Young Arun Wiita embarked upon a quixotic mission: Visit all 468 subway stations within the city limits and detail them all with photos and text.
He started the project two years ago, hit all the stations inside of two weeks, and appears to have just recently assembled all of his reportage online.
En route to completing the New York Subway Project, Wiita saw a few rats, burned through a few MetroCards, and even was cuffed and detained by the authories in the middle of Inwood, which resulted in a civil liberties suit.
The end result is an impressive array of photos and commentary about the stations and their surrounding areas, all neatly arranged on an interactive subway map. The photos are a bit dark, but it’s still a one of a kind resource.
Gothamist stops Wiita for a chat. Wiita says he’s off to San Fran in a few weeks to start his residency training. He may take on a similar project in the Bay Area:
I am actually considering doing the same thing for the MUNI tram system in San Francisco; this would be a lot easier as the system is smaller, but I still think it would be cool to document what there is to see out on the left coast.