video

Man proposes to girlfriend in unfinished subway tunnel

1 of 10
Subway proposal
Adam Meagher proposed to his girlfriend Carolyn Grossman in the Second Avenue subway.Stefan Jeremiah
Subway proposal
Stefan Jeremiah
Advertisement
Subway proposal
Stefan Jeremiah
Subway proposal
Stefan Jeremiah
Subway proposal
Stefan Jeremiah
Advertisement
Subway proposal
Stefan Jeremiah
Subway proposal
Stefan Jeremiah
Advertisement

A city planner turned the under-construction Second Avenue subway into his own tunnel of love.

Adam Meagher, 35, of Brooklyn, proposed to his girlfriend in the much-anticipated, and sometimes-maligned subway project, some 100 feet below the Upper East Side apartment building where she grew up.

Meagher and the love of his life, Carolyn Grossman, 31, are both urban planners who are as passionate about subways as they are about each other, so he reached out to the MTA, which arranged for him to join a community tour of the future 86th Street station.

“We love infrastructure and transit,” said Meagher, a vice-president at the city Economic Development Corporation. “It’s a beautiful, cathedral-like space.”

Grossman grew up in the Yorkshire Towers, and her family still lives in the same apartment.

Her parents, who were in on the surprise, also joined the Sunday tour. But Grossman, who works for the city Planning Department, had no idea what Meagher had planned.

Everyone in the party donned hard hats, boots and orange vests — and when the group reached the cavern, Meagher dropped to his knees.

“Just like the Second Avenue subway has taken a long time, I’ve also been waiting a long time,” he said. “Will you marry me?”

“Oh my God, 100 percent.” she replied, embracing him. Then he placed the vintage diamond platinum ring, circa 1920s, on her finger, as everyone cheered.

“Of all the things you could do, I did not imagine it. I love you. I can’t believe you surprised me. How did I not see this coming?”

The Q line is set to start running there in 2016.

“It is romantic because it’s being built as their lives are being built,” said Michael Horodiceanu, the president of MTA’s Capital Construction who is in charge of building the new line. “As things evolve, they will evolve. They are the first couple.”

The subway lovebirds began dating three years ago, but Meagher said he knew within the first week they were together that she was the one.

“I’ve known this moment was coming,” he said. “I love how much she cares about the city.”

Grossman also said the couple has had a lot of great memories in the transit system. “Every moment on the subway is romantic,” she said. “It’s where we have our best conversations.”

She joked there was a little bit of competition among their urban planner friends — since one couple they are close to recently got married on a water taxi.

“It’s a little bit of a one-upmanship,” she said.

The couple said they hope their grandchildren will think about them whenever they take the Second Avenue subway.

“Our grandkids will be riding it and say, this is where my grandfather proposed,” said Meagher. “How cool is that?”