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Secret New York oddities

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No. 5: New York City New York City for first-timers

When to go, where to stay and what to do

Best of Travel

  • The Freedom Tunnel, Upper West Side, New York City
  • Secret subway stations, Manhattan, 18th Street, Worth Street and City Hall
  • The Croton Aqueduct, Soho and Harlem, New York City
  • The Haughwout Building, Soho, New York City
  • William Barnacle Tavern, East Village, New York City
  • Hua-Mei Bird Garden, Lower East Side, New York City
  • The Freedom Tunnel, Upper West Side, New York City
    The Freedom Tunnel, Upper West Side

    TM Rives, author of Secret New York: An Unusual Guide, sees the magic in the mundane. From a butcher shop that was once a gangster hideaway to subway stations that are now abandoned, his book details curious sites throughout the city, many of which are accessible to travellers.

    The ghostly Freedom Tunnel, a subterranean train tunnel that stretches 50 blocks south from 122nd Street on the Upper West Side, was abandoned soon after its construction in the 1930s and became a shantytown for hundreds of New York City’s homeless. A reopening of the tracks in the 1990s, however, mandated a mass eviction, and today the dungeon-like asylum is illegal to enter since the train tracks are active, frequented only by graffiti artists and the occasional urban explorer. (Megan Snedden)

The Freedom Tunnel, Upper West Side

TM Rives, author of Secret New York: An Unusual Guide, sees the magic in the mundane. From a butcher shop that was once a gangster hideaway to subway stations that are now abandoned, his book details curious sites throughout the city, many of which are accessible to travellers.

The ghostly Freedom Tunnel, a subterranean train tunnel that stretches 50 blocks south from 122nd Street on the Upper West Side, was abandoned soon after its construction in the 1930s and became a shantytown for hundreds of New York City’s homeless. A reopening of the tracks in the 1990s, however, mandated a mass eviction, and today the dungeon-like asylum is illegal to enter since the train tracks are active, frequented only by graffiti artists and the occasional urban explorer. (Megan Snedden)

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