{"id":189451,"date":"2026-04-08T11:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189451\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T11:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:51:11","slug":"whats-behind-the-magical-looking-doors-within-the-72nd-street-train-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189451\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Behind the Magical Looking Doors Within the 72nd Street Train Station?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A door within the 72nd Street train station. Photo by Gus Saltonstall.<\/p>\n

By Gus Saltonstall<\/p>\n

Over the years, we have received a handful of questions about the eye-catching doors on the other side of the tracks within the 1, 2, and 3 train station at West 72nd Street and Broadway.<\/p>\n

Last week, Robert Sietsema, the longtime New York City food critic, posed the question<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone notice the tiny ornate door on the other side of the tracks at the 72nd St. IRT station? A hobbit door to the Shire?\u201d<\/p>\n

While he was specifying one door, there are actually multiple of these doors on both the uptown and downtown sides of the Upper West Side station.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another one of the eye-catching doors within the UWS station. Photo by Gus Saltonstall.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpent my whole life wondering what\u2019s behind there,\u201d one person wrote in response to Sietsema\u2019s post.<\/p>\n

Another commenter responded, \u201cGotta be Robert Moses\u2019 crypt.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the doors have an undeniable fantastical element to them, the reality of what they hide is somewhat underwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doors at the 72nd St 123 station are utility closets that contain cables,\u201d a spokesperson for the MTA told West Side Rag.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A door within the 72nd Street train station. Photo by Gus Saltonstall. By Gus Saltonstall Over the years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-189451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}