OldNYC App Lets User Take Self-Guided Historic Tours Through New York City. It’s one thing to look up an old photo of New York City on your computer. It’s another to stand at a corner, tap your phone, and learn that you’re standing just a few feet from where horse-drawn carriages once shuttled New Yorkers past a demolition site in 1900, or where the old Waldorf Astoria Hotel was knocked down to make way for the Empire State Building. This is now possible through a new app called OldNYC, which will pull up historic photos taken near the user’s current location.
The app’s creators described it as akin to taking a self-guided historical tour. The photos are from New York Public Library’s repertoire of 40,000 images spanning the last 150 years. And the app itself builds on an older project of the same name, in which software engineer Dan Vanderkam geotagged the photos and placed them onto an interactive map.
Beyond making information accessible and searchable, I think the next problem is discovery. App, free on iTunes. Browse All of New York City's Landmarks In One Interactive Map. Mystery donor breathes new life into city’s oldest bookstore. The Big Apple’s oldest independent bookstore may live to turn another page thanks to a mystery mogul who has offered the $68,000 they need for back rent. St. Mark’s Bookshop — opened on the Lower East Side in 1977 — has struggled to stay afloat over the past seven years as sales plummeted amid a new location, a poor economy and digital competition. When co-owners Bob Contant, 72, and Terry McCoy, 71, fell 10 months behind on rent for the East 3rd Street and First Avenue location in the First Houses, the city took the beloved book palace to court.
That’s when the publicity-shy magnate, described by Contant as “a serious book person and buyer,” stepped in. “It’s our last hope,” said Contant as he sipped coffee from a mug with the motto, “Never, Never, Never, Give up.” Modal Trigger “If this doesn’t work, we’ll have to go out of business,” he said. The top-secret benefactor helped once before, in 2014, when he gave the struggling 1,300-square-foot shop $50,000 to replenish its shelves. Secrets of New York City's Grand Central Terminal | Travel + Leisure. Not only is Grand Central Terminal one of the world's most beautiful train stations, it's also one of New York's most fascinating landmarks. Host to more than 750,000 people who pass through it daily, the station is a crossroads for locals, commuters, and tourists from all over the world.
Built in 1913 by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, it was meant to symbolize wealth and power at a time when railroads were making travel easier and more comfortable than ever before. After making a fortune on steamships, Vanderbilt turned his sights to the railroad and had the beautiful, Beaux-Arts station built using sumptuous materials like Tennessee and Botticino marble, brass, opal, and Guastavino tile. Though the famous landmark may seem well-trod by now, these eleven secrets might surprise you. 1. Everyone knows about the Oyster Bar, but did you know there's also a sumptuous lounge inside? 2. 3. The Vanderbilt family motto was "Great oaks from little acorns grow. " 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. New York City's Mail Chutes are Lovely, Ingenious and Almost Entirely Ignored. Glorious example at the exquisite Fred French building. (Photo: Luke Spencer) If you have ever worked in an old building, the chances are you will have at some point walked past a small mysterious brass box .
Located about halfway up the wall, it is notable for a flat length of glass leading both into and out it, disappearing into the ceiling and the floor below. Often painted over, ignored and unused, they are a relic of the golden age of early skyscrapers called the Cutler mail chute. The Cutler mail chutes flourished during the advent of the first multi-story buildings in the turn of the 20th century. Most Cutler mail chutes were installed along side elevator cars. Remarkably today, the Cutler mail chute is still in use.
The mail chute was invented by James Goold Cutler in Rochester, NY, in 1883 and was first installed at the Elwood building in the center of the city. Sketch of a mail chute in 1910. Cutler held the patent for the mail chute giving him a virtual monopoly for decades. What Penn Station used to look like will make you weep with longing. In 1910, when New York City transportation terminal Pennsylvania Station opened, it was widely praised for its majestic architecture. Designed in the Beaux-Arts style, it featured pink granite construction and a stately colonnade on the exterior. The main waiting room, inspired by the Roman Baths of Caracalla, was the largest indoor space in the city — a block and a half long with vaulted glass windows soaring 150 feet over a sun-drenched chamber.
Beyond that, trains emerged from bedrock to deposit passengers on a concourse lit by an arching glass and steel greenhouse roof. This may sound unfamiliar for present-day residents of New York City, who know Penn Station as a miserable subterranean labyrinth. Though the original Penn Station served 100 million passengers a year at its peak in 1945, by the late 1950s the advent of affordable air travel and the Interstate Highway System had cut into train use. The 20 rules of living in New York. A Beautiful, Handy Guide to New York's Most Iconic Buidings - That's Rather Artistic. Tuesday, April 14, 2015, by Jessica Dailey Drawing/painting/photographing the buildings of New York City is a popular (and pretty) hobby, and the latest architectural artistry from Pop Chart Lab distills the streetscape down to 54 significant structures, from local monuments like the Washington Square Arch to the world-famous One World Trade Center to the historic Plaza Hotel.
Called "Splendid Structures of New York City," the poster orders the buildings by height and includes each building's address, year of construction, and architectural style. A few things to note: Pop Chart Lab used each building's full height, including spires, so One World Trade Center is listed at 1,792 feet, not 1,776 (same goes for the Empire State Building and other skyscrapers on the chart). Additionally, the construction date is the year construction started on the building. Click the image below for a closer look, or buy your own print for $29. Slices of History: 8 Old School Restaurants and Bars You Need to Experience Right Now in NYC | Page 2 of 2.
It’s no secret that New York City is full of hidden treasures. The secrets are the spots themselves. Many a historical establishment still exists around the city, having been preserved or continued instead of being leveled to the ground so that a luxury high rise or skyscraper could be erected in its place. If you’re ever in need of getting back to the roots of NYC, know that there are still places out there reminiscent of a city gone by out there. After all, if you’re going to be a New Yorker, you’ve got to get down to basics and experience vintage NYC, right? Here are 8 old school bars and restaurants still around in NYC that you need to visit right now. 1.
[via Viewing NYC] Fraunces Tavern is situated in a building that was built in 1719, meaning that it is nearly three hundred years old and still thriving in its FiDi location. There was even a goodbye party for George Washington thrown at the Fraunces Tavern in 1783. 2. [via Nick Solares/New York Eater] 3. [via Leonard J. 4. Here Are All Of The Manhattanhenge 2015 Dates: Gothamist. Half and Full (photos via mrgeneko's flickr and michaelnyc's flickr) Manhattanhenge is making its 2015 debut this weekend, and for those who don't know about the Event—which was first named and noticed by Neil deGrasse Tyson—here's a little primer.
In short, Manhattanhenge is when the sunset aligns perfectly with the city's grid. This happens twice a year with a full sun, and twice a year with a half sun—all four times the sun illuminates both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough's grid. It is our Stonehenge, and deGrasse Tyson has declared it to be "a unique urban phenomenon in the world, if not the universe. " What it really means though, is that there will be groups of people standing in the middle of the street this evening trying to capture the perfect shot to Instagram (#nofilter). Tips from NdT: "Position yourself as far east in Manhattan as possible. Half Sun on the Grid. Here Are 40,000 Photos Of Old New York Plotted on a City Map. New Book "To the End of the Line" Showcases 36 Adventures on NYC Subway Routes.
There are plenty of reasons to trek out to the last stop on a subway line—and not just because you dozed off and didn’t wake up until the train jerked to a halt. (For instance, you could pull a Hannah Horvath and eat some cake in the shadow of the Wonder Wheel.) In well-traversed cities, it’s hard to find anything that’s truly off the beaten path—but that doesn’t stop people from wanting to look. Sharing terrain with thousands—or millions—of other people can foster a desire for something a little unfamiliar. One way to find it: Explore the far reaches of the public transit system.
CityLab chatted with Amy Plitt, co-author of the new book Subway Adventure Guide: New York City—To the End of the Line, about why it’s worth exploring the end of the route. What’s the appeal of the idea of traveling to the end of the line? When you’re on the train, you’re constantly hearing about the last destination: “This is a World Trade Center-bound E,” or whatever. Where do you live? Welcome to Forbes. Inside look at One World Trade Center observatory, virtual tours and historic views.
Three to four million people are expected to come to One World Observatory during the first year. While the views are the stars of the show, designers have added other attractions, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason. Every trip to the top of the One World Trade Center starts with a step back in time. The ride to the 102nd floor is a visual history lesson. Visitors see New York City's transformation from wetland wilderness to modern metropolis. The man behind it all is David Checketts. "This is the fastest elevator in the world," Checketts said.
" In most skyscrapers, the view hits you immediately. On a clear day, visibility seems almost endless, thanks in part to the 30-foot windows that extend all the way around. You can see the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. "You're high enough up that you can start to see the curvature of the earth," Checketts said. "This space was to be used as a fist pump.
"What a message to the world. NJ Man Leads Fight To Feature PATH Trains Prominently On The NYC Subway Map: Gothamist. Back in 1968 Should the PATH trains be better included on our subway map? Digital media strategist Stewart Mader believes they should, and he reminds us the New Jersey trains used to be incorporated—up until the Vignelli map, the PATH was prominently featured. Subway maps in New York City have a long history of including the Hudson Waterfront and subway connections between New York and New Jersey. The 1968 map displayed the H&M tunnels (labeled “PATH Tubes”), and stations (represented with black dots) more prominently than previous maps, but did not include labels containing station names. It also included an unlabeled outline of the Hudson Waterfront.
The Hudson Waterfront and PATH were excluded from the 1972 map designed by Massimo Vignelli. A small portion of the Hudson Waterfront, labeled “New Jersey” reappeared on the 1979 map, but has been absent since about 1990. Mader has created a rendering of the new map himself, and his website Subway NY NJ holds his entire proposal. Everything You Never Knew You Wanted To Know About Grand Central Terminal: Gothamist. Grand Central Terminal, 1944. (Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York) Did you know that when you see a Grand Central train platform in a movie or television show, it is almost definitely Track 34? And were you privy to the secret spiral staircase in the main concourse's Information Booth?
Do you know what all those acorns around the Terminal mean? Below, some secrets and fun facts that the MTA's Dan Brucker has shared with us, about the world's largest train terminal, which is located right in Manhattan. (Photo by Gary Burke) Inside the Information Booth is a secret, spiral staircase that leads to the Lower Level Information Booth.The Information Booth in Grand Central receives more than 1,000 questions an hour.The Information Booth clock has an often-quoted value in the tens of millions of dollars due to its history, artistry, fame, and jeweled faces. Every day, more than 700,000 people pass through Grand Central. (Photo by icoNYCity) GCT's naked bulbs. From Revolutionary Road. Marc Yankus: The series Buildings is a timeless looks at some New York City architecture (PHOTOS). Marc Yankus In 2013, while walking around Manhattan, Marc Yankus took a photograph of the Goldman Sachs building that stands along the Hudson River in Jersey City.
When he got home to look at the image, he was struck by its sharpness and the detail of the building he could see. “It was fascinating because I felt I could feel the image,” he said. Over the next couple of years, Yankus decided to bring what he saw and felt into a series called “Buildings” that, although distinctly different than his previous work, maintains his sense of timelessness and what he calls his “nontraditional” photography. “My work is a fine line between fiction and documentation,” he said. As he walks around New York looking for inspiration, Yankus said he often sees things with a type of synesthetic experience, not with color, but with shapes. “I have an experience when I look at a building,” he said. “I started to notice all of these buildings that people pass by for some reason or another,” he said. That time NYC built a battleship in the heart of Union Square.
Historic Photos From the NYC Municipal Archives — In Focus — The Atlantic. The New York City Municipal Archives just released a database of over 870,000 photos from its collection of more than 2.2 million images of New York throughout the 20th century. Their subjects include daily life, construction, crime, city business, aerial photographs, and more. I spent hours lost in these amazing photos, and gathered this group together to give you just a glimpse of what's been made available from this remarkable collection. [Update - 50 additional photos added: More from NYC.] [Update II - Image sizes reduced by request of the NYC Archive.] [53 photos] Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: Sunlight floods in through windows in the vaulted main room of New York City's Grand Central Terminal, illuminating the main concourse, ticket windows and information kiosk.
Aerial view of New York City, looking north, on December 16, 1951. 28th Street Looking east from Second Avenue, on April 4, 1931. A worker on the Brooklyn Bridge, on November 19, 1928. The S.S. The-rat-paths-of-new-york.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT. The Future Of Museums Is Reaching Way Beyond Their Walls. The American Museum of Natural History has always been one of the most popular destinations in New York City. With about 5 million visitors a year, an increase from 3 million in the 1990s, it—along with the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art—is among the top 10 most-visited museums in the world. According to its president, Ellen Futter, the museum (AMNH) is only behind Disney World and Disneyland as the top destination for families in the country.
Even with this influx of people coming to its doorstep, however, the museum is now equally focused on drawing a crowd beyond its campus. "In the old days, a visit to a museum like ours would be a one-off. You come, you visit you go home," says Futter. "Now people have a relationships with us very often before they get here. They come, and [their visit] is like a giant exclamation point—and then they return home and continue to engage with us wherever they are. " AMNH is definitely not the only museum evolving in this way. Joe Junior Serves New York City's Best Hamburger. NYC Rapid Transit in Maps, 1845-1921: The Street Railroads of New York and Vicinity. Mapping the Age of Every Building in Manhattan. Exploring the Creepiest, Craziest Abandoned Spaces of NYC.
The Story Behind Hess Triangle, Once The Littlest Piece Of Land In NYC: Gothamist.