The Transit Museum is located in a decommissioned subway station in Brooklyn. If you weren't looking for it, you would probably walk right by the entrance.
For something that may not sound interesting to everyone - it was a great museum.
You start your museum tour with a history of the subway system. They have photos and tools from the early 1900's that not only show how the subway was built, but the people behind the work. You also get an idea of the politics behind the subway system. The subway allowed people to move out of lower Manhattan in to Bronx and Brooklyn, but still work in Manhattan. It completely changed how people lived in New York City.
The museum has a huge display of hands on items including working turnstiles, refurbished subway cars, and buses. On the actual subway platform they have at least 20 different refurbished subway cars. They date back to the early days of the subway and feature ads appropriate for the time period, the ads are as interesting as the actual cars (at least for me).
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A working turnstile from the early 1930's. The bars are big, heavy wooden paddles. This type of turnstile was in use at the Wall Street station until the early 1990's. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't let Michael drive the subway!------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An ad in honor of Pat Wade - 3-in-One Oil is now a WD-40 product. This ad was in a car from the 1930's.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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To encourage use of the subway system, the stations were designed to be aesthetically pleasing. Tile workers created mosaics in every station - they are as beautiful today as they were in the early 1900's. The photo shows a typical station marker.
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We ended our day in Brooklyn with a trip to Junior's, known for it's fabulous cheesecake. From the Junior's web site: Founded by Harry Rosen in 1950 Junior's landmark restaurant is known as the home of New York's best cheesecake. Well I don't know if I would call it the best in New York, but the cheesecake is pretty tasty. It has a cake layer on the bottom, instead of a hard crust. The cake just blends in with the cheesecake and makes it smooth and creamy every bite.
