The New York City subway carries many secrets, like any extensive system that was built over time. But the NYC subway also comes with it quite a bit of lore–from its urban explorers who have explored every nook of its vastness, the technological feat it was to build in some of the toughest Manhattan schist, and its evolution from high-class experiment to mass ridership.

No list of subway secrets can be complete, so we see this article as an evolving entity. We’ve started with our favorite secrets but encourage you all to comment and Tweet at us (@untappedcities) with other hidden gems. Special thanks to Matt Litwack, author of Beneath the Streets: The Hidden Relics of New York’s Subway System for contributing his finds to this piece.

1. The Many Abandoned Levels and Platforms of the NYC Subway System

Disused platform and subway entrance at Chamber Street

As the New York City subway system expanded and changed, some stations and platforms were rendered obsolete or combined into new forms. If you look closely enough, you’ll start to see the patchwork updates that close off the former structures from view. There’s the famous City Hall subway station that was decommissioned because its curved track could non longer accommodate new, longer trains. Then there’s also the abandoned platforms underneath 42nd Street A/C/E, which once accommodated the special Aqueduct Racetrack train, Nevins Street and Bergen Street in Brooklyn.

But there’s also one Chambers Street platform, deteriorating right before your eyes after its closure following the opening of the J/Z lines in 1931. Part of the station actually became the basement of the Municipal Archives. The Grand Central Terminal walkway to the shuttle has the remnants of a subway station that was never finished. Lexington Avenue-63rd Street has the remnants of a tunnel that was originally constructed for the Second Avenue Subway in the 1970s but was never completed–it’s being incorporated into the new plans. Take a look at photographs from 9 of NYC’s abandoned stations and platforms here along with 7 completely abandoned subway stations.

2. The Decommissioned City Hall Subway Station

This is the most famous of the “abandoned” subway stations, for its unique curved design and Guastavino tiling–opened as the crown jewel of the new New York City subway system in 1904.  And rightly so, as it’s the only station to have so much detail: stained glass, Roman brick, tiled vaults, arches and brass chandeliers. The curvature of City Hall station platform could not accommodate the longer trains we see today without extensive renovations, so the station was decommissioned in 1945. The station was designated an interior landmark in 1979. You can see the station by becoming a member of the MTA Transit Museum. Or you can stay on the 6 train after the last stop at Brooklyn Bridge and if the old station is lighted, you can catch a glimpse of the platform. The train will then return to Brooklyn Bridge on the uptown track. More photos here.

3. Subway Entrances in the Woolworth Building

As part of the elements included in the Woolworth Building to make it irresistible to prospective tenants (just look at the cathedral-like lobby!) was the direct access to the subway. According to Woolworth Building tour guide Jason Crowley, the above red doors once led to a “passageway under Broadway to the BMT and IRT subways. The BMT is now the City Hall R stop and the IRT is the now closed off City Hall stop [above] where the 6 turns around.That passageway was completely filled in under Broadway and no longer exists.” 

Join us on our next exclusive tour of the off-limits Woolworth Building on October 9th! More dates here.

4. The Underbelly Project

Underneath Williamsburg at South 4th Street there’s a 6-track station of the IND line that was never opened. In 2009, over the course of a year, street artists PAC and Workhorse invited 100 street artists in and out of the station to create work there overnight. dubbed The Underbelly Project. The idea was to create an underground gallery, but as PAC describes, apart from recruiting artists they could trust from pre-existing relationships, everything “happened organically along the way.” This video tells the story and shows the art well, and the project went on to be replicated in Paris.  Whether the art still exists in the NYC subway station remains a question, but most we’ve spoken to feel that the MTA sealed off the station and it has remained relatively untouched. Second Avenue Sagas has a great explanation of the unused subway station.  

5. New York Public Library at Lexington Avenue/53rd Street Subway Station

Image via Yelp

This small New York  Public Library Branch entrance is located underground in the subway station (outside the turnstile of course). It’s got everything that an aboveground NYPL has–books of course (that can be advance requested online), free Wi-Fi, outlets for your computer and helpful staff. To access, go to the 6 train downtown subway entrance on the Northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 50th Street.

6. The Abandoned Station Rave with Wanderlust Projects

Image via Gothamist

The evening we spent here with Wanderlust Projects, the same group of underground events responsible for the Night Heron Speakeasy in a watertower, goes down as one of the most incredible experiences we’ve had in the New York. With impeccable coordination, 200 of us climbed down through a hatch in the midst of a busy area of New York City and entered an unused station. Lines of what would have become tracks became places to run around and explore. Staircases led to openings that looked down on a central “Echo Vault” on which performances were shortly about to take place.

Then the Extra Action Marching Band turned the whole thing into a rocking, other worldly event, which Gothamist writer John Del Signore captured perfectly as an “exorcism disguised as a dance party.” Nobody was allowed to take photos or have their cell phones on, so the only photos from the event are here. The dispersal was just as magical (apart from a slight, hilarious delay where the staff couldn’t get the hatch lock to work). We emerged from the hatch onto the city streets and left in all different directions, calmly into the night reinserting ourselves into society. We’re keeping this location mum.

7. Mass Transitscope in the Abandoned Myrtle Ave Subway Station

A rendering of the installed art piece at the abandoned Myrtle Ave subway station. Source:MTA

This art installation by MTA Arts for Transit is one of our favorite reuses of an abandoned station. Closed in 1956, Myrtle Ave subway station used to run on the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit line between Manhattan Bridge and DeKalb Avenue. The DeKalb Ave section ran into a lot of problems as it was the chokepoint for the entire BMT Broadway subway operation, “with a lot of merges and some routings crossing others at grade in the switches on both sides of the station,” writes Joseph Brennan. The entire area was rebuilt in 1956, and this caused Myrtle Ave to lose its southbound platform. The northbound platform still exists, but has been closed ever since. An artwork called Masstransiscope by Bill Brand is located in the abandoned Myrtle Ave station. Installed in 1980, the piece works like a giant zoetrope. The piece was restored in 2008 and 2013. 

8. Knickerbocker Hotel Entrance in Times Square Subway

Resting idly beneath the noses of the 172,000 daily commuters bustling through the Times Square/42nd Street station complex, a pale white door with the word “Knickerbocker” etched on a plaque above it has more to it than meets the eye. The title refers to the famed hotel at the southeast corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, which was so popular in its heyday that it was nicknamed “The 42nd Street Club.” Such a reputation was built, literally, on an entrance that opened on the subway platform beneath the hotel that allowed patrons to frequent the lowest level of the hotel’s restaurants and bars. Long thought to be a secret, at the time it was anything but. The building has long since been the host of the Knickerbocker, but there are plans for redevelopment into a hotel. Read more about it here. 

9. Alfred Beach’s Pneumatic Subway Below Reade Street Can Still Supposedly be Accessed Through a Manhole Grating in the Street

Image via Library of Congress

With our obsession with New York City’s former pneumatic tube mail system, we would be remiss not to mention the first attempt at underground transit in the city by Alfred Beach. Bankrolled by Beach, the single track, single car line ran for only one block below Broadway from Warren Street to Murray Street from 1870 to 1873. It was a popular curiosity however, with 400,000 rides provided in the first year of operation. The station became part of the Rogers Peet Building and the entrance was sealed off. Rogers Peet Building burned down in 1898 but in 1912 while construction took place for the BMT Broadway subway line, remnants of the car and tunneling shield were found. They were given to Cornell University but the whereabouts are unknown today. According to Matt Litwack, subway street artist and author of Beneath the Streets: The Hidden Relics of New York’s Subway System, there are rumors that the tunnel can still be accessed below Reade Street through a manhole in the street. We have yet to fully confirm this however.

10. The Lower Abandoned Level of the F Train

According to Litwack,  you can walk from 7th Avenue to Church Avenue in Brooklyn on the F train without ever seeing a platform through an entire abandoned level, which is a replica of the active tracks above it.

11. There’s a Signal Leaning Center at the 14th Street Station

You’ve probably noticed the whimsical Tom Otterness Life Underground sculptures while at the 14th Street A/C/E station, but did you notice the MTA Signal Learning School? Heralded by a traffic light that actually changes colors, the official name of the school is the Charles E. Morehouse Signals Learning Center. According to a nearby plaque, Charles “exemplified the commitment to excellence that is the trademark of maintenance of way-signals” from 1953-2002.

12. Why do the conductors point up when the train is stopped?

Pulled from this AMA on Reddit (the answers have since been deleted because the subway conductor was upset that his words were being quoted out of context and incorrectly): “We’re pointing at the conductor’s indication board, which is a zebra-striped sign. If the sign is in front of my window, it means that the entire train is on the platform. They don’t trust us to just look (see that other question about zoning out), so required procedure is to point to it at every station before we open the doors. The absolute biggest violation a conductor can make is opening the doors where there isn’t a platform. If that ever happens, the first thing supervision is going to ask you is ‘did you point to the board?’.”

Bonus: The Abandoned Train Platform Beneath the Waldorf-Astoria

Not making this list technically because it’s part of Metro-North (previously New York Central Railroad), is the secret train platform underneath the Waldorf-Astoria that supposedly brought FDR directly into the hotel. And there was allegedly an Andy Warhol party held down there. Read more about it here.

We know there are tons of other secrets, so we’ll be regularly updating this page with reader suggestions as they come! Also check out our ongoing coverage inside the Second Avenue Subway construction. Get in touch with the author @untappedmich.

Image by Peter Dougherty via NYCSubway.org

We’ve mentioned the abandoned level below Times Square before in our piece about abandoned subway levels and platforms in New York City. But this is the first time we’re featuring some images of what it looked like when it was operating and after some years of abandonment.

It’s unclear why the the lower level of the A/C/E track was constructed, as it never operated as part of the IND or IRT systems but it was used between 1959 and 1981 as the origin for the special Aqueduct Racetrack train. 

Image by Peter Dougherty via NYCSubway.org

According to NYCSubway, the platform is on the southbound side, “one track, underneath the downtown local track on the upper level, and one side platform underneath the island platform.” The entrances have all been sealed, except for one under a trap door on the “south end of the southbound platform,” at the time Peter Doughtery was writing. 

Image by Peter Dougherty via NYCSubway.org

Image by Peter Dougherty via NYCSubway.org

Image by Peter Dougherty via NYCSubway.org

For more abandoned transit, check out:

7 of NYC’s Abandoned Subway Stations: City Hall, 18th St, Worth Street, Myrtle Ave, 91st St

9 of NYC’s Abandoned and Incomplete Subway Platforms and Levels

Trolley Ghosts of the Abandoned Essex/Delancey Williamsburg Bridge Rail Terminal in NYC

Mosaic of 6 entry boards for the Municipal Art Society competition. (Credits: William F Schacht & Cassandra Mcgowen, Richard Haas & Judith DiMaio, Gilbert Gorski, Frank Lupo & Daniel Rowen, Lee Dunnette, Jaime Gonzales-Goldstein & Martin Maurin, George Ranalli, Paul Bentel & Carol Rusche)

Now through January 2015, the Skyscraper Museum is presenting the exhibit Times Square 1984: The Postmodern Moment. The exhibit takes visitors back to the seedy, crime ridden, nostalgic Times Square of the late 1970s early 1980s. In 1984, the Municipal Art Society and the National Endowment for the Arts organized an alternative “ideas competition” for Times Square with a $10,000 prize, in reaction to a critically panned proposal by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. The request for proposals drew more than five hundred entrants and widespread press attention. The New York Times recently highlighted this new exhibit in a slideshow highlighting 20 of the boards museum director Carol Willis was able to track down.

Gilbert Gorsky’s Plan for Times Square

The proposals ranged from the realistic and practical to the surreal and absurd; it was doubtful Times Square was ever going to be reconstructed in order to create a gigantic bowling alley, like the plan by William Sloan. Despite the fact that none of these designs were ever realized, they offer a glimpse into the process that, for better or worse, transformed Times Square into the pedestrian mecca it is today.

William Sloan

Most of the designs focused on the building at One Times Square, which today is a billboard-centric building–the emptiest building in Midtown but the most profitable.

David Suter

Frank Lupo and Daniel Rowen with Karen Maloof

George Ranalli

Jaime Gonzales-Goldstein and Martin Maurin

Lee Dunnette

Paul Bentel and Carol Rusche

Taeg Nishimoto

William Schact and Cassandra McGowen

See more from our NYC That Never Was series, like the alternative plans for Central Park, original design for the George Washington Bridge and the many fantastical buildings never built in NYC. 

In 1973, things were pretty dicey in New York City. The economy was tanking, crime was up, and Times Square was nothing like it is today. In fact, in 1973 the Office of Midtown Planning and Development was created by Mayor John Lindsay to begin the “cleaning up” of Times Square and vicinity. First on the list of attack were massage parlors, seen as a breeding ground for the prostitution industry that was openly operating on street corners. Lindsay proclaimed that “phony massage parlors [were] nothing more than fronts for houses of prostitution.”

This map by the Office of Midtown Planning and Development locates the massage parlors, spas, “presumed prostitution hotels,” single room occupancy hotels (SRO), peep shows, live burlesque shows, and adult book and video stores in Midtown.  

According to wonderful book, Manhattan in Maps 1527-1995 the proliferation of massage parlors that started  in the late 1960s was partly due to the actions of City Council itself–who had “ended the licensing requirements that had limited massage parlors from becoming fronts for brothels” in 1967. In 1973, City Council passed a massage parlor bill requiring masseuses to be licensed, which required 800 hours of training at an accredited massage school. If not, the masseuse would need a “fifteen-dollar permit from the Department of Consumer Affairs certifying her ‘good moral character.’”

By the end of 1973, most of the unlicensed massage parlors had been closed, hundreds of arrests had been made for prostitution and selling pornographic material. And by 1984, there were conceptual competitions to re-envision Times Square. By the late 1990s, new development was radically transforming Times Square, as evidenced by the move of this 3,700 ton movie theater 168 feet to accommodate the new vision.  

Find out the top 10 secrets of Times Square and see more maps in our Fun Maps Column.

Image via Cryptome 

The Empire Theatre, now the AMC Empire 25 in Times Square has a colorful history, with an interior designed by Thomas Lamb who created many of New York’s impressive theaters like the Loews Mayfair Theater nearby, the now abandoned RKO Keith’s Theater in Flushing, and many along Broadway. Today, the theater is one of the centerpieces of the revitalized 42nd Street but it doesn’t actually sit in its original location. In fact, the whole building was lifted from its foundation and moved 168 feet westwards in 1997. The 3,700 ton structure was converted into the entrance way to a new retail complex. The original Thomas Lamb interior is now the lobby of the AMC Theater and if you keep your eyes open, there are many fun historical details that have been left. 

When you turn around while paying for your tickets, you’ll see the original balcony:

From the top of the escalator, you can get a glimpse of the old box seats:

From the center of the lobby, you’ll see the original ceiling murals and sculptural details:

But the remnants don’t stop in the lobby. At the top of the escalator, you’re essentially where the backstage lighting area would have been:

Here’s a glimpse into the shell of the theater: 

An old stage door perhaps:

More original exposed brick:

And finally when you return to the lobby, you’ll notice more of the original construction like these steps that would have led up to the balcony levels:

Decorative alcoves:

And a look down from the top of the escalator:

Read about 7 other historic buildings that have been moved from their original location. Get in touch with the author @untappedmich.

Times Square, then Long Acre Square in 1905

We’ve been doing a bit of research about Times Square these days, in a forthcoming book about the history of Broadway that we’re working on. The Library of Congress has as great repository of vintage photographs and we’d thought we’d share the striking evolution of Times Square from 1905 to today.

Times Square had its humble beginnings as Long Acre Square prior to 1904. The Astors owned much of the land around Times Square, and the commercial area was also once the site of William H. Vanderbilt’s American Horse Exchange. The top photograph from 1905 shows billboard posters already plastered over buildings that were still low-rise, stone streets traversed by streetcars, horse drawn carriages and wagons, and a sanitation worker cleaning the gutter.

c. 1903

The New York Times moved to Long Acre Square on December 31, 1903 celebrating the occasion with fireworks. The narrow building at 42nd Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue was its headquarters until 1913, when it moved into an annex for more space.

Times Building, c. 1906

Times Square, 1905

Low-rise, walk-up buildings still existed in Times Square in 1905. They housed neighborhood businesses like tailors, clothiers and a dentist, as well as services related to horses like carriages shops and stables. The New York branch of Packard Motor Cars, seen in this photograph, was open from 1904 to 1907, after which they moved to 61st Street and Broadway.

Hotel Astor c. 1915-1920

The Hotel Astor was the first of the hotels to arrive to Times Square, conceived of by William Waldorf as the next iteration of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The French-inspired building had a green copper mansard roof, a Louis XV style Rococo ballroom and a rooftop garden for entertainment, drinking and dining.

Hotel Knickerbocker in Times Square, c. 1909

John Jacob Astor IV, a longtime rival of William Waldorf, built the Knickberbocker Hotel in 1906. Known in its heyday as the “42nd Street Club,” The French chateau style hotel also had an entrance directly to the subway platform below that still exists today.

New York Theatre, 1900-1915

The New York Theatre Company building on Broadway between 44th and 45th Street was built by Oscar Hammerstein in 1894, as the Lyric Theatre. Just across from the Hotel Astor, the large building was decorated in a Louis XVI style and  included a roof garden, billiard room, concert hall, music hall and a theater. It has been known also as the Olympia and the Criterion. The site formerly housed the Seventy-first street armory that was lost to fire. It was demolished in 1935.

View looking up Broadway from 39th Street to the Times Building and the Hotel Astor, c. 1903-1910

View from the Times Building, 1911 including row of motorized taxis

Cast-iron subway entrance at the foot of the Times Building, part of the initial rollout of the IRT subway line (c. 1904-1910)

1908, crowds gather for a film screening on the Times Building

Advertising in Times Square, c. 1904-1915

In 1919, a large crowd gathered outside the Times Square to get the results of the World Series from a remote scoreboard

Times Square, c. 1919. Note above ground fare control station.

This 1933 photograph shows the former cast-iron entrance at Times Square. On the left is the Paramount Theater and Astor Hotel, on the right the New York Theatre had become the Criterion Theater and Loew’s New York Theater.

1943

The Camel Man advertisement on the Claridge Hotel is one of the most iconic in Times Square. The image would vary during World War II to show men in different branches of the armed services, but always blowing smoke rings.

A color photograph of Times Square in 1944

Crowd of people on V-J Day in 1945, after the Japanese surrender

In 1961, actresses Millette Alexander and Louise King, and nightclub entertainer Ted Lewis, stand outside a giant mailbox stamp selling booth in Times Square, New York City, while Assistant Postmaster Aquiline F. Weierich dispenses stamps from inside the booth. Camel advertisement, with a football player, is seen in the background.

Source via Flickrriver

But already by 1960, The New York Times was describing 42nd Street as “the worst block in town.” The Victory Theater was the first porn theater on 42nd Street.

Gay Liberation Front marches on Times Square in 1969 Source: Diane Davies/NYPL Manuscripts and Archives Division

Times Square Vice Map, 1973

The crime and seediness would only escalate into the 1970s and 80s. In 1973, the Office of Midtown Planning and Development was created by Mayor John Lindsay, and a map of vice was created, locating the massage parlors, spas, “presumed prostitution hotels,” single room occupancy hotels (SRO), peep shows, live burlesque shows, and adult book and video stores in Midtown.

Municipal Art Society hosts a competition to reimagine Times Square in 1984. Mosaic of 6 entry boards for the Municipal Art Society competition. (Credits: William F Schacht & Cassandra Mcgowen, Richard Haas & Judith DiMaio, Gilbert Gorski, Frank Lupo & Daniel Rowen, Lee Dunnette, Jaime Gonzales-Goldstein & Martin Maurin, George Ranalli, Paul Bentel & Carol Rusche)

1993-1998, photo by Gregoire Alessandrini 

1993-1998, photo by Gregoire Alessandrini 

 42nd Street Destruction, 1997

Empire Theater gets moved down 42nd Street as part of the revitalization plan. Image via Cryptome 

Times Square becomes pedestrianized in 2009

In 1995, Lehman Brothers bought the Times Building for $27.5 million to retrofit as billboard advertising instead of office space. The wildly profitable building was worth $495 million in 2012.

Rendering via Times Square Alliance

Times Square is undergoing another redesign, which started in 2012 and will conclude in 2016. The $40 million makeover, makes the pedestrianization piloted by Bloomberg’s administration permanent. Changes that can already be seen are the granite pavement blocks.

Read on for the Top 10 Secrets of Times Square.

All photos via Library of Congress unless otherwise noted.

William Shakespeare is not only one of the most widely read English authors, but also one of the most easily recognizable, with his beard, mustache, and oblong shaped head. As a result, he has been commemorated and memorialized throughout New York City. Below, we explore some of those many places where you can find references to the Bard of Stratford-Upon-Avon.

1. Shakespeare Garden, Central Park

Image via Wikimedia by Ingfbruno

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The post Finding Shakespeare: 10 Shakespearian Locations in NYC first appeared on Untapped Cities.

Neil Simon memorialized the cafe in his Play “45 Seconds From Broadway”

The story of the two men who first opened the Cafe’ Edison and the hotel in Times Square is the stuff Broadway plays are written about. Cafe’ Edison’s Harry Edelstein and the Edison Hotel’s original owner, Ulo Barad, met in Warsaw–both survivors of the Holocaust.  The rental agreement between the two men for the cafe consisted of a handshake between two good friends.  The cafe’ never had a real lease.  Although the cafe’ and hotel are still in the hands of the same two families, that relationship came to an end this past weekend.

Read full article.

The post Turning out the Lights at the Historic Cafe’ Edison in Times Square [Photos] first appeared on Untapped Cities.

Few conversations about New York City spark more heated debate than the redevelopment of Times Square. For some, it symbolized the end of New York City’s soul as we know it, the beginning of a corporate, stale, Disneyfied city. For others, it was a rebirth, a defiant reversal of a downward spiral that had unleashed crime and middle-class flight throughout the five boroughs. On February 11, 1981, when the 42nd Street Development Project announced its plan.

Read full article.

The post Today in NYC History: Times Square Turns the Corner in 1981 first appeared on Untapped Cities.

Birdman, the 2015 Best Picture Academy Award winner was shot in New York City, telling the story of a washed up superhero actor played by Michael Keaton, looking to make his comeback in a play he has written, directed and starred in based on Raymond Carver’s short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” Throughout the film, he is haunted by the voice of Birdman, the superhero that made him famous. Though the film appears to be one single long, tracking shot, director Alejandro González Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki cleverly and skillfully wove together long filming segments, the longest at 15 minutes, most around 10 minutes. Here are the locations used in the film, all around New York City’s Theater District and Times Square:

Read full article.

The post NYC Film Locations: Birdman by Alejandro González Iñárritu with Michael Keaton first appeared on Untapped Cities.

Image via nyclovesnyc

As we explored two weeks ago, the battle for Times Square was long and messy. On February 24, 1998, the Giuliani administration won a major legal battle when the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the City had legally re-zoned Times Square, a seeming death knell for the local adult entertainment industry.

One of the initiatives Rudy Giuliani is most known for is turning Times Square, a neighborhood that was awash in porn shops, strip clubs, and thinly disguised brothels, into a Disneyfied tourist destination. In 1995, the New York City Council amended the City’s Zoning Resolution, banning “adult” entertainment and businesses in certain commercial districts.

Read full article.

The post Today in NYC History: Rudy Guiliani Battles the Times Square Porn Shops in 1998 first appeared on Untapped Cities.

Times Square will soon be adorned by a forested landscape nestled within its brightest urban-scape. A wildly successful Kickstarter for a PopUp Forest aims to transform Times Square into an urban oasis in the summer of 2016, with towering trees, native wildflowers, and ferns installed overnight amidst the glitter and glow.

Read full article.

The post Daily What?! A (Real) Pop-Up Forest is Coming to Times Square first appeared on Untapped Cities.

On Quora, we came across a great Cities 101 question about the logic behind the selection of Manhattan’s Cross Streets (and one of our photographs of Columbus Circle in the answer). In a thorough recap, Raj Bhuptani, a ’13 Statistics graduate from Harvard and a Quantitative Research Analyst at Two Sigma Investments, provides an answer which he has allowed us to republish here (additional hyperlinks added by us).

Question: What’s the logic to the selection of Manhattan’s major cross streets (14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th, 59th, 72nd, 79th, 86th, 96th)?

Raj’s Answer:

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The post Cities 101: What’s the Logic to the Selection of Manhattan’s Major Cross Streets? first appeared on Untapped Cities.

Times Square has become so synonymous with New York City that many visitors and residents alike don’t stop to think about where the name came from. This origin story goes back 111 years, to April 8, 1904, when Mayor George McClellan renamed Longacre Square for the proud newspaper that had just relocated to the block.

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The post Today in NYC History: In 1904, Longacre Square renamed “Times Square” first appeared on Untapped Cities.

The Manhattan Bridge under construction by Eric Rosner

You might recognize Eric Rosner‘s illustrated work from his street art on the walls of New York City. Using ink marker, Rosner has a sketch style that brings a vitality to New York City’s architecture–the buildings seem to emerge and flow upwards from the activity that one imagines was in the streets during the Gilded Age. Our knowledge of that time period, of which Rosner has a penchant for, comes from the staid, black and white vintage photography so oft-circulated. While those images are beautiful, they don’t always capture the hustle and bustle that characterized this particular era–the first skyscrapers, technological advancement, and the rise and fall of great fortunes.

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The post NYC’s Gilded Age Architecture Depicted in Lively Illustrations by Eric Rosner first appeared on Untapped Cities.

“A Year on Broadway: Times Square, 45th to 46th Street, December 17, 2014″ Image via roberthenrycontemporary.com

Ever the cataloguer of the city’s facades, corners, and stories, 58-year old New York artist Elise Engler has drawn every single block of Broadway on its own sheet of paper. Each one, rounding out at around 6 by 12 inches, depicts a different intersection of the historic street, all two hundred and fifty-something blocks of it. Engler, recently featured in The New Yorker, is no stranger to such painstakingly executed detail. In the 90s, she drew an 85-square foot tableau of her worldly possessions, titled “Everything I Own.” This new project, called “A Year On Broadway,” took exactly 365 days to complete. She started on both ends, working her way down until she hit West 107th Street where her studio was located, on the very last day. Part of an astounding work of discipline and realism, each portrait (as they should really be called) needs few descriptors

Here are eleven of Engler’s most intriguing snapshots.

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The post 11 Snapshots from Elise Engler’s “A Year on Broadway,” Drawings of Every Broadway Intersection in NYC first appeared on Untapped Cities.

Image via museum.walterfilm.com

87 years ago at midnight on July 6th, audiences in New York saw a talkie for the first time in history. “Lights of New York,” which premiered nationwide a few weeks later, was screened at the Strand Theatre in Times Square and was billed as the world’s first ‘all-talking’ motion picture. The film, a pioneer of the 30s-era crime dramas that captivated audiences, nevertheless garnered a lukewarm reception from critics, especially a New York Times review that called the plot “crude in the extreme.”

But, the picture’s gross of $1,000,000, a veritable blockbuster for its time, seems to show that most audiences weren’t there to absorb the plot.

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The post Today in NYC History: ‘Lights of New York,’ the First All-Talking Motion Picture, Premiers at the Strand Theatre in 1928 first appeared on Untapped Cities.

NYC’s Flatiron Building on Île de la Cité with the Pont Neuf in Paris

You may remember one of the early Fun Maps that we made, What If Manhattan Were Like Paris? where we superimposed the Hausmannian street grid of Paris onto Manhattan (retaining Central Park for orientation). Now, in Haussmanhattan Luis Fernandes has taken the concept to cityscapes using vintage photography. We’re not surprised Fernandes is both an architect and photographer, as the ties between the two cities have endless possibilities for comparisons, whether in graphic design, illustration, video, photography or more. And we’re honored that he did a reversal of What If Manhattan Were Like Paris? too!

In this series of photos, we’ll break down exactly parts of the urban fabric he pulled from both cities and the famous buildings you’ll see:

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The post The Haussmanhattan Project: 18 Photos Blending Old Images of NYC and Paris first appeared on Untapped Cities.

Tucked into a small industrial park on the western side of the McGraw-Hill Building is a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the city, a waterfall doubling as a pathway due to the plate-glass tube running through it that allows the water to fall around passersby. It was added to the park sometime after the park was built in 1970.

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The post There’s a Glass Waterfall Tunnel at the Little-Known McGraw-Hill Park in Midtown Manhattan first appeared on Untapped Cities.

As technology has expanded to where everyone holds a small computer in their hands, so has the scope of war. War is no longer between armies carrying various weapons, war is now online. Soldiers are no longer defined by camouflage or nation’s flag, but can be anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. Hackers, for the most part, have not been shown realistically on TV. They type at speeds that would make Road Runner catch whiplash and their skills are treated more like magic, because audiences aren’t expected to understand hacker culture. Sam Esmail, creator of the new USA cyber-drama Mr. Robot set in NYC knows that, so he wanted to make something more authentic. In doing so, he has help craft of the best shows of the year. With the seasons first half past us, we present 10 locations featured in Mr. Robot.

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The post 10 NYC Film Locations for USA Network’s “Mr. Robot” first appeared on Untapped Cities.