Morning View - Christopher PATH Station

On weekend evenings, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson station on Christopher Street disgorges hundreds of mostly underage, mostly poor, black and Latino gay kids from New Jersey who are often escaping horrific home situations to experience just a few hours of exuberantly open queerness. The PATH train into the West Village serves these kids as a literal and spiritual Underground Railroad, even if it must return many of them to a less happy world at the end of the night. This year is the 100th anniversary of the PATH train and passing this entrance one can only wonder how many countless gay lives were begun only when a foot was finally placed on that top step.