Bringing Back the City Exhibit Showcases Response to NYC Disasters from 9/11 to Hurricane Sandy

With 9/11 fresh in our minds from the recent anniversary, the New York Transit Museum will present its new exhibition, Bringing Back the City: Mass Transit Responds to Crisis covering events of the last decade, including 9/11, the 2003 Blackout, Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Irene, and the Blizzard of 2010.

The New York Transit Museum has provided us a sneak preview of some of the images visitors will see in the exhibit. Bringing Back the City: Mass Transit Responds to Crisis includes photographs, artifacts, and recorded oral histories. Gabrielle Schubert, Director of the New York Transit Museum, says, “It seemed like a story that needed to be told. Most New Yorkers don’t realize that transit personnel are also on the front lines when disaster hits the city.”

Photograph from Metropolitan Transit Authority/J.P. Chan, 2014

The exhibit approaches these events from the perspective of New York City’s complex transit system, telling bold, untold stories of maintenance and restoration during both man-made and natural disasters, while highlighting the system’s vulnerabilities. From bus drivers who assisted the evacuation of Ground Zero to the workers who braved flooded subway tunnels after Sandy, the lessons and evolution of the city’s emergency response also emerge from this multi-media exhibition.

“Bringing Back the City” opens September 30.