New Yorkers love to think they know everything about their city, where to find the best street-meat cart, how to avoid paying full price at museums, and what route to take to skip traffic down Broadway. But New York City can reveal new treasures to even its most grizzled veterans. Beyond the city where everyone works, eats, plays and commute every day lies a hidden New York: mysterious, forgotten, abandoned or just overlooked. We've compiled a list of New York City's coolest secret spots, ones you're not likely to read about in any guidebooks. You'll just have to get out there and discover them for yourself.
Hidden Subway Station Beneath City Hall
The New York City subway has long been the country's most comprehensive transportation system, and now it even lets you travel back in time. The majestic subway station underneath City Hall has been inactive for nearly 65 years, closing for good on December 31, 1945. The station is an underground architectural marvel, with tall arched ceilings covered in antique tile and glass skylights that flood the space with natural light from above. It's been sealed like a time capsule since then, but you can officially see it with your own eyes (from inside a subway car). Here's how: take the 6 train to the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station (the last stop, if you're heading south), but don't get off. The train will turn around the City Hall station loop, which will give you a one-of-a-kind view of the otherwise unreachable location. Until recently, passengers were supposed to exit the train at the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station before it made the turnaround and only attendees of special events or tours sponsored by the MTA and New York City Transit Museum (or anyone who managed to linger on the train) could see this gem.
Whispering Gallery in Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal has many secrets (just for starters: Franklin Delano Roosevelt had his own underground passageway that led to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel), but the Whispering Gallery is its most romantic. This unmarked archway, located in front of the Oyster Bar & Restaurant, possesses a mystifying acoustic property. When two people stand at diagonal arches and whisper, they can hear each other's voices "telegraphed" from across the way. According to rumour, jazz legend Charles Mingus liked to play under the arches. Today, though, the Whispering Gallery is more popular for murmured marriage proposals. Just don't confess anything that you don't want strangers to overhear!
Rooftop Gardens at Rockefeller Centre
Some of the most beautiful gardens in New York are hidden hundreds of feet above the ground. Rockefeller Centre maintains five spectacular roof gardens originally designed by English landscaper Ralph Hancock between 1933 and 1936. The gardens have been closed since 1938, but three can be spied from the Top of the Rock observation deck. And there's a chance you've seen at least one close up, the garden atop the British Empire Building appears in a scene from the 2002 film Spider-Man.
Berlin Wall Remnants in Paley Park
Nestled in a small Midtown plaza at 520 Madison Avenue is an unexpected piece of history. Five sections of the Berlin Wall, in total measuring 12 feet high and 20 feet long, have been on display here since 1990. The wall's western-facing side is covered with dazzling work by German artists Thierry Noir and Kiddy Citny. The eastern side, meanwhile, remains a blank slab of concrete, a reminder of the oppressive political regime in the former East Germany. At first glance, this artefact appears to be just another public mural; it goes largely unnoticed by the office workers who sit in the park on their lunch break.
Cemetery Behind the Bowery Hotel
Bowery Hotel guests who gaze through the lobby's back window often admire the tranquil green lawn located behind the building. But few realize that they're actually glimpsing a hidden cemetery. (Part of the confusion: the deceased are interred in underground marble vaults marked by plaques, not tombstones.) Founded in 1830, the New York Marble Cemetery, located in what is now the East Village, is the City's oldest nondenominational public burial ground and also one of the hardest to find. The cemetery gate is located at the end of a narrow alley leading from Second Avenue; it's unlocked to visitors only for a few hours on the fourth Sunday of each month from April to October.
Old Atlantic Avenue Subway Tunnel
For more than a century, the lost Atlantic Avenue subway tunnel in Brooklyn was a thing of legend, The New York Times printed a story about tunnel-dwelling pirates in 1893, and sci-fi author H.P. Lovecraft portrayed it as a vampire den in a 1927 short story. The tunnel's actual history is not so fanciful but still interesting: Cornelius Vanderbilt built it in 1844 to reroute Long Island Rail Road trains that were accidentally mowing down pedestrians. The tunnel was abandoned in 1861 and only rediscovered in 1980. (A steam engine is reputedly still buried somewhere inside.) Tours of the tunnel are available through the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association. The entrance is located at the intersection of Court Street and Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, near the Trader Joe's.
Saint Augustine's Episcopal Church Slave Galleries
Within the simple walls of Saint Augustine's Episcopal Church on the Lower East Side lies an unlikely reminder of racial segregation in New York. Cramped staircases lead to two concealed rooms, located behind the balcony, where African-American worshippers could hear church services without being seen. The rooms were informally known as the "slave gallery," even though slavery was outlawed in New York by the time they were built in 1828. Fugitive 19th-century politician Boss Tweed reportedly hid in the gallery to attend his mother's funeral. Ignored and branded for decades as a shameful part of Saint Augustine's past, the space was recently restored and opened to the public in 2009.
Pomander Walk
Twenty-seven buildings resembling Tudor homes with colourful doors, shutters and timber frames grace this gated street that's tucked away on the Upper West Side, nearly completely out of view to passersby. Originally conceived as a temporary property that was to be knocked down and replaced with a hotel, Pomander Walk, which is modelled after an old London street and the set of a stage play, both of the same name, earned landmark status in 1982. Surrounded by buildings that tower hundreds of feet above its rooftops, this pedestrian-only lane of residences is a peaceful respite from the people and cars that hustle and bustle past its wrought-iron gates every day, unaware of the sanctuary within. You can't access the hidden haven unless you have a key or know someone who does, but the picturesque spot is still worth a peek through the gate.
Pneumatic Tubes
Pneumatic tubes are a lingering ghost of New York's past. Once upon a time, they were used to shuttle mail (and, on one occasion in the late 19th century, a cat-don't worry, it survived) around the City and often across the Brooklyn Bridge. Nowadays they're scarce, but you can still see them in action if you know where to look. At the New York Public Library, slips of paper bearing book requests are still shot via tube seven floors down to the stacks, where the desired book is found and sent up on a Ferris wheel-type apparatus. Meanwhile, Roosevelt Island, a small residential isle between Manhattan and Queens in the East River, uses extra-large pneumatic tubes to transport all of its garbage directly from buildings to the transfer facility, where it's automatically separated and compacted for pickup. Chatter about town and a recent exhibition have led to rumours of extending this waste solution to other parts of the City, so this one may not be a secret for long.
Subway Car in Golden's Deli
Originally purchased as a backyard playground for his children (and subsequently vetoed by his wife), Ray Pannone's 1936 subway car was instead placed inside his Staten Island diner giving new meaning to the term "dining car." Golden's Deli is the only restaurant with a real New York subway car as part of its decor. The car has been slightly refurbished with more-comfortable cushions on the original seats and new tables, but everything else remains, including the antique grab holds. On the side of the dining car, Golden's also features a huge mural of 1940s-era Grand Central Terminal and a replica of Grand Central's iconic ceiling above the diners' heads.
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