On Tuesday I took Jason to the Transit Museum. We hadn't been there in a number of years and he asked to see it once more before he leaves for college.
The Museum has changed some in the intervening years and Jason was very pleased with the changes. We saw an exhibit on how the tunnels and stations were built. What a massive undertaking that was! There was a timeline for the transit system, beginning with horse-drawn trolleys. I didn't realize that it was the condition of those poor overworked horses that caused the founding of the ASPCA.
I also hadn't known that in the 1850's, an African-American woman who was put off a trolley sued for her civil rights and won! She was 100 years before Rosa Parks but her name has been forgotten. I remember her last name was Jennings but I, too, have forgotten her first name.
There was a new exhibit on bus fumes and the fuels they use, and how to upgrade them so that they will do less damage to the environment. I also liked the collages on display, all geared to life in the subways. The "Beep Beep! Toys that Go" exhibit, on loan from the Toy and Doll museum, was cute also. Some of the toys were from the 70's and I recall seeing kids playing with them. Others dated back 150 years or more.
We finished up with a look at the old fashioned subway cars. It's amazing that I still remember riding some trains with the woven straw seats. Of course by that time they were frayed and bits of straw poked you in the backside when you sat on them. The old advertisements were a hoot and Jason took a number of pictures of them. I was amazed to see an ad for the Kingsbridge Armory, which I grew up near. I never knew it was enough of an attraction to be advertised on the subways.
It was a satisfying visit, and we finished up with lunch at a salad bar that charged $4.99 a pound. For the Court Street area that seemed very reasonable to me!
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