I’m always nagging people to look up as they walk through New York (just look at what you can seeee), but this morning as I was shuffling towards work as the sun rose, I spied something special on the sidewalk. And it’s worth looking down for.

On the sidewalk on Greene Street in Soho (between Spring and Prince Streets) is ‘Subway Map Floating on a New York City Sidewalk’ – a series of lines by Belgian artist Francoise Schein that you might mistake for paving if you’ve got your eyes on the window displays.

The rods embedded in the pavement are dotted with LED lights, representing subway stops. You might notice that some stops are missing, but that’s because it’s showing the subway system from the 70s. It also only depicts Manhattan because of the space constraints of the sidewalk. But it does suit long and slender Manhattan very well.

The whole piece, which required the block to be dug up in 1985, is about 90 feet long and 12 feet wide. Make of it what you will, but Schein wanted to showcase a system that she thought was the ‘most democratic place into which engrave philosophical concepts to address to the people’.

It’s just another one of New York’s secret art pieces. And I’ll allow you to look down just this once.

Check out this article for more info!