Hiroyuki Suzuki’s dramatic black-and-white view of the massive $8.2B project

See New York above and below in two unique photography installations at everyone’s favorite train station right now.

At the New York Transit Museum Annex, you can glimpse your future path to the Hamptons in The Next Level: East Side Access Photographs by Hiroyuki Suzuki through October 27. Suzuki takes you over 14 stories below Grand Central to see the tunnels, sandhogs, tunnel boring machines, and chasms of the huge construction project that will allow 160,000 daily LIRR riders to arrive on Manhattan’s East Side when it’s done in 2019.

Suzuki had never before visited New York before starting his project, but he considers it a thank-you for the relief work done by the US Armed Services following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit his home country of Japan in 2011.

Underground view of East Side Access by Hiroyuki Suzuki

Contemplating the more than 50 black-and-white images, you can feel the monumental achievement happening underground, feel the damp, hear the light sloshing of men and machines moving through slightly damp tunnels, and see the miles of spaghetti-like cables illuminating the gigantic spaces where trains will soon thunder.

Suzuki made four trips down there during the project, and you may not even get to make one, so drop in and take a look at the engineering marvel happening right beneath a good patch of Midtown East. You’ll see supports labeled “48 Street” or “FDR” for orientation in the black wilderness.

Beautiful Hudson River photograph by Robert Rodriguez, Jr. from the one-day exhibition in Vanderbilt Hall

Speaking of wilderness, get over to Vanderbilt Hall sometime today to experience the opposite – gorgeous landscapes of the spectacular Hudson Valley. To celebrate the achievements of an historic environmental organization (and encourage you to buy a train ticket to see scenery that inspired generations of artists), there’s a one-day-only photo spectacular — 150 images by Annie Leibovitz and 12 other photographers whose subject is the beauty of the Hudson River.

On Time and Place: Celebrating Scenic Hudson’s 50 Years, sponsored by Metro-North and Scenic Hudson, has traveled to five cities to celebrate this historic environmental organization’s 50 years of success. The photos are in Vanderbilt Hall from 10am until 4pm.