I'm Jen your local New York City guide and if you enjoyed my first video on
subway tips and tricks you're going to love uncovering these 25 subway secrets
let's go! 1. You can enjoy a drink at a bar in Brooklyn in one part of an old
railroad tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue Le Boudoir is a Marie Antoinette
inspired cocktail bar with a powder room in the tunnel's old coal room. 2. The MTA
used to run miss Subway's beauty pageants for over 30 years from 1941 to 1976. The
Miss Subway's pageants were used in advertising to draw attention to ads it
was even brought back in 2014 for the New York City subways centennial. 3. There's
a secret train platform here in Grand Central track 61 where presidents and
rich people actually were connecting to Waldorf Astoria including President
Roosevelt and in 1965 Andy Warhol had an underground party here on the platform I
even got to see it on a secret tour. 4. City Hall is the famous abandoned subway
station often included in movies for its beautiful vaulted architecture it opened
in 1904 but was decommissioned in 1945 because its curved track was not ideal
for new longer trains you can see the abandoned City Hall station on an annual
tour or you can see it by staying on the 6 train after its last stop at
Brooklyn Bridge City Hall as it turns around to go back uptown.
5. One abandoned station the old myrtle avenue subway station in Brooklyn
is now a mini art gallery that entertains riders with a masstransiscope
of 228 hand-painted images that look like an animated cartoon. 6. Before
the subway system we know today there was a prototype subway run on pneumatic
power like the kind Elon Musk is working on called the Hyperloop. In 1870 Alfred
Ely Beach launched Beach pneumatic transit the city's first underground
transportation it ran only one city block but used compressed air and water
pressure to propel a single train car forward. Beach built the track in secret
as a demonstration of how it could work though it only ran for three years this
is the system that is used to push mail through tubes today. 7. Walking on
this quaint Brooklyn Heights Street you might notice one brownstone looks a
little different the MTA owns a fake brownstone at 58th Joralemon Street
with blackened windows in Brooklyn Heights which just houses electrical
equipment and a secret entrance to a subway tunnel the Knickerbocker Hotel
has its own private entrance it's not fully secret but a lot of people walk by
here and don't even notice it. It's no longer in use but come take a look.
9. There used to be an armored Money Train which transported the subway and
bus fares six nights per week from 1951 to 2006 to a secret room at 370 J Street
in Brooklyn. 10 If you are late to work because of subway delays the MTA can
email you a late letter often same day explaining why there was a delay. I have
been late to work many times due to tray delays but I've never tried this. 11
only 60% of the subway is underground 40% is above ground often referred to as
the El for elevated. 12 There is a black and white striped board in the middle of
every subway station that the conductor needs to point at to
show it stopped in the right place on the platform. 13 New York City's Subway is
the busiest in the US with 1.7 billion riders each year but it is only the
seventh busiest in the world with Tokyo stealing first with almost double the
number of riders. 14 Times Square is the busiest subway station
in New York with 63 million riders per year. 15 Many walk right past this without
realising that it is a real Lichtenstein entitled Times Square mural take the
escalator down and walk towards the S train to see this energetic artwork. It
features a futuristic bullet train and incorporates the iconic 42 image from a
series of early architectural drawings of the subway. 16 the New York Pizza
connection is a very serious economic principle that states the average price
of a slice of pizza matches the cost of a ride on the subway
they usually increase at the same rate. 17 in 1953 the subway began to take
tokens instead of coins when the fare was raised to 15 cents since turnstiles
couldn't accept two different coins. 18 tokens were easier to steal some
criminals with jam turnstiles and then suck out the tokens with their mouths
workers would see this and then often put chili powder or mace in the slots to
combat this. 19 Tokens were officially deemed obsolete in 2003 after MetroCards
were widely in use. 20 A MetroCard swipe is tracked and was an alibi to
successfully acquit someone of a crime
21. 44 old subway cars were dumped into the ocean off the coast of Maryland to
become an artificial reef in 2008. 22. There is a New York Public Library in a subway
station find the small library branch entrance at the Lexington Avenue 53rd
Street subway station before you need to swipe your MetroCard. 23 You can ride
vintage trains for the holidays. This is less of a secret but more of a fun
surprise if you're on the platform and don't know about it. Every weekend from
Thanksgiving to Christmas the MTA runs a fleet of vintage train
cars and also vintage buses which allow people to step back in time. My biggest
advice is to look at the schedule ahead of time and to get there at least half
an hour before the train departs for photos and to mingle with the characters
dressed in era of garb. 24 The owner of the IRT company had his own private
subway car, called the Mineola, August Belmont junior rode his own private car
which included a bathroom kitchen and wooden desk. 25 Underneath South fourth
Street in Williamsburg there is a sixth track station from the old IND line that
never opened but in 2009 was transformed by 100 artists into an underground
gallery it is now sealed but likely fully untouched.
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always say yes new adventures and I'll see you next time!
Bye!