Hole opens onto NYC street — giving terrifying peek into subway below

It’s a real hellhole.

A hole opened on a crumbling sidewalk near Battery Park that briefly gave passersby a peephole into the subway — and a reality check about how thin the ground actually is.

The baseball-size hole in the asphalt at Battery Place and State Street opened sometime last week, according to a hair-raising Instagram video, but it has since been covered with an orange traffic cone bolted to the ground.

The wild video shows light apparently emanating from the hole, which sits smack in the middle of a blacktop patch on the walkway.

The hole also runs deep, apparently going between a layer of concrete and the ceiling of the Bowling Green subway station, the video shows, offering sightseeing tourists a rare vantage point into the station below.

New Yorkers were quick to bash the apparent hazard, with one commenting: “At this point human hair is holding the whole city together.”

“I love this city but it’s a joke how bad the infrastructure is,” wrote another.
The video shows light coming from the hole.Instagram/@whatisnewyork
Other, desensitized New Yorkers joked about the situation, with one saying the hole was simply the “special rat express entrance.”

It’s not clear when — or how — the hole came to be, but a staffer hawking “Statue of Liberty Sight Seeing” Ferry tickets told The Post Wednesday that the cone has been serving as a placeholder since last week.

“The cone has been there for several days now,” explained the worker, who did not want to be named.
One New Yorker said the hole was a “special rat express entrance.”Instagram/@whatisnewyork
“Since it’s bolted down, it’s not like it blows away or like it can be moved so it’s not really bothering any of us.”

“I assume they will get to it eventually, but as you can see, all of this sidewalk has cracks in it. So maybe they plan on fixing it altogether,” the worker continued, pointing to the seasoned and well-trodden sidewalk.

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Responsibility for the issue falls on the Parks Department, which became aware of the hole this week.

The department is handling it as a “high priority” issue and is evaluating the best approach to repairs.