Blog, via Dropbox. Retrieved 2015-10-09.
1 2 3 Siegal, Nina (1998-09-13). "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: UPPER WEST SIDE/UPPER MANHATTAN; At This Stop, B and C Spell Walk". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
1 2 Burks, Edward C. (1976-11-18). "A Subway Elongatomus? Why, It's Preposterous!". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
1 2 3 4 "81st Street-Museum of Natural History: ARTS FOR TRANSIT COLLABORATIVE: For Want of a Nail, 2000". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
1 2 "Review of the A and C Lines" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. December 11, 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
↑ "81st Street Museum of Natural History Station Reopening". AMNH. Retrieved 2011-11-11.
1 2 Kennedy, Randy (June 15, 2000). "Where Stepping Off the Subway Means Stepping Into the Wild". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-01.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 81st Street – Museum of Natural History (IND Eighth Avenue Line).

nycsubway.org – 81st Street — Museum of Natural History (8th Avenue)
nycsubway.org – "For Want of a Nail" Artwork (MTA Arts for Transit) (1999)
The Subway Nut – 81st Street–Museum of Natural History pictures
MTA's Arts For Transit – 81st Street–Museum of Natural History (IND Eighth Avenue Line)
Corner of 81st Street and Central Park West subway entrance from Google Maps Street View
Central Park West subway entrance in front of the American Museum of Natural History from Google Maps Street View
Platform from Google Maps Street View

New York City Subway stations

8th Ave. Line	Inwood–207th Street Dyckman Street 190th Street 181st Street 175th Street 168th Street 163rd Street–Amsterdam Avenue 155th Street 145th Street [← to 145th Street, Concourse Line] 135th Street 125th Street 116th Street Cathedral Parkway–110th Street 103rd Street 96th Street 86th Street 81st Street–Museum of Natural History 72nd Street 59th Street–Columbus Circle [to Seventh Avenue, 6th Ave. Line → / ← to Seventh Avenue, Queens Blvd. Line] 50th Street 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal 34th Street–Penn Station 23rd Street 14th Street West Fourth Street–Washington Square Spring Street Canal Street Chambers Street–World Trade Center Fulton Street High Street Jay Street–MetroTech [to Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets, Fulton St. Line →]

See also Lists by borough (The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens) Accessible Closed Terminals Transfer Commons category Stations and line segments in italics are closed or demolished. Track connections to other lines' terminals are displayed in brackets. ~~Struck through~~ passenger track connections are closed or unused in regular service.

Central Park

Features

Geographical features	Cedar Hill Cherry Hill Conservatory Garden Conservatory Water Great Lawn / Turtle Pond Harlem Meer Onassis Reservoir The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary The Ramble and Lake Seneca Village Sheep Meadow

Sculptures	107th Infantry Memorial Alexander Hamilton Balto Christopher Columbus Cleopatra's Needle Daniel Webster Eagles and Prey The Falconer Fitz-Greene Halleck Giuseppe Mazzini Indian Hunter King Jagiello Monument Robert Burns Romeo and Juliet Samuel Finley Breese Morse Seventh Regiment Memorial Sir Walter Scott The Gates (former) The Tempest Untermyer Fountain USS Maine National Monument Victor Herbert William Shakespeare

Other features	Arsenal Belvedere Castle Bethesda Terrace and Fountain Blockhouse Bridges Burnett Memorial Fountain Carousel Delacorte Theater Diana Ross Playground Fort Clinton Lasker Rink Mall Marionette Theatre McGowan's Pass McGown's Pass Tavern Richard Morris Hunt Memorial Rumsey Playfield Strawberry Fields Tavern on the Green Victorian Gardens Wollman Rink Zoo Escape hoax Zoo York Wall Zoo York

Events

Neighboring features

Streets	Border Streets Fifth (East) North South West Transverses 66th 79th 85th 97th

Subway stations	Fifth Avenue–59th Street 59th Street–Columbus Circle 72nd Street 81st Street 86th Street 96th Street 103rd Street Cathedral Parkway–110th Street Central Park North–110th Street

People and animals

Miscellaneous

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