New York Transit Museum
Boerum Place & Schermerhorn Street
Downtown | Brooklyn
to Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets |
to Jay Street
to Court Street | 
to Borough Hall
General Information
Contact 718-694-1600 | NY
Transit Museum
Hours
Tuesday thru Friday 10:00A to 4:00P
Saturday & Sunday 12:00N to 5:00P
Closed major holidays
Extras
Gift Shop
Admission
Adults $5 | Seniors $3 | Children 3 thru 17 $3
Highlights
The NY Transit Museum's big draw is
the collection of more than 18 vintage subway cars, including: Money
Car G, built in 1878; Brooklyn Elevated wooden cars; South Brooklyn
Railway diesel 5; the 1939 World's Fair cars; a 1950 A train; and
many more
The Museum features several permanent
exhibits. Steel, Stone and Backbone:
Building New York's Subways, 1900-1925 focuses on the laborers and
their achievements in building the City's first subway line.
Elevated City: A History of the Els in New York takes a look at
how these first steam-powered ribbons of steel, unlike trolleys
unencumbered by street traffic, were able to speed people out of
their neighborhoods. As a result folks no longer had to live within
walking distance of work, thus creating the first suburban
commuters. The Fair Collection exhibit is pretty neat, after
all it's the one part of the system that we physically interact with
each time we enter the subway. The entire gamut of turnstiles and
entry machines are on display, more than 100 years worth. I'm not
sure if I was happy upon learning the fact that until fairly
recently electric turnstiles were powered by the same 600 volts that
moved the trains. Ouch!
As this is the Transit and not
subway museum, it's all inclusive with On the Streets: New
York's Trolleys and Buses. This exhibit tells the story of New
York City's surface transportation from the early 1800s through
today. This is a three-pronged exhibit. It includes the early
history of trolley cars and honors the people whose inventions led
to the electrification of the system, as well as its conversion to
buses; new technologies are spotlighted in ongoing efforts to help
keep the City's air clean; you can't talk about trolleys and buses
without at least some models, and the Museum presents models of
every trolley that ever ran in Brooklyn
There's a bunch of other stuff going
on all the time. When you get down to the platform level you'll find
Moving the Millions: New York City's Subways from its Origins to
the Present. As you dart in and out of the vintage subway cars
give an eye to the photos and other illustrated works that will give
you a good idea of the times when the cars were operating
The Museum presents a series of
educational and creative programs for children. On just about any
weekend kids can design a bus, create a city, write a poem and learn
how different people contributed to the building of the system
If you're a train or subway buff you
can't miss the tours and excursions offered by the Transit Museum.
Learn how to pronounce what you're eating in Brooklyn's many
neighborhoods, tour the Sunnyside yards in Queens, take an excursion
on a historic Central or Pennsy line, or just pretend you're walking
into the grand lobby of the Brighton Beach hotel
Exhibitions listed by
order of closing date
December 13 2005 thru August 27 2006
Upon Closer Inspection The Art of Laura
Cantor
This is subway art up-close and personal:
Pastels and oils by a subway car inspector with 23 years on the job
Things change quickly in NYC. Be sure to contact the museum or society for changes to schedules, admission fees, restrictions on children, strollers, backpacks, etc.
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