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Vintage Photos: The Transformation of the USS Vermont at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
On the Twitter account @Discovering_NYC, run by Tess Stahl, an Untapped Cities contributor, we recently came across this quirky looking ship/enormous house boat at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The USS...
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Virtual Reality Video of a Climb Up the Spire of 1 World Trade Center
In a nod to Man on Wire, the New York Times sent photographer and climber Jimmy Chinn to the top of 1 World Trade Center for the virtual reality video, Man on Spire, in the special New York Times...
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Behind the Scenes at the Construction of Empire Stores in Dumbo, Brooklyn
Whether on a ferry or walking through the Belgian block streets of Dumbo, it’s hard not to be impressed by the historic brick facade of Empire Stores on Water Street, a former storehouse for coffee....
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Tracking Down August Belmont Jr.’s Private NYC Subway Car, The Mineola
Buried in the annals of history, there is a somewhat forgotten piece of opulence related to the first subway line in New York City, the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT). We recently came across...
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There’s a Mini George Washington Bridge in NYC Playground in Washington Heights
For budding kid architects (and the kid inside all of us), there’s a miniature playground version of the George Washington Bridge at J. Hood Wright Park in Washington Heights! A long jungle gym...
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Muhammad Ali Way Street Signs Appears on West 33rd Street
Earlier this year, we shared a fun map we made of the city’s honorary street names, all 1600+ of them. Yesterday, a new one was temporarily added to the list – Muhammad Ali Way. The NYC Mayor’s Office...
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Secrets of the Gowanus Canal Walking Tour
In 1922, the New York Times announced that the Gowanus Canal was “one of the dirtiest, one of the shortest and one of the most important waterways in the world.” At the time, more than 26,000 barges...
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See the Inner Workings of Steinway & Sons Factory in Queens in a New Book...
All photographs by Christopher Payne A few years ago, we covered the photographer Christopher Payne’s incredible work inside the Steinway & Sons factory in Astoria, Queens. Payne’s background as an...
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NYC Gets Its Own Custom Fonts and Iconography
Since the mid-1970s, New York City has proactively cultivated its own brand and identity for both tourism and for the residents within. From the I ❤ NY campaign in 1977 (created by New York State...
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The Top 10 Secrets of NYC’s Ellis Island
Ellis Island. Image via Save Ellis Island. Ellis Island is one of the requisite stops for visitors and residents alike in New York City. It was the entry point for over 12 million immigrants from 1892...
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BLDZR, the Robert Moses Jane Jacobs Musical Will Show this Fall in NYC
Exciting news for urban planning nerds! BLDZR: The Gospel According to Moses, a musical about Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs will be showing six times at the Triad Theater on the Upper West Side this...
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168th Street Subway Station Renovation Reveals Historic Details
When you Google the 168th Street Station, one of the top results is “168th street station creepy” and there’s a good reason for that. The Washington Heights station, where the 1 train stops, has been...
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This NYC Horsedrawn Street Trolley is the Oldest Preserved Streetcar in the...
Earlier this month, we tracked down the incredible private subway car of August Belmont Jr., the financier for the first subway line in New York City at the Shore Line Trolley Museum in Connecticut....
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Discover the Secret History of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal This Saturday
There’s so much more to the Gowanus Canal than the dirt and sludge. Join our walking tour of its secrets this Saturday with Joseph Alexiou, author of Gowanus: Broolyn’s Curious Canal. He’s a veritable...
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At Golden Gate Fancy Fruits in Brooklyn, A Grocery from 1939 Frozen in Time
Inside Golden Gate Fancy Fruits and Vegetables “You’ve just stepped into 1939,” says John Cortese, the 92-year-old proprietor of Golden Gate Fancy Fruits and Vegetables, on Flatbush Avenue in Marine...
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10 Fun Facts about The Hills, The New Park on Governors Island Opening July 19th
Last week, Untapped Cities brought its readers into a special sneak peek visit into The Hills, the new park on Governors Island. On a tour given by the Governors Island Trust, we walked through the...
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Photos of the 2016 Coney Island Art Walls
Three-dimensional piece by John Ahearn at Coney Island Art Walls Last year was the first installation of the Coney Island Art Walls, a street art festival sponsored by Thor Equities, the major...
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MTA Will Install 12 Mosaic Portraits by Chuck Close in the Second Avenue Subway
July 5th was Chuck Close’s birthday and in celebration MTA Arts & Design tweeted an announcement: “Happy Birthday #ChuckClose! #MTAArts is preparing to install 12 large mosaic & tile portraits...
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Tour the Abandoned Ridgewood Reservoir on the border of Brooklyn & Queens
On July 31st, join Untapped Cities and the non-profit NYC H20 on a special tour of the Ridgewood Reservoir, built in 1859 to supply the once independent City of Brooklyn with high quality water. The...
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Tour the Lowline, Which Just Got NYC Approval, with a Docent on our Subway Tour
In 2012, we visited the first iteration of the Lowline – an exhibition in an Essex Street warehouse that showed the possibilities of the world’s first underground park that could be built in New York...
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