New York is a spectacular city. Cosmopolitan par excellence, here you will find a mosaic of cultures, histories and surprising corners that go far beyond the Statue of Liberty, Central Park or the Empire State. And the Big Apple hides secrets and curiosities far beyond what is essential to visit in Manhattan, and of which not even many New Yorkers are aware.
So that the same thing that happened to them doesn’t happen to you, we reveal 10 secrets of New York that you won’t want to miss seeing with your own eyes the next time you visit.
1. The Morgan Library: a hidden gem in Midtown
One of the places least visited by tourists is the Morgan bookstore. It is located in the heart of Midtown, just steps from the hustle and bustle of Fifth Avenue, and is an architectural and cultural gem. It was founded by banker JP Morgan at the beginning of the 20th century and houses books and documents of all kinds. From the original manuscripts of authors such as Charles Dickens to Mozart’s scores or letters from kings and popes. As if its contents weren’t already brilliant enough, its continent isn’t far behind. It was built between 1902 and 1906 attached to his residence and designed by architect Charles McKim in a style of building Italian Renaissance. Its main room, with painted ceilings and hardwood shelves, looks like something out of a movie. Furthermore, there are those who say that the famous library appears in the film Beauty and the Beast It was inspired by this one from JP Morgan, although this is an unconfirmed rumor.
You can buy the ticket from its official website and if it seems a little expensive ($25 per adult), you can choose to enter for free on Fridays from 5pm. to 8.00 pm, upon reservation of the ticket.
2. The Cloisters: a medieval monastery in Manhattan
It doesn’t seem credible, but a half-hour journey can take you from the heart of Times Square into a European cloister, similar to the one in San Juan de la Peña in Huesca, only with a view of the Hudson River. We are talking about The Cloisters, a museum that is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), and which contains a set of cloisters and gardens brought stone by stone from Europe, as well as Romanesque columns, Flemish tapestries and many other works of interest that we Europeans are more accustomed to, but which are more difficult for an American to see.
Entrance to The Coisters ($30) is included in your Met ticket, so if you decide to visit one of the two, know that, on the same day, you can go to the other without paying anything else. Of course, keep an eye on closing times, as The Cloisters isn’t exactly centrally located and closes at 4.30pm.
3. The ghost subway of the old city hall
Although the Manhattan subway is a bit unique and allows you to find its stations from to show “improvised” by Jimmy Fallon with the artist of the moment even of its most common inhabitants (the mice), what not many people know is that it hides a subway stop worthy of a period film: Old City Hall.
It was opened in 1904 and closed in 1945, but still retains the original tiles, bronze lamps and an impressive glass vault. Too bad it’s not open to the public, but there are still ways to visit. The most convenient thing is through a tours organized by the New York Transit Museum, but if you run out of seats, you can also do it from the subway window of line 6: you don’t have to get off at the last stop, but wait for the subway to continue its route to head in the opposite direction.
4. Hess’s triangle: a family’s resistance to expropriation
You’ll want to pay attention to the terrain if you’re walking on the corner of Christopher Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood, as the Hess Triangle is located there. A piece of New York with a lot of history and in 1910 the city expropriated a bunch of land to expand Seventh Avenue and build a subway line. And the Hess family lost many of their properties, but there was a mistake and they managed to keep under their power this tiny triangle of only 0.32 square meters. Lest there be any doubt, in 1922 they installed a granite plaque that read, “Private property of the Hess Corporation, never intended for public purposes.”
5. The Central Park hub
Manhattan’s urban planning is no coincidence. It is the result of the famous Commissariat Plan of 1811, by which the island was divided into a grid. But to make it happen it was necessary sow Manhattan with a series of pins (Survey Bolts or Benchmark Bolts), which served as a guide to create the layout. Well, as far as we know, most of these pins have disappeared, but there is one that can still be seen in Central Park. Its exact location is kept secret for fear of it being stolen or destroyed, but after intense searching both online and in the park you may be able to find it. We will tell you that it was the one used to delimit 6th Avenue with one of the streets between 60th and 70th.
6. Grand Central, almost complete
Although many call it stationGrand Central is technically a terminal, so don’t be surprised if some New Yorker corrects you if you give it the wrong name. Well, this terminal is full of secrets: from a whispering tunnel – where if two people stand at opposite corners of the vault and whisper, they can hear each other – to a food market that looks spectacular, tennis courts, the constellations on the station’s ceiling painted in reverse, huge windows through which, if you look closely, you can see station staff pass by, or The Campbell, where you can have a drink. As you can see, Grand Central is a bottomless pit of curiosities.
7. Roosevelt Island and its cable car
Few people who visit New York for the first time know that between Manhattan and Queens lies Roosevelt Island, a residential island rich in history. Furthermore, the route to visit it is the most complete, since you can get there by cable car and return by boat for almost the same price as the subway, but having a completely different experience.
The Roosevelt Island Tram offers spectacular views of the East River and the horizon of Manhattan, and is one of the few urban cable cars in the world integrated into the public transport system. Once on the island, you can visit the ruins of the Smallpox Memorial Hospital or have a drink at roof Panoramic room, for example. And on the way back, the NYC Ferry takes you back to Manhattan with completely different views. As I said, a very complete journey.
8. The rebirth of the ‘speakeasy’
During Prohibition, in the 1920s and 1930s, speakeasies or bars proliferated. speakeasy. Some have survived to the present day, such as the legendary Please Don’t Tell (PDT), which is accessed via a phone booth in a hot dog shop. But the oldest is The Back Room, on the Lower East Side, which operated as a secret bar since 1920 and still serves cocktails in teacups, as they did to fool the police. Entering is like traveling back in time. And the best thing is that these bars have become fashionable and new ones never stop appearing. speakeasyeach more fun to search for the entrance.
9. The Union Square metronome and its meaning
The Metronome is a public work of art located in Union Square, which all tourists look at with curiosity. Created by artists Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel, it opened in 1999 and is made up of several elements, although the most striking one is a large digital clock that does not display traditional time, but rather a countdown and advancement of seconds in a day. The numbers on the left show the hours, minutes, and seconds remaining of the day, while the numbers on the right show the hours, minutes, and seconds elapsed. In the center, a smaller number indicates hundredths of a second. The purpose of this work is to invite reflection on the passage of time, the transience of life and the constant rhythm of the city, and boy, does it succeed! It is a visual reminder of the ceaseless march of time.
10. The secret of restaurants: health classification
Before choosing which restaurant to eat in, you should know this: although New York is famous for its wide gastronomic offer, few know that all restaurants are subject to a strict health classification which is marked by a letter visible at the entrance of each restaurant: A, B or C. Our particular summary is: if it has an A, you can enter without problems; with B, don’t you have anyone near you with A?; and with C you probably won’t be as hungry!
However, as you see, New York is much more than its world-famous icons. It’s full of unusual corners, fascinating stories and well-kept secrets; and these are only 10, but there are countless others.
