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| Station statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Address | West 81st Street & Central Park West New York, NY 10024 |
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| Borough | Manhattan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Locale | Upper West Side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Division | B (IND) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line | IND Eighth Avenue Line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | A (late nights) B (weekdays until 11:00 p.m.) C (all except late nights) |
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| Connection |
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| Structure | Underground | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Levels | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 2 side platforms (1 on each level) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 4 (2 on each level) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | September 10, 1932[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traffic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Passengers (2010) | 4,063,020[2] 0.7% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | 109 out of 422 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Station succession | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next north | 86th Street: A B C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next south | 72nd Street: A B C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 but late nights, by the B train on weekdays, and by the A train during late nights only.
The station has four tracks and two side platforms. 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 at this street) to accommodate the American Museum of Natural History,[3] 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 American Museum of Natural History's lowest level is at the south end of the uptown (northbound or upper) platform.[4]
When the station was renovated in the 1990s, in coordination with building the new Hayden Planetarium,[5] within the Rose Center for Earth and Space,[6] 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 indeed it is.
Under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA)[7] Arts for Transit program,[8] a mixed-media installation was created in 2000.[9] 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.[10]
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.[11]
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:81st_Street_%E2%80%93_Museum_of_Natural_History_(IND_Eighth_Avenue_Line) 81st Street – Museum of Natural History (IND Eighth Avenue Line)] at Wikimedia Commons
