Take a ride on the underground

January 23, 2014 11:31 AM

Are there public passageways in NYC that allow you to walk long distances either underground or otherwise shielded from the elements?

The recent snowstorm has gotten me thinking about underground and indoor passageways in NYC. I have known for years that you can walk from Broadway all the way to 5th avenue via the public passageways that run under 49th street as part of Rockefeller Center and the Time Life Building. Are there other instances of long distance passageways in NYC, either underground or aboveground?

Other examples might be subway stations that you can enter and walk several blocks without paying the fare, or building atriums that line up so that you could walk a few blocks mostly indoors.

posted by soy_renfield to Travel & Transportation around New York, NY (19 answers total)

Well, Sixth and a Half Avenue sort of fits that bill, but only sort of.
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:37 AM on January 23, 2014

The walk from the Port Authority to Times Square is pretty long.

Also, if you count Penn Station, you can go in the ACE side and walk to the 1/9 side, and it's far ish.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 11:37 AM on January 23, 2014

On weekdays, when the Grand Central North passageways are open, you can walk from the main Grand Central entrance on 42nd St. to 47th and Madison or 48th and Park.
posted by Awkward Philip at 11:56 AM on January 23, 2014

14th St 1/2/3 to B/D/F/M

Fulton Street (under construction)

Chambers/Park Place

Grand Central/Graybar/Metlife/Hyatt/Helmsley complex
posted by melissasaurus at 11:58 AM on January 23, 2014

Best answer: There are long exits out of Grand Central which can also be used this way, connecting, say, Madison and Lexington - and also 48th with (south side of) 42nd.

These are not well known, either (people use them as exits, but, surprisingly in a city where everyone's looking for an edge, few people go in this way, and I notice fewer still using them as indoor pedestrian alternatives - i.e. without having station business). See the "Grand Central North" section here.
posted by Quisp Lover at 11:58 AM on January 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

Looks like three of us pounced on Grand Central at the same time.

The underground passageway from port authority to times square is one of the most awful, smelly, noisy, grim walks I know of. I'd walk through a hurricane to avoid it. Also, you have to pay to get in.
posted by Quisp Lover at 12:00 PM on January 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The passageway connecting the WTC site to the World Financial Center opened a couple of months ago. When the WTC Transportation Hub (under construction) is completed, it will connect via the Dey Street Passageway (completed, but not yet open to the public) to the previously mentioned Fulton Center (under construction). This will allow you walk underground from the WFC to the 2 train Fulton Street subway stop, nearly all the way across lower Manhattan.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 12:04 PM on January 23, 2014 [4 favorites]

The Manhattan Mall is a decent and seemingly not well known indoor shortcut between the Herald Square subway station and Penn Station. I'm not sure why anyone would ever go to the Manhattan Mall otherwise.
posted by telegraph at 12:06 PM on January 23, 2014 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Your question reminded me of this article in The New Yorker. The author is revisiting a decades old article which covered the plausibility of getting from 33rd to 48th without walking on 5th or 6th Avenue. It sounds like he was actually able to make it up to 60th. I was just skimming it. I saw something about underground garages, a loading dock...

Some of it may be helpful and some of it may be something you'd only ever consider if you were trying to meet a deadline. I haven't tried any of it. Maybe, the next time I'm in New York.

Edited to add: I'm 90% sure that I was originally referred to this article from Metafilter. ?
posted by stuart_s at 12:07 PM on January 23, 2014 [6 favorites]

Probably not technically 'public,' but you can travel around the entire Columbia campus via underground tunnels that can be accessed from the basement floor of nearly every building.
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:29 PM on January 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Chelsea Market's just one block, but IIRC there were doors on 10th and 9th so you could walk through the whole block that way. It's only a block but feels like longer when the wind's coming off the river.
posted by mochapickle at 1:14 PM on January 23, 2014

This NYC Gov't webpage has links to maps and charts showing buildings with publicly accessible lobbies that you could use to cut through mid-block, north to south.
posted by hhc5 at 1:15 PM on January 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

You can walk indoors from Broadway all the way to 9th Ave (42nd street).
posted by Kruger5 at 1:25 PM on January 23, 2014

but you can travel around the entire Columbia campus via underground tunnels that can be accessed from the basement floor of nearly every building.

Not quite - the linkages are only from one building to another building or two, and aren't as comprehensive as they could be.
posted by suedehead at 3:48 PM on January 23, 2014

Tunnel St.
posted by skbw at 3:54 PM on January 23, 2014

but you can travel around the entire Columbia campus via underground tunnels that can be accessed from the basement floor of nearly every building.

Not quite - the linkages are only from one building to another building or two, and aren't as comprehensive as they could be.

Are we talking about the downtown or uptown campus? The tunnel uptown is pretty comprehensive (and frightening- great place to stash dead bodies, so many scary unattended corners, eesh).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:54 PM on January 23, 2014

The Weill Cornell/Sloan Kettering buildings on the ues are connected this way at the sub basement level but they are sometimes closed (or that was the status when I worked there a few years ago).
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:32 PM on January 23, 2014

This might be of interest: http://newyorkdailyphoto.com/nydppress/?p=1069
posted by blaneyphoto at 6:34 PM on January 23, 2014

Only at Columbia is 116th St "downtown campus." :) As of 2008, Hamilton to Havemeyer was traversable by tunnel; I did so. That's two or three blocks roughly tracing everything.

The various "Wall St" and J/Z Broad St stations are all connected but I'm not sure if it's all open to the public. 14th and 7th is connected by a tunnel to 14th and 8th but access is barred. You can see it though.

The Times Square complex actually allows passage from 8th & 45th to 40th & Broadway via platforms, which is pretty far.
posted by zvs at 8:31 PM on January 23, 2014