Transit Museum to mark subway’s 120th anniversary with exhibit, vintage train rides

September 13, 2024 Raanan Geberer

One of the many old trains that can be seen at the New York Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of NY Transit Museum

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DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — The underground New York Transit Museum, whose entrance is on Schermerhorn Street, is commemorating the 120th anniversary of the city subway system with a new exhibit and a series of vintage train rides.

The city’s first subway line, from 145th Street in Manhattan to City Hall, opened in October 1904 after four years of work. It was operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) a private company. The IRT and the Brooklyn-based Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) had previously built elevated lines in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx as a precursor to the subway system.

The IRT kept expanding its subway network, and in 1908, its line was expanded to Borough Hall in Brooklyn. It was extended to Atlantic Avenue a few month later, and finally reached New Lots Avenue and Flatbush Avenue in 1920. The BRT also began a subway network, incorporating its elevated lines and also building new lines, such as the Sea Beach line in 1915. Finally, a city-owned network, the Independent (IND) system, made its debut in the 1930s and introduced even more Brooklyn routes, such as the Fulton Street line and the northern part of the Culver line (F train).

The Borough Hall station (the platforms that are now served by the 4 and 5 lines) was the IRT’s first Brooklyn terminal in 1908. A few months later, the line was extended to Atlantic Avenue. Wikimedia photo by Jim Henderson

“Very few things exist that are as synonymous with New York as our subway. Whether you hear a snippet of the sound of a train or catch a quick glimpse of a station or a subway car, you know you’re in New York City,” says New York Transit Museum Director Concetta Bencivenga.

The new exhibit, “The Subway Is….,” opens on Sept. 26. Through an array of historic artifacts, photographs and multimedia installations, the exhibit traces he challenges of constructing the subway through the city’s varied topography, highlights the diverse workforce of immigrants who built the system, and celebrates the subway’s role as both an engineering marvel and a work of art.

Complementing the exhibit, the museum will also host four Inaugural Run Nostalgia Rides on vintage “Lo-V” (for low-voltage) subway cars from 1917.

Passengers will journey along portions of New York’s first subway line, providing a rare opportunity to experience New York City as it was 120 years ago.

A subway train zooms through the elegant but long-unused City Hall station in Lower Manhattan. This is where the system’s ceremonial first trip began in 1904. Photo courtesy of NY Transit Museum

Departing from the decommissioned Old South Ferry Station, the trains will travel north along the 1/2/3 line to the Bronx before returning via the Lexington Avenue line. Passengers will have the unique chance to pass through the opulent, now-abandoned Old City Hall Station and conclude the journey at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall.

The New York Transit Museum is the largest museum in the United States devoted to urban public transportation history Since its inception more than 40 years ago, the Museum — which is housed in a historic, unused IND subway station in Brooklyn — has grown in scope and popularity. For nearly 25 years, the Transit Museum has also operated a Gallery Annex and Store in Grand Central Terminal.

To learn more, visit nytransitmuseum.org.