A couple weekends ago, Sean and I went to the MTA Transit Museum in Brooklyn. We found the Transit Museum on Atlas Obscura, this awesome site where you can find obscure and curious spots around the world. (This site is amazing. The night Adele and I discovered it, we spent 4 hours looking at every site in New York and making weekend plans. :))
The New York Transit Museum is in an old train station. The first level is full of the history of the subway with pictures, video, and little artifacts. 
Like these slugs that people used to avoid payment before there were Metrocards. (Did you know that the subway fares didn’t cost a dollar until 1990? Now they are 2.25. The MTA was just bleeding money when the fares were lower.)
While the historical stuff was cool, the best part of the whole museum was the old trains. It’s so crazy to see how things have changed and evolved.
In Mad Men, Peggy talks about how she is spending a fortune on panty hose because the wicker on the subway seats kept tearing them up. (Why they ever made seats out of wicker is beyond me.) 🙂
And the term “straphanger” that is used to describe commuters who use the subway comes from actual straps that people clung to instead of poles and rails.
And no AC??? So glad I wasn’t riding the trains back then.
Where they used to keep the dimes from the train fares. So crazy that these things would be FULL of coins.
I definitely recommend this little weekend adventure. It’s definitely a lot better than some of the other museums that are advertised to NYC visitors. 🙂
This. Looks. Amazing…! Were you guys the only people there?
For what it's worth, we still have straps and no AC on some of the metro cars here in DC.
All these years, I've never thought of going there. But seeing all those old trains… I must visit it soon! 🙂