From hidden remnants of old Penn Station to our favorite NYC book recs, discover which stories you read most last year!
Discover all the ways you can rediscover NYC!
Untapped New York witnessed the spectacular test of the 2025 Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop.
From hidden remnants of old Penn Station to our favorite NYC book recs, discover which stories you read most last year!
As we set resolutions and look forward to the year ahead, we also like to take a look back at the year that has come to a close. In 2024, Untapped New York redesigned our website with new features for Untapped New York Members, launched new tours (including Washington Square and the Birth of Fifth Ave, Underground Art Deco, and NYC's Irish History), and posted new episodes of the Untapped New York Podcast. We also covered tons of New York stories, from the solar eclipse to the death of Flaco the Owl. In the past year, you loved reading about New York City transit, obscure history, new art, iconic film locations, and more. Check out our top 10 articles from 2024, with #1 being the most viewed story!
New York City’s lost opera houses are having their fifteen minutes of fame, thanks to the HBO show, The Gilded Age, which brought their dramatic histories to life in the most recent season. We dug into these former opera houses in a new extended episode of the Untapped New York podcast which weaves in clips from The Gilded Age, which were kindly provided to us by HBO. You’ll hear a conversation between Untapped New York founder Michelle Young and Justin Rivers, who recently gave a talk on this subject for our Untapped New York members, along with excerpts from his talk. It’s kind of like The Ted Radio Hour, but for obscure New York City history.
On November 4th, the New York City subway welcomed its billionth rider of the year—10 days before the same milestone was hit in 2023. The honor went to Sir Michael Carrasquillo of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. If we followed Carrasquillo's route, we'd likely learn a lot about his life, from where he works and lives, to where he likes to shop and eat. What could we learn about life in New York City from looking at all one billion subway rides?
You’d need a lot of mustard to cover this record-breaking hot dog! At 65 feet long, Times Square’s latest major public art installation, Hot Dog in the City, tops the record for the World’s Largest Hot Dog Sculpture. Artist duo Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw created the playful sculpture which now stands at Broadway and 46th Street. Though this giant piece of street food might seem gimmicky, there is more than meets the eye—it’s equipped with hydraulics, a confetti canon, and a deeper message.
Inspired by the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century from the New York Times, we decided to survey the Untapped New York staff, our tour guides, contributors, and a few Untapped New York Insiders to find out their favorite books about and set in New York City. The list includes fiction and non-fiction works and some poetry and plays published between the 1800s and the present day. You’ll find among our selections micro-histories on topics like Manhattan’s original street food (oysters), cemeteries, the indie rock scene of the Lower East Side, baseball players, bridges, and more. There are also children’s books, coming-of-age tales, and classic works of literature. Check out our picks and look for the titles at your local bookstore (New York is full of hidden and niche bookshops). Tag us on social media, @untappedny, to share your favorite New York City books!
Every few decades, New Yorkers bid farewell to old subway cars as a new fleet is released onto the city’s 665 miles of track. Although most New Yorkers concur that the city’s transit system needs updating, change can be bittersweet for riders, leaving behind stings of nostalgia as the new rids the old. On February 1, 2024, a new era of subway cars dawned as the first new open gangway car, the R211T, rolled out on the C-line. These new cars are part of a pilot program and will be evaluated based on how they run and customer response. Standard R211s, without open gangways, will eventually replace the infamous orange and brown-clad subway car models of the 1970s, the R46. We gathered reactions to the loss of these iconic seats!
Nestled amongst the hustle and bustle of Wall Street’s financial towers and office buildings there is a rather unassuming bank with a spectacular secret inside. Through the gold revolving doors at the 6 Hanover Street entrance, guests are instantly transported to the glamour of 1920s and 30s New York. A massive mural full of hidden symbols, original silver Art Deco ornamentation, and the invigorating scent of coffee beckon you inside. The decor is stunning and the backstory is fascinating, but as you take a closer look, everything is not as it seems.
On January 10, 1999, the cable-watchers were invited into the home of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and the mob-run world in which he lived. HBO’s hit series The Sopranos ran for six successful seasons and became one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed shows of all time. Show creator David Chase chose to use as many real-life locations as possible to depict Tony’s dueling home and business lives accurately. In the show, viewers are immersed in Tony’s underbelly world as we’re taken into seedy backrooms, desolate dump sites, and dark alleyways. Here, we revisit 10 iconic locations that appear throughout the series, in honor of the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos’ debut.
When photographer and urban explorer Joseph Anastasio stumbled upon an abandoned passenger car sitting dormant in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, it was like an apocalyptic scene from the latest season of The Last of Us. The derelict car was a forgotten prototype from the Brooklyn-Queens Connector – commonly known as the BQX – a $2.7 billion light-rail project that never saw the light of day. Check out more of Anastasio’s photos below and find out what happened to this failed transit project Untapped New York has been following since 2016.
We love to receive inquiries about little-known facets of New York City. Recently we received a question from six-year-old Charlotte, an astute second grader in Brooklyn. She asked what the tiny white signs on subway stairs stand for. We reached out to the MTA and our expert Underground Subway tour guides for the answer.
Ride through the oldest stations, uncover hidden art, and more!
The original 1911 Penn Station building designed by McKim, Mead, and White was torn down in 1963, but remnants of the structure still pop up all over New York and in places as far as Kansas City, from an LIRR parking lot to a New Jersey botanical garden. As the building was torn down, preservationists and architectural salvagers saved the stone eagles that ringed the cornice, sculptures by Adolph A. Weinman, and other fragments. Pieces of infrastructure from the original building are still part of the station we use today. Deep below the historic Cathedral of St. John the Divine, inside the crypt, you’ll find another set of remnants from the former train station.
Discover hidden remnants of old Penn Station and explore a new train hall inside a historic Post Office building!
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