The Sixth Avenue and 14th Street station opened in 1940—a busy, grimy, not particularly inspiring or attractive stop connecting the F and M to the L, 1, 2, and 3 trains.
But it does have terrific old-school mosaic signs that make you feel like you’re back in midcentury Manhattan.
Like this one, directing you toward the Independent Subway—today’s Sixth Avenue and Eighth Avenue lines.
Transferring to the BMT Lines—the initials stood for Brooklyn Manhattan Transit, the company that once oversaw the L (plus the J, M, N, Q, and R trains)—is easy with this helpful arrow.
Even better is this mosaic telling travelers how to get to the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, aka today’s PATH, which shares an entrance to the station. When was the last time you heard the PATH referred to as the H&M?
Tags: 14th Street subway, BMT subway, H&M Tunnels, Hudson Tubes, IND subway, PATH train station, Subway station signs, Vintage subway signs
Ephemeral New York 
February 16, 2012 at 5:21 am |
How lucky that they didn’t at the very least paint these over, to prevent confusion over defunct lines.
February 16, 2012 at 2:05 pm |
For years I thought the M might mean Manhattan but never knew that the H meant Hudson, a typical ex-New Yorker, doesn’t know shit 😉
February 16, 2012 at 2:18 pm |
H&M (the store) should use this as a marketing opportunity
February 16, 2012 at 3:14 pm |
I know! They should ask the MTA for permission to shoot models in front of the sign for their next ad campaign.
February 16, 2012 at 4:41 pm |
After living in New York for 32 years I still don’t know which lines are BMT and which are INT.
February 16, 2012 at 4:59 pm |
Most people in the old days just called the PATH train “the Tubes”, a term which did linger long after the name was changed (in 1962, after the Port Authority took over operations).
February 17, 2012 at 8:22 pm |
The names are defunct, not the lines. The BMT was all lines higher than letter H. The IND was an abbreviation for Independent City Owned Subway. 14th and 6th was one of the last mezzanines to receive flourescent lighting, well after 2001. The 6th Ave line was the last trunk line to open Manhattan (1940).
April 17, 2013 at 11:55 pm |
[…] quaint, but it’s easy enough to decipher. I wonder how many tourists and new New Yorkers know what BMT and H&M mean—and no, it certainly has nothing to do with the […]
April 18, 2013 at 4:45 pm |
I still think of the subway lines as BMT, IND, etc. I just assume they’ll eventually get their correct names back.
October 16, 2017 at 11:25 pm |
Interesting to learn how the “lettered” lines got to be so but remembering the “RR”, now just “R”, wonder why the second “R” back then.
January 10, 2022 at 1:54 am |
[…] R train stop telling riders where to go to get to the “Hudson Tubes.” And of course, the stop at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue is a treasure trove of forgotten subway […]