There are many interesting museums in Brooklyn, but one of the most unique is the New York Transit Museum. Find out why you should definitely visit it at brooklyn-future.
Historical gem of the city
This is a fascinating museum where you can learn about how the subway was built, the timeline, how they recovered from tragedies such as Hurricane Sandy and 9/11 and the real cars from each generation.
The museum is an incredible demonstration of the city’s transportation history. This is real artwork that has been preserved. Old trains will take visitors back in time. It’s like time travel.
This museum is a hidden treasure of New York City that every visitor should see if they want to learn about the history of the New York City subway system and the city’s transportation system. The museum is not located in Manhattan, as most other popular museums are, instead it can be found in another fairly popular Brooklyn area with plenty of shops and restaurants. To enter the museum, you need to take the stairs as if you were going down the subway.
The museum is housed at the decommissioned Court Street subway station (which is ideal for a transit museum). The station opened in 1936 and closed ten years later in 1946 due to its proximity to other stations. You can travel back in time just by sitting in one of the museum’s cars.
In 1960, the station was utilized for filming. It became the venue for different movies. Already in 1976, the station became home to a museum, which opened its doors in the same year.
This is one of the few museums in New York with a reasonable entrance fee, where you may also learn more about the history of the city. The museum also features an exhibition of the photographs that were taken during the metro’s construction. Here, you can learn a lot of new and interesting things about the metro’s history and development.
What surprises will await visitors at the Transit Museum?
Every now and then, the old cars kept in the museum still run. The museum spans an entire block, with the lower part filled with train cars from every period of the New York City subway system.
At the former metro station, you have a chance to sit in a variety of vehicles. By the way, there are cars on display from 1905 to the present. Here you can witness metro cars from the early twentieth century with authentic advertising from that time, which is really unique. In addition, there are different kinds of public transportation where you can sit behind the wheel. The cars still have old ads and vintage furniture. The first floor displays the history of the metro, while the lower level features the old metro cars. It is a sparkling gem of the museum, full of wagons preserved from bygone centuries, the solemn Goliaths of past eras. Some are elegant and ornate, reflecting the splendor of the early metro system in the early twentieth century, while others are more practical but nonetheless sleek and stylish.
This is a museum that deserves more recognition. It illustrates the metro’s history, the challenges that had to be overcome and the city’s parallel development. It has two floors: the upper one houses some exhibitions, and the lower one houses actual historic train cars, a control station and signals.
The museum will be interesting for the entire family. Children will have fun looking at the cars and pretending to be bus drivers. You can get into these cars, sit and take photos. You are also allowed to touch everything. Additionally, it’s exciting to examine what styles, designs and colors were used in the past. It provides an excellent balance of New York City’s subway and transportation history.
It’s also worth mentioning that the museum features a gift shop.
By the way, this is one of the most inexpensive museums in New York: entrance is $10 for adults and $5 for children. Admission is free for children under the age of two.
In general, you will spend approximately one hour getting acquainted with the museum. If you wish to spend more time exploring some exhibits, it can take a little longer. It all depends on your level of interest in the history of public transit in and around New York City.
