The platform of the Chambers Street station tells the other side of that history. The terminal that the transit company Brooklyn Rapid Transit had dreamed of as its great hub in Manhattan fell behind as the subway pushed the city northward, and much of its track fell into disuse, to the point that the station was voted, in a 2003 poll, the ugliest in the network by the "railfans", as the enthusiasts who follow trains and subways as a hobby are called, almost a railway fan club.

The grimy pillars and the underground half-light reveal how far the grandeur planned for the terminal was lost with time. It is over this disused space that Junqueira installs the carousel horse and a cluster of coloured balloons, leaving the tripod and the helium cylinder that sustain the scene in plain view. By showing the backstage of the staging, the artist makes clear that the image was constructed, and the balloons kindle, if only for an instant, a note of colour and life in a setting that time has darkened.