Brooklyn Navy Yard is the only active shipyard in NYC. In 1966, the yard was finally sold to the city by the Nixon Administration. At it’s in peak over 70,000 were employed 24 hours a day during WWII. The yard sits in Wallabout Basin in the East River. Continue reading
A long time ago Victor gave me a booklet about the Freemason lodge. It’s taken over a decade to finally get there. If you ever have extra time in Philly and are a history and architecture buff – check it out. Quite a few US Presidents have been masons: George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Gerald Ford to name a few. Continue reading
Christ Church Burial Ground is an early American cemetery in Philadelphia. Signers of our Declaration of Independence reside here, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Russ, George Ross, Francis Hopkinson, and Joseph Hewes. The cemetery belongs to the Episcopal church founded in 1695 by the name of Christ Church. Continue reading
Shufuso is a traditional 17th century Japanese house and garden. This villa was featured at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York City in 1956. 2 years later it was reconstructed in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. It was built in 1953 as a gift from Japan to America, a post war friendship between the two countries. It uses traditional Japanese materials and techniques. Continue reading
In the 1830s it was very noisy in the bustling city of Philadelphia. Camac Street is a landmark of a time when Philly was testing out new pavement. The clop-clop-clopping of horse hooves on cobble stone was the largest source of noise pollution. Local businessmen and the city government came together with the idea to use wooden blocks to absorb the sound. Continue reading
This is the reason why we joined the Transit Museum – to go on a tour of the Old City Hall train station. It’s a beauty to the eyes, too bad they don’t design things like this anymore. We had to hop on the 6 train at the last stop, the train stops on the turnaround and let’s you off at the old unused platform and they let us off. The first thing you want to do is stop and look up but you have to get off as quickly as possible to let the our tour members off. Being there felt like we had the keys to the city. It was amazing and totally worth our membership fee. Continue reading
We still didn’t quite understand what a substation was after the tour but it was still cool. After some googling, we have our answer: “It coverts High Voltage AC current into the DC current used by the New York City subways.” Quoted from untappedcities.com. Continue reading
Even nature can be hypnotic. Continue reading
The Rockefeller family contributed a lot to US history. When you hear their name you think of Rockefeller Center but from museum wings, historic mansions, state parks, public policy, etc – they are there.
Along one of our favorite walking paths, the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, lies Rockefeller State Park Preserve. Continue reading
We first learned about The Old Croton Aqueduct Historic State Park on the MTA’s one day getaways section. It’s no longer listed on their website. It spans from Croton Dam in Westchester County and use to go all the way down to the NY Public Library on 42nd Street. Continue reading
Jebus Mews & Andrea 