Day 1131

Rats on the hawsers

February 3rd, 2015



If you look up above the Lexington Avenue entrance to the Graybar Passage (the pedestrian connection to Grand Central Terminal that cuts through the Graybar Building), you'll find a surprising sculptural sight on the cables supporting the canopy: rats! The unwanted little varmints are trying to sneak into the building by climbing up the cables, but they're unable to get around a set of conical baffles similar to the devices used to prevent rats from scurrying up hawsers (mooring lines) onto docked ships. But lest you think the humans have outsmarted the crafty rodents, take a closer look and you'll see many more rats already aboard the Graybar, clustered around the hawseholes where the canopy cables are attached to the building.


One Comment

  1. linda says:

    I knew those rats were somewhere. I couldn’t find them and no one knew what I was talking about. One day I asked a guard in grand central where they were and he said to just go down to any track and you’ll find them. I finally found them coming out of the chyrsler building one day.

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