Discover the history of Williamsburg, nosh on bites at the historic Essex Street Market and explore the New York City subway like never before on our tours, coming up this week. See what’s in store:

Food Tour of the Historic Essex Street Market: Thursday, June 14th at 11am

On this new Untapped Cities tour, explore the historic Essex Street Market before it is demolished this year, while meeting the local vendors and sampling their gourmet fare.

On the tour, you’ll learn about the Lower East Side’s once-bustling pushcart market, the immigrants and their foods, which have become staples of New York’s culinary culture, and about the new developments that are transforming the Lower East Side.This tour was developed in partnership with the Lower East Side Partnership, a community-based organization that supports market events.

Essex Street Market Food & History Tour

Underground Tour of the NYC Subway: Thursday, June 14th at 2pm + June 16th at 2pm + June 17th at 2pm

Take a ride through the living history of the world’s largest rapid transit system (in area) by weaving in and out of the past and present transit hubs of lower Manhattan. This unique tour is designed to give a comprehensive history of the NYC Subway system, from its groundbreaking in 1901 up through the creation of the three different proprietary lines which were unified into the system we know today. We’ll uncover information and learn about spaces even the most seasoned commuter might not know about.

This tour will stop in stations that are all open to the public. Using the 6 train as our own ten-car time machine, we will ride through and see three abandoned ghost stations that 4, 5, and 6 riders unknowingly pass through everyday. We will not stop inside these stations.

Underground Tour of the NYC Subway

From Grit to Hip, a Williamsburg Walking Tour: Thursday, June 14th at 5pm

Williamsburg more than any other neighborhood in the world is unique because it took the three things most unlike each other, industry, art, and unabashed commercialism and made them live together under one big bridge. This tour will examine the layers of Williamsburg, some noticed, some unnoticed, that come together to form an unlikely synthesis of industry, art, grit, and hip.

This tour was developed in partnership with the Wythe Hotel which is located in a 1901 factory building on the Williamsburg waterfront.

From Grit to Hip, a Williamsburg Walking Tour

Behind-the-Scenes Hard Hat Tour of Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital Complex: Saturday, June 16th at 2pm + June 17th at 2pm

The abandoned Ellis Island Hospital—once the standard for United States medical care—has been left to decay for nearly 60 years. Now, we’re taking you back inside to visit select parts of the facilities, from its infectious and contagious disease wards to its autopsy room. On our newest tour, kicking off on April 22nd (and taking place through to the fall), we’ll visit locations exclusively accessible to Untapped Cities and not available on any other public tour of the site.

While Ellis Island has become one of New York City’s top tourist attractions, drawing over two million visitors per year, the 22-building South Side hospital complex is hidden in plain sight, just to the left of disembarking passengers headed towards the Great Hall. Looking at its desolate, skeletal frame now, it’s difficult to imagine its backstory as one of the largest public health undertakings in American history. Join us for our upcoming hard hat tour, guided by a Save Ellis Island docent, where we’ll uncover its many, buried secrets.

Behind-the-Scenes Hard Hat Tour of the Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital

Tour of the Secrets of Grand Central Terminal: June 16 at 2pm

The story of Grand Central Terminal is that of New York City itself: the structure embodies the social, cultural, economic and technological evolution around it. It is one of great men, feuding architects, ingenuity, rejuvenation, secrets and surprises. On this tour, we will tell you these stories – about what once was, what could have been, and what can be; about the struggle to save and restore Grand Central as a preserved icon of the past, and of challenge to ensure that it serves New York’s future. We will show you what it was like in the booming age of the railroad, as a rundown embarrassment, and as a renovated jewel at the center of the city. Peek into the entrance of its glass walkways, locate lost armchairs, see its hidden tennis courts and learn about its backwards ceiling. Whether you pass through it every day on your morning commute or stroll through the Beaux Arts beauty for the first time, you are sure to leave having learned, seen, or experienced something new and extraordinary.

Tour of the Secrets of Grand Central Terminal

See all upcoming Untapped Cities Behind the Scenes Tours.