Contemplating and Commemorating Rapid Transit in New York City
Happy Birthday, NYC Subway! The subway system opened on October 27, 1904. Go back to the beginnings to learn how the underground railway came to be.
Streetscapes
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Restaurants of Yore
It’s harder and harder for an independent restaurant to survive in New York City. Here we look back at restaurants that enjoyed a successful run in our city.
![Leland Bobbé, Subway [Voice of the Ghetto], 1974. Archival pigment print. Gift of the photographer. 2016.10.7.](https://www.mcny.org/sites/default/files/styles/mcny_col_3_thumbnail/public/mn185974_0.jpg?itok=8q3-MZ35)
From the Fulton Market to the Forty-Deuce: Leland Bobbé’s New York in the 1970s
An exploration of the work of Leland Bobbé, who throughout the 1970s photographed the darker side of New York City.
A View of Melrose
On a hot August afternoon last summer, I left the office early and caught the 5 train north. My objective was to locate the site of the Ursuline Convent in what had once been the rural village of Melrose, and was now the heart of the South Bronx.
![Stanley Kubrick. Shoe Shine Boy [Mickey with pigeons.], 1947. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.4.10368.374](https://www.mcny.org/sites/default/files/styles/mcny_col_3_thumbnail/public/thumbnail_22.jpg?itok=9hPC20bI)
Up on the Roof: The Revered, Reviled City Pigeon
There are over 1 million pigeons in New York City and the tradition of urban pigeon keeping is a longstanding one. Explore this history through the Museum collections
From Expressway to Contemplative Oasis: The Elevated West Side Highway
When racing in a cab down West Street trying to make it in time for a meeting, how many people think back just a few decades when an elevated expressway ran down the western edge of the city from the Henry Hudson Expressway to Battery Park?
![Alfred Mainzer (no dates). [Times Square], ca. 1980. Museum of the City of New York. F2011.33.149](https://www.mcny.org/sites/default/files/styles/mcny_col_3_thumbnail/public/f2011-33-149_1.jpg?itok=x-75jgQe)
From Dazzling to Dirty and Back Again: A Brief History of Times Square
A history of the creative vibrancy and great depravity that has made Times Square "the crossroads of the world."
The Contentious History of Supplying Water to Manhattan
What made New York a prosperous port – its deep saltwater rivers – made its drinking water lousy. But this was also a problem of human error, dating back to when Europeans first settled in what was to become Manhattan.
Ghosts of the 6 Train
New York City’s vast transit system is in a constant state of flux, expanding to fill the needs of underserved areas and simultaneously contracting due to budget cuts or obsolescence. Abandoned subway stations across the city remind us of how transit has changed over the years.
The Broadway-Lafayette Transfer and the Evolution of the City’s Subway
In celebration of the subway transfer at Broadway-Lafayette station, we put together a collection of images that show the construction and evolution of the New York City subways.