Found a Bunch of Dead Payphones in The Bronx (Video)

Most of these were owned by PTS, the nation’s largest payphone service provider, but a couple of other abandoned phones made things interesting. I made my way down the 4 train line from Woodlawn to Fordham Road. A subway screwup cancelled all trains and cast me out to wander The Bronx for about an hour until service was restored. On account of this I skipped some 4 train stations that might have had even more dead PTS phones. Sitting in an air-conditioned subway car felt like a much better idea than wandering The Bronx at 105°F.

Hope you enjoy this journey. It is mostly Bronx but ends at Penn Station with an action shot of someone getting angry at a working PTS phone and smacking its handset around a couple of times.

0:01 – If you are here for the PTS payphones and do not want to ride the 4 train from Burnside Avenue to Woodlawn jump ahead to 11:10.

11:10 – Dead PTS payphone/TTY at the Woodlawn 4 train stop. This one still shows Verizon branding, even though Verizon exited payphones a decade ago. The number shown, 718-652-9020, was never listed on this website.

12:32 – Faceted Glass at the Woodlawn station is “Children at Play” by Josie Gonzalez Albright.

13:07 – JACKHAMMER!

13:16 – Dead PTS payphone at the Mosholu Parkway 4 train station. The number shown, 718-655-9186, was never listed on this website.

14:53 – Nice glass at the Mosholu Parkway 4 train station. I neglected to locate the artist’s name while there but according to I Ride the Harlem Line and other sources the title of this glass is Metromorphosis/Birth of a Station, by Corinne Grondahl.

15:11 – An empty payphone pedestal and another dead PTS at Bedford Park Road. The number shown on the payphone, 718-220-7450, is actually listed on this site but at another location. Apparently this phone was relocated from Yankee Stadium.

16:10 – I got this one last time I was in The Bronx a few weeks ago but here it is again, at a bus stop outside the Bedford Park Road 4 train station. This phone was probably owned by either MetTel or NYTel, defunct PSPs that used this style of clamshell enclosure.

17:19 – Does the PHONE sign at the Bedford Café indicate the place still has a payphone, or even evidence of a past payphone? Indeed, evidence of a payphone past was found, contrary to my initial conclusion. Great diner, btw. Good food, good prices.

18:59 – Urban Motif, laminated glass by Mario M. Muller.

19:21 – Another dead PTS phone, this with a TTY, at the Kingsbridge Road 4 train station in the Bronx. The number shown, 718-264-8323, was never listed on this website. There has been no dial tone on a single one of these, of course. I expected that. These phones are dead and never coming back to life.

20:15 – I and probably 200 other people waited about 40 minutes a train at the Kingsbridge Road station before being told there were none. Nada. Go find a bus. Or an Uber, if you can afford it. I cannot.

22:23 – Wander some 105°F Bronx.

24:09 – Fordham Road’s dead PTS revisited. Gotta catch that next train… On the return trip I skipped 4 train stops that might have had more dead PTS phones. After the hour-long subway snafu the air-conditioned subway car felt a lot better than The Bronx at 105°F.

24:49 – Back at Grand Central. I had intended to go from The Bronx out to Governors Island but begged out on account of the heat. I’m no wuss about heat but sometimes I start to think it’s getting to me without me being fully aware of this fact. That is when heat exposure is most dangerous. I had not been to Governors Island in a few years but if I remembered correctly there is not a lot of indoor space with a/c on the island. Best to save that journey for a cooler day.

25:56 – Someone left a little pool of pennies on Madison Avenue.

26:05 – One second you are crossing the street, the next second you are a part of it. I don’t know what happened here but it looks like it sucks ass. Hate to see stuff like this.

26:20 – I found a combat sequence in progress between an individual and a working PTS payphone at Penn Station. Dude was smacking the PTS handset. I don’t know what was going on here betwixt and between this individual and the physical device. The phone worked fine just a couple of days ago. Whatever the case this sighting proves, once again ad nauseum, that people will still use payphones, if they can. Sure wish my POS camera focused better in low light.

27:30 – Sleep.