242nd Street-Van Cortlandt Park · 238th Street · 231st Street · 225th Street · 215th Street · 207th Street · Dyckman Street · 191st Street · 181st Street · 168th Street · 157th Street · 145th Street · 137th Street-City College · 125th Street · 116th Street-Columbia University · 110th Street · 103rd Street · 96th Street · 91st Street · 86th Street · 79th Street · 72nd Street · 66th Street-Lincoln Center · 59th Street-Columbus Circle · 50th Street · Times Square-42nd Street · 34th Street-Penn Station · 28th Street · 23rd Street · 18th Street · 14th Street · Christopher Street-Sheridan Square · Houston Street · Canal Street · Franklin Street · Chambers Street · Cortlandt Street-World Trade Center · Rector Street · South Ferry

Overview

Opened: 1/14/1911

Local station with two tracks and two side platforms. This station is the deepest below the street level at 180 feet down. 191st Street Station was built a few years after this section of the line opened, so its design is a bit newer and it is smaller in scale than the other stations in the deep tunnel. There are a couple of original mosaic name tablets near the platform ends. Other mosaic name tablets and a mosaic tile border along the walls and around the column tops were added around 2003. These are similar in design to other mosaics found around the system.

On the southbound platform there is a room formed by corrugated metal labeled "trash room", but formerly was, believe it or not, an astronomical observatory of sorts. The instruments once in this shed were an experiment by New York University to capture cosmic rays from the stars. Cosmic rays are the nuclei of metal elements, the very atoms without the electrons, expelled at nearly light speed from certain kinds of star. Their mass and speed give them very high energy, enough to penetrate all the solid rock above the platform. The idea of building this special observatory here was to prevent the terrestrial radiation from interfering with the collection of the cosmic rays. The rock blocks most of the terrestrial signals which come from the street, letting the extra strong rays from the stars to pass through without contamination.

There are crossovers similar to those in the other deep-tunnel stations but here they are walled in, so you cannot see the trains. (It is unknown whether the walls are original or later addition.)

The elevators here are outside the fare control. Looking through a peephole, evidence was seen of a passageway to old style elevators similar to those at 181st Street.

Artwork

Title unknown, artist unknown

Primavera, Raul Colon

Photo Gallery

Image 144 (152k, 1044x788) Photo by: David Pirmann Location: 191st Street	Image 145 (109k, 1044x788) Photo by: David Pirmann Location: 191st Street	Image 580 (30k, 360x480) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: 191st Street	Image 581 (30k, 360x480) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: 191st Street	Image 11421 (50k, 750x562) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: 191st Street
Image 70911 (231k, 1044x791) Photo by: Aliandro Brathwaite Location: 191st Street	Image 70912 (191k, 1044x791) Photo by: Aliandro Brathwaite Location: 191st Street	Image 85213 (186k, 1044x705) Photo by: Filip Matuska Location: 191st Street	Image 85214 (172k, 1044x705) Photo by: Filip Matuska Location: 191st Street	Image 85215 (204k, 705x1044) Photo by: Filip Matuska Location: 191st Street
Image 85216 (237k, 705x1044) Photo by: Filip Matuska Location: 191st Street	Image 86138 (188k, 1044x791) Photo by: Roberto C. Tobar Location: 191st Street	Image 86139 (262k, 1044x791) Photo by: Roberto C. Tobar Location: 191st Street	Image 90534 (169k, 1024x768) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: 191st Street	Image 90535 (74k, 1024x768) Photo by: Robbie Rosenfeld Location: 191st Street

More Images: 1-19