The New York City Transit Museum ? An Experience Like No Other

By Author: Bonny Kominek
Total Articles: 96
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Though New York''s reputation often centers more on the city''s role as a center of business, a center of fashion, and a center of sports, the metropolis is also a center of culture. Specifically, New York is home to a number of museums offering a diverse array of exhibits, from antique French art to contemporary American history. And while some of these areas can be explored elsewhere, there is one museum that is uniquely New York.

This most quintessential New York City museum is the New York Transit Museum. Located in (of course) a former train station at the corner of Boerum Place and Schermenhorn Street, the New York Transit Museum provides visitors with incredible insight into the machinery that makes the city run smoothly. Of course, what is probably the most amazing part of the museum are the exhibits that showcase how New York''s amazing subway system came into being. The subway forms the lifeblood of the city, and is taken for granted today, but it took the relentless efforts of fearless workers to become what it is today. The "Steel, Stone and Backbone" exhibit provides pictures, equipment and narration ...
... that come together to tell the story of this amazing engineering marvel. Visitors can watch authentic video footage and learn about the various tunneling methods that turned this pipe dream into a reality.

But that''s just the beginning. The New York Transit Museum also features "On The Streets," an exhibit that explores the city''s trolleys and buses. The exhibit takes visitors through the entire history of surface mass transportation, beginning in the early 1800s and continuing to the present day. While this may seem like it involves a lot of gazing at pictures on the wall, "On The Streets," like the rest of the museum, is very interactive and original. The exhibit is centered around a simulated traffic intersection as well as several vehicles to explore: a child-sized trolley, an authentic 1960s bus cab, and a new 12-seat bus. Visitors can also learn from the people involved in making the city move, with audio interviews with New York Transit Department Personnel available. "On The Streets" even moves beyond just transportation history with an homage to early civil rights pioneers. The exhibit features information about Elizabeth Jennings Graham, who won a court decision allowing black access to public transit a full century before Rosa Parks improved conditions further. Finally, the interactive "Clearing the Air" portion of this exhibit offers a look at the evolution of fuel used in city transit, with an emphasis on environmental improvement.

One other unforgettable exhibit at the New York Transit Museum is the new Sanford Gaster Education Center, which if nothing else, will show children that museums are anything but boring. This interactive area offers plenty of hands-on activities and interactive workshops. Perhaps most impressive is the computer resource center, which grants access to the museum''s data collections on transportation and other related educational resources.

In addition to all of those exhibits, there is plenty more to explore at the museum, and visitors of all ages will be engaged for hours. The New York City Transit Museum is closed Mondays and Holidays, but is open from 10am-4pm Tuesday through Friday and from 12pm-5pm on Saturday and Sunday. Bonny Kominek wrote this article while on a holiday booked with Dialaflight who provide great deals on flights to America including cheap flights to New York.