Port Authority Trans-Hudson - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• PATH trains and stations have occasionally been the setting for music videos, commercials, and TV programs, sometimes as a stand-in for the New York City Subway. Notable examples are the video for the White Stripes's song "The Hardest Button to Button", which was taped at the 33rd Street Station and the video for the song Rattled By The Rush by the band Pavement which was taped at Pavonia/Newport, in addition to the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Control", and the Law & Order episode "Tabula Rasa".

• On trains bound for Newark or Hoboken from World Trade Center, a short, zoetrope-like advertisement can be seen in the tunnel before entering Exchange Place. There is also one on 33rd Street trains between 14th and 23rd Streets near the abandoned 19th Street Station.

• Every year, around Thanksgiving, PATH employees light a decorated Christmas tree at a switching station in the tunnel used by trains running from 33rd Street and Hoboken into the Pavonia/Newport station. This tradition has continued since the 1950s when a signal operator, Joe Wojtowicz, started hanging a string of Christmas lights in the tunnel. While PATH officials were initially concerned about putting up decorations in the tunnel, they later acquiesced and the tradition continues to this day. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, a back-lit U.S. flag was put up beside the tree as a tribute to the victims of the attacks.