Jeffrey Martin

Review of Transit Gift Shop

A great museum (with very reasonably priced admiss...

A great museum (with very reasonably priced admission) if you're interested in NYC history, trains, urban planning, or the labor movement. It's tucked away in an unused subway station -- the entrance is just another painted-green staircase descending into the ground -- and uses the ample space available down there quite effectively.

The platform level has a range of old subway cars that were spared from the scrap heap by motormen who hid them in abandoned tunnels so they would be preserved for future generations. It's well worth taking the tour of this part, because there are so many little details you'd otherwise miss, like the fact that the oldest trains don't have lampshades over their lightbulbs because electricity was new (many subway passengers lived in buildings that hadn't been electrified yet) and electric lights were a status symbol.

The ticketing and transfer level has more traditional museum exhibits that you can enjoy on your own, covering topics like the (many) dangers of tunnel construction, the rise of unions, and the epic engineering feats involved in cutting, drilling and blasting holes through the earth beneath the most densely settled city on the planet.