The number 7 Flushing local MTA line was our reliable chariot for the time we were staying in New York City, and ferried us between Manhattan and Queens (where we stayed for most of the trip). There's a section of elevated rail that takes you around and above the gritty parts of Queens that lie near the subway. This is absolutely magnetic for taking the kind of photos I like, and I snapped like a madman once the conditions were right for taking photos from the subway car.
The interesting part of these pictures are in the detail, and I'd also highly recommend seeing them as a slideshow (link at the end).
The 7 seems to run through crisscrossing gullies and valleys between buildings and overpasses, and you get fleeting glimpses of traffic and life down below as the train rattles along.
The overland section of the 7 rockets through Queens and spends a couple of minutes passing by the graffiti covered 5 pointz building. The awesome story here is that the owner of a graffiti cleanup became conscious of the art he was painting over, and wrangled a space for artists to come and paint freely without fear that it would be painted back over.
I remember seeing this factory when I was last in New York in early 2001, and with a few pieces of graffiti here and there on the building and it struck me as one of the few places in the city that actually had graffiti. Now, it's the only place in the city where graffiti is legally allowed; the sheer amount of art on the building, especially compared to my memory of 2001, is striking.
Slideshow link for the entire subway ride is here.
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