Written in 2003, the last year tokens were used for revenue service…. Turnstiles, as well as tokens, have changed radically over the years. Turnstiles predated tokens; the first nickel-operated turnstiles appeared…

[These paintings were on Williamsburg walls in the summer and fall of 2003. Given theever-changing nature of street art, not many are likely still there.] Those who know Your Webmaster…

Part Three in a series exploring NYC’s boundaries with other municipalities. Third in the series: Queens’ Far Rockaway FAR ROCKAWAY is a Miss Havisham-esque doyenne whose beauty has long-since faded. No…

Your webmaster knows full well he will be ridiculed, pilloried and threatened with everything from lawsuits to bodily harm for including Hoboken on a Forgotten NY site. New Jersey, the Sixth…

Manhattan’s 843-acre oasis is vast enough so that quite a bit of it is rarely trodden by the public…which passes some highlights by without giving them a second glance. How’s that…

When I was a kid, they built a bridge in my back yard. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was built in five years between 1959 and 1964. Prior to that, there was no way…

What a beautiful world it will be What a glorious time to be free When Donald Fagen of Steely Dan had a hit with “I.G.Y.” (referencing the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year) in 1982,…

Firehouses have been in the news in 2003, as many have been closed or have had closing threatened by a cash strapped New York City, infuriating residents who fear inadequate protection…

Fulton Street, which runs in Lower Manhattan from Church Street east to theSouth Street Seaport, is a crazy quilt of mom and pop businesses, souvenir tourist traps, historic cast iron and…

For much of its history, it’s been an avenue without a number, ever since it was proclaimed the Avenue of the Americas in 1945. New Yorkers have always referred to it…

Bath Beach, Brooklyn, is a pretty sleepy neighborhood. That’s not a knock–that’s just how its residents like it. In the mid-1920s, it was just about as sleepy, though at that time,…

There was a time, not so long ago, when you could enter an eight-foot tall booth, some wooden, some made of aluminum, and shut out the noise, confusion and chaos…