Every week Untapped Cities hosts tours and events designed to help you rediscover New York City. Here are the Untapped adventures taking place this week:
Monday, August 6th
Underground Tour of the NYC Subway
TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:
- Explore City Hall Park as the birthplace of the NYC subway system, including elements of the famed, decommissioned City Hall Station you can see right in the park
- Learn about the comically short route of the mythical “Subway before the Subway,” Alfred Ely Beach’s Pneumatic Transit System
- See the architectural ghosts of the now nearly forgotten, and partially abandoned, Chambers Street station then nicknamed the “Grand Central of Downtown”
- Use the 6 train as your own time machine as you ride through abandoned subway stations
- Discover the remnants of Union Station as you learn about a hidden art installation thousands of riders walk by everyday
Underground Tour of the NYC Subway
Wednesday, August 8th
New York City’s Secrets and Lies Presented by Caveat
Photograph by Carly Hoogendyk, Courtesy of Caveat
Can you tell the difference between a secret and a lie? Listen to five expert storytellers spin incredible tales about the secret pasts of New York City locations you walk by every day. All the stories are true except for one. If you can identify the lie, you’ll be in the running to win a pair of tickets to a secret NYC event! New York City’s Secrets and Lies a series presented by Caveat, a Lower East Side speakeasy that features an on-going line-up of “intelligent nightlife.”
If you are or become andUntapped Cities Insider, you can attend this event for free!
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Saturday, August 11th
Unframed JR Tour of the Abandoned Hospital Complex on Ellis Island
Walking the hallways of an abandoned hospital would give anyone shivers. But what if apparitions from the past unexpectedly appeared on windows, in rooms, and staircases? Scattered within the South Side hospital complex on Ellis Island, Unframed, is an installation by world-renowned Parisian street artist JR, who installed life-size historical photographs, taken on Ellis Island, on the walls of the hospital.
On this new tour that focuses on the work of this installation, guests will have the opportunity to see all 26 works that are currently installed in the hospital. This includes exclusive access to places not open on any other public tour, including numerous different locations not offered on our hard hat tour of the abandoned hospital complex on Ellis Island. Join us in tracking downing JR’s beautifully haunting images while discovering the second floor of the complex and peeking inside what’s known as the “Blue Room.” Ten locations in the abandoned hospital complex that are completely closed off to the public will be opened exclusively to attendees of this tour and guests will also receive a framable 24′ x 36′ poster of one of JR’s most notable pieces at Ellis Island.
Behind the Scenes Hard Hat Tour of the Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital
TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:
- Explore the over 100-year-old contagious disease hospital, which has been abandoned since 1954
- See an exhibition by the world-renowned artist JR, who has placed life-sized historic photographs of Ellis Island immigrants on interior walls of the hospital buildings. This tour will not stop at all JR art installations.
- Visit the Laundry Building, where 3000+ pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized daily
- Discover the kitchen, autopsy room and other usually off-limits places
- Get special access inside the original morgue and long abandoned FBI offices
Behind-the-Scenes Hard Hat Tour of the Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital
Sunday, August 12th
Tour the Remnants of Gritty OId Times Square
This tour will take you back to the Gritty Old Times Square of the 1970’s, a world featured in HBO’s new series The Deuce. Back then, Times Square was a dangerous, exciting, gritty, intense, racially and sexually diverse neighborhood frequented by both locals and tourists. Love it or hate it, you couldn’t ignore it. Most of old Times Square has been carefully obliterated by generic hotels, soulless office buildings, and Walt Disney musicals, but there are still a few vestiges of its seedy past—if you know where to look.
Let us take you back to the halcyon days when 42nd Street was the Deuce, Eighth Avenue was the Minnesota Strip, the Great White Way was a red light district, and the Crossroads of the World was XXX-rated. We will see former peepshows, grindhouses, adult book stores, dive bars, hot-sheet hotels, sex clubs, porno theaters, and massage parlors–not to mention all three locations of the New York Times. We will discover the personalities who made Times Square what it was: the King of the Peeps; the reclusive genius behind the McDonalds of Sex; the woman who built a gay and S&M porn empire; the slumlord with two suitcases filled with gold and five wives; and the Catholic priest who flew too close to the neon sun and crashed and burned.
The Secrets of The Brooklyn Bridge Walking Tour
TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:
- Discover the Brooklyn Bridge’s secrets, including its old Cold War fall out shelter, the hidden champagne vaults, the bridge jumper survivor’s support group and so many others. *NOTE we will not be going inside the shelter or vaults
- See an abandoned park hidden in plain sight as you explore the perimeter of the Manhattan anchorages of the bridge
- Uncover the hidden statue of the family of engineers who built the bridge
- Locate the site of the nation’s first White House
- Cross the bridge span, which offers one of the best vantage points in New York City
The Secrets of Brooklyn Bridge Walking Tour
Insider Happy Hour and Vodka Tasting at Our / New York Distillery
Photo courtesy Our/Vodka
Untapped Cities is excited to host our first Insiders Happy Hour at Our/New York Distillery! This distillery is the first to open in Manhattan since Prohibition and is the only one on the island today. At this happy hour, get a presentation and tour from the founders to learn about the distillation process of this micro-distillery and get a free vodka tasting. The first cocktail is on us, so join us whether you are already an Insider or just signing up for this free experience!
If you are or become an Untapped Cities Insider, you can join this event for free!
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Secrets of Central Park Walking Tour
TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:
- Hear about the massive civic project that transformed a wasteland into an urban pleasure ground
- Learn about the curious origins of the Central Park Zoo and the corruption scandal that caused a riot
- Uncover the hidden meaning in Bethesda Terrace’s sculptures and the forbidden love that inspired the park’s most famous statue
- See the secret bolt left behind from the creation of Manhattan’s street grid
- Discover the secret navigational device that keeps pedestrians from getting lost on the park’s winding paths
Secrets of Central Park Walking Tour