I posted one of these a few years ago, but a recent post on Forgotten New York inspired me go look for some of these again. They are fire department call boxes associated with the subway, and they contain the abbreviations for the three lines - BMT, IRT and IND - that haven't officially been used since 1967. They did stay in popular use for a decade or so after, so it's possible these call boxes aren't quite as old as '67, but it's still fun to find nomenclature that is 50+ years out of date. One one block by Times Square I found two boxes that between the two of them reference all three lines.
And to think, someday things like this will be missing from city streets... makes me wonder how many people will even notice their absence?
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