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Gawker gets a whiff of New York subways

Caroline McCarthy Former Staff writer, CNET News
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.
Caroline McCarthy

If you're a New Yorker like me, or you plan to visit the city anytime soon, you might want to check out Gawker's new New York City Subway Smell Map, which uses a Google map of the NYC subway system to showcase site visitors' observations on exactly what each station smells like.

34th St. and 7th Avenue smells like "rotten sourdough bread and soured towels." Fulton St. and Broadway, on the other hand, is "sweat and construction." (Many smells described are much, much worse.) But a few are more pleasant: East 77th St. is accompanied by a whiff of "cinnamon, butter, other baked goods from Hot 'n Crusty." And 81st St. and Central Park West smells of "cleanliness, wealth, dash of fake fossils." (I'm assuming that the fake fossils are the ones at the adjacent American Museum of Natural History.)

There are, however, a few subway stations that lack data, one of which is the stop in closest proximity to CNET's New York office. Unfortunately, I can't help them out with identifying its scent. Considering I wake up early and commute by sneaker, I remain blissfully unaware.