The name given to this long forgotten part of the subway is quite fitting. Located somewhere in lower Manhattan, the Dust Tunnels are a relic of a former time. I can't say how we got there but I will say its one of the more popular spots for graffiti artist, urbexers, and rats alike. I ran into a couple of people the few times I've been down there. Thankfully none with ill intent, they were pretty chill people. The easy part is reaching the buffer, afterwards to get deeper into the Dust Tunnels requires crossing the Broadway line and its nonstop parade of N/Q/W trains. After making it past the tracks you squeeze by a storage shed to reach the next room of the tunnels, where a massive pile of dust greets you on the leftside wall. This huge pile of dust is the result of the accumulation of iron filings from the train wheels as they scrape against the rails over and over and over. That, and with the portal to the bridge acting as a funnel for wind, causes massive amounts of dust to fill the cavern. Every step you take coughs up dust into the air and in your lungs as there is about an inch deep layer covering every surface. I haven't left that place clean ONCE. But in this area you can find a couple of notable art pieces such as the three Campbell soup can's and a page of REVS diary. It is a bit more risky here though as train drivers coming off the bridge have a direct line of sight at you before they curve into Grand street. Before these tunnels were abandoned, they connected to the southern tracks of the Manhattan bridge and ran towards Chambers St, allowing trains from Brooklyn to go south into the financial district, right under the stock exchange, and use a tunnel that connects to the Montague street tunnel to run straight back to Brooklyn. This was meant to shuttle large amounts of workers from the financial district continuously to and from their homes but as the economic center of Manhattan shifted, less and less people used this service until it was ultimately scrapped as well as the tracks that made it possible as the Manhattan bridge's tracks were realligned to allow Broadway line trains to run on the south tracks and 6th avenue line trains to run on the north tracks. Heading back away from the portal, staying to the right will lead you to the N/Q canal street platforms, but staying to the left along the layup track leads you to the abandoned J/Z canal street platform. More on that to come later, but a fair warning, that station is used as an active worker's break room and it sits directly next to the entrance to the Dust Tunnels. This would have to be one of my favorite spots in the system, up there with some of the other famous locations just because of how large it is and how peaceful it seems when the only thing around you is history, artwork, and the ocassional train.