Subway Tiles, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Most of the subway entrances are these unassuming but well-signed stairways into the underground world. The green and white ball on the pole is the visual marker from a distance.

I noticed more folks riding on a weekend day compared to the weekdays. Of course, this was a summer-like day and everyone was out and about enjoying the post-pandemic city.

If the street surface and buildings are the body, then the subway represents the veins and arteries. Yes, it is sometimes nasty and gritty and sketchy down there but, the efficiency and speed with which one can traverse a great and large city is shocking. I guess that's true of any dense city in the world with an underground train system. After all, that's the whole point.



I am particularly captivated by the tile signage in the stations. Many of these handmade ceramic signs are more than 100 years old. (I don't know whether these specific ones are or not but, they illustrate my theme).

The curved letters and numbers especially caught my eye.



The amount of custom cutting and shaping that went into each one is remarkable.



I note the added challenge of shaping the lilting leg on the "R."



Here are some enlargements of the details.







But wait, there's more.



Instead of the basic block-style font on the preceding examples, at this station in the Financial District they used a different font with serifs.



Each of which required much more painstaking craft work. What timeless artistry! Again, most of it more than 100 years old.  (I wonder if this artisan was named "Coe"?)