Anyone who lived in New York during the 70s and 80s will tell you it was different. How ever much modern residents want to complain about the dirt and the crime, if they weren't there, they have no idea.
The subway of the 70s and 80s was a graffiti tagged hot melting pot of everything that makes New York City great and awful. It even needed a vigilante group called the Guardian Angels to keep travelers safe.
Here are 30 photos from the subway of the 70s and 80s that have it all.
1
Cops in New York’s subway, 1970s.
2
Inside a NYC subway car, 1981.
3
Youths in the New York subway, 1980s.
4
In 1980, these Guardian Angels meant you were going to be safe on the NYC subway.
6
Meryl Streep riding the subway in 1981.
7
High school students, late 70s.
8
Subway rider in the 1970s, Bronx.
10
New Yorkers listening to their Walkmans on the subway in the early 1980s.
11
“My stepdad opened the NYT to find a photograph of himself riding the subway in 1983. He never knew the photo existed. Taken by Brian Young.”
12
New York City's subway in the 80s.
13
The subway in NYC during the 1970s.
14
Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth on the subway, late 70s.
15
Guardian Angels on the New York Subway, 1980s.
16
Michael Jackson on the subway in the 80s.
17
My dad when he first immigrated to NYC in 1986.
18
New York City Subway station in Brooklyn, 1970.
19
Group photo of Guardian Angels.
20
The Lexington Avenue Express in the 70s, nicknamed the "Mugger's Express."
21
A man sitting in a subway car, 1970s.
22
A young couple kissing on a subway platform in New York City, 1985. Photographed by Jill Freedman.
25
New York Subway, 1982, photo by Richard Sandler.
26
A woman takes the NYC subway on her way to a wedding, July of 1984. Photo by Kees Kaldenbach.
27
An unidentified couple stand together in a graffiti covered subway door. Coney Island, July of 1977
