# Standing on History

> Short, research-backed histories of New York City subway stations, designed for everyday riders. A public-interest project funded by a Temple University CARAS student grant.

Standing on History surfaces hidden stories beneath your feet across the NYC Subway — construction battles, engineering secrets, Hollywood moments, and near-misses. Each station page presents curated facts in a Hook → Detail → Why It Matters format, with primary-source citations. Content has run on LinkNYC digital signage across Manhattan.

## Stations

- [Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall](/brooklyn-bridge-city-hall): The oldest true subway station still in use, opened 1904. Tiffany shovel groundbreaking, hidden "Bꓭ" motifs, and the first anonymous rider.
- [14th St–Union Square](/union-square): A crossroads above and below ground since 1904. Seinfeld filming location and the subway lawsuit that saved Union Square Park.
- [Times Square–42nd St](/times-square): How the crossroads of the world extends underground.
- [Grand Central–42nd St](/grand-central): A piano factory, an animated zebra, and a conveyor belt that never was.
- [Wall Street](/wall-street): Finance above, engineering below — one of the earliest IRT stations.
- [Queensboro Plaza](/queensboro-plaza): The elevated gateway that gave Queens its subway.
- [Bleecker Street](/bleecker-street): Where landmark preservation meets subway engineering — original 1904 Heins & LaFarge / Grueby faience nameplates preserved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
- [Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue](/coney-island-stillwell-avenue): Where the trains end and the ocean begins — one of the largest above-ground terminals in the world.
- [World Trade Center–Cortlandt](/world-trade-center-cortlandt): Destroyed on 9/11, rebuilt, and still running.
- [Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets](/hoyt-schermerhorn-streets): A cavernous Brooklyn junction with abandoned Hollywood-backlot platforms and traces of a lost department store.

## About the project

- [About](/about): How stations were selected and how the research was conducted.
- [LinkNYC deployment](/linknyc): The Manhattan digital-signage campaign that put subway history in front of 4,000+ impressions.
- [Bring this to your station](/bring-this): How to bring Standing on History content to an MTA station or civic partner.
- [Contact](/contact): Get in touch with the project creator.

## Optional

- [AI Bill of Materials](/ai-bill-of-materials): Full transparency on how AI tools were used to build the site — and what was original archival research.
- [Privacy Policy](/privacy-policy): No personal data collected, no third-party trackers.