Through an unmarked (and locked, sorry) door on the 102nd-floor observation deck is a narrow terrace that was once intended to be a docking station for airships moored to the mast Read more.
The giant anchorages of this suspension bridge were supposed to double as shopping arcades. The inside of each features the same Gothic design as the towers, plus 50-foot-high cathedral ceilings. Read more.
Your request for a book used to be shot throughout the building via giant brass pneumatic tubes. Now obsolete, the pipes can still be viewed at the clerk’s desk in the third-floor catalog room. Read more.
Look left when inbound or right when outbound on the upper level to see Track 61, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt old private platform. His armor-clad train car is still there. Read more.
Thank publisher Joseph Pulitzer—yes, that Pulitzer—for stimulating enough American donations to pay for Lady Liberty’s pedestal. His statue is at the walkway near the left entrance to the statue. Read more.
Ride vintage wooden escalators dating back to 1902. Look for them on the Broadway side of the shop between the eighth and ninth floors. Read more.
When the New York Times moved into offices at Broadway and 42nd Street on Dec 31, 1904, it threw a party so legendary that New Yorkers started to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square every year. Read more.
New Yorkers used to celebrate New Year’s Eve here until the New York Times threw the mother of all ragers at their new Times Square offices in 1904. We’ve been going back ever since. True story. Read more.
Take the Stage Door Tour to see the 20-foot-high domed ceilings and Art Deco flourishes of Roxy’s Suite, built for vaudeville producer Samuel Lionel “Roxy” Rothafel. Read more.
The Spears Building on West 22nd Street featured loading docks that led right onto the High Line. Those docks now help support the 22nd Street Seating Steps in the park's second section. Read more.
The main concourse boasts a hidden staircase that’s used by Grand Central employees. You can see the brass cylinder that conceals the steel steps in the center of the information booth. Read more.
The museum sponsored Robert Peary’s expedition to the North Pole, and in Greenland he discovered the largest buried meteorite in the world, Cape York. Three chunks of it are on display here. Read more.
The chandelier in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera was a gift from the Austrian government in 1966, when the building opened. Read more.
Hey, 20 to 40 year olds: Put down $20 annually for the Notables Program to score a pair of $20 tickets for every performance throughout the year. Read more.
Stop by the box office at least a half hour before it opens to snag $10 day-of discount passes. Just make sure to arrive extra early for popular or sold-out shows. Read more.
Get access to the exclusive Members Dining Room when you buy a Met Net membership ($70). Read more.
Weekday rush tickets (if you can spare four hours to wait in line) or standing-room tickets cost a mere $20. Or click through to find out how to enter the online weekend-rush lotto. Read more.
Fed up with the lines for the Holiday Train Show? Get a year’s membership ($75) to get access to special members-only days for the garden’s big exhibits. Read more.
See the old City Hall stop, one of NYC’s most majestic stations with vaulted ceilings and Art Nouveau skylights. Stay on the downtown 6 as it passes through the station on its way to the uptown track. Read more.
On the Q line, gaze up to spot David Wilson’s blue-and-red patterned Transit Skylight installed in the ceiling. Read more.
Take a ride on a Manhattan-bound B or Q train to see Bill Brand’s Masstransiscope, a zoetrope created from 228 hand-painted panels. It’s on the right between Dekalb Avenue and the Manhattan Bridge. Read more.
Stand on the platform and look up, you’ll be able to spot the underside of disused tracks, part of a planned expansion of the IND subway line that ran out of money. Read more.
A vacant storefront was transformed into a makeup shop for The Smurfs movie. It was so convincing that passersby actually tried to enter it. Read more.
