New York City Easter Eggs Hiding in Plain Sight
^ My most genuinely untethered self can be found seated at a bar dripping in authentic American history
An unavoidable dark side of human nature is that we often become so accustomed to our environment that we start to hyper focus on our routine and mainstays, in turn blurring out the noise, rarely stopping to appreciate our surroundings. Beach sunsets suddenly become unremarkable, mornings of fresh snow fall feel monotonous, sweeping fall foliage registers as conventional, and the buzz of rush hour in the city goes flat.
As a New Yorker, this is a progressing desensitization. It starts a few weeks into our time as residents with an overnight realization that Times Square is the epitome of Hell on Earth. The novelty of needing a plan of attack for how we approach shopping in Trader Joe’s wears off shortly after, followed by the loss of the romantic notion that we’re going to collide with the love of our life transferring from the express to the local train when we realize the only thing we’re lucky to leave the MTA experience with is our life. Soon we become hardened souls, bulldozing tourists on sidewalks, playing the most efficient game of chutes and ladders between workout classes, meetings, and martinis, all to the soundtrack of another grizzly murder Dateline podcast at 1.5x.
I’m fortunate in that my job forces me to be less of point A to point B, as instead I get an ever changing urban obstacle course, and I have the albatross of writing this piece quarterly, which forces me into the corners of Reddit a few weeks a month. So to encourage people to find new excitement in a city that it’s hard to believe inevitably becomes mundane to many, here’s a scavenger hunt of sorts with the expected historic undertone.
You don’t have to look hard to spot the exterior of the original MET inside the MET
In the Robert Lehman wing, you can find the remnants of the museum’s first incarnation as a much smaller Romanesque and Gothic style structure dating back to 1879, nine years after a group of citizens decided Gotham needed a museum. The southern facade isn’t the only artifact of the old building you can find; there are original archways, windows, and Gothic Victorian stairways preserved as well. Want more? Other Easter Eggs inside the MET.
The story behind the wishbones hanging from the electric lamps at McSorley’s
McSorley’s Ole Alehouse in the East Village has been serving patrons as famous as Abraham Lincoln since 1854 and the bar takes pride in being almost identical to how it was in the mid-19th century. The rule that no memorabilia can be taken down has been in place since 1910 so everywhere you look is a token from the past, like Houdini’s handcuffs. The most thought-provoking are the turkey wishbones hanging from the bar’s electric lamps. McSorley’s had a tradition of giving soldiers departing for the First World War a turkey and ale dinner. The wishbones were placed by the soldiers on the lamp rail hanging over the bar for a safe return home. Once home, the lucky ones would take down their wishbone and celebrate into the night. Visitors today will see two dozen wishbones left behind by the soldiers who didn’t return home.
You’ve noticed that uber-secure, windowless skyscraper in the center of Manhattan…right?
Conspiracy theorists, rejoice! We have a massive NSA spying hub in plain sight. The unsettlingly ominous tower at 33 Thomas Street in Tribeca was originally meant to safeguard all of AT&T’s carrier exchanges and equipment. However, in the Snowden whistleblowing documents, the fortress is named as one of our country’s most important NSA surveillance sites. This article dives DEEP into the NSA’s presence here so maybe use a private browser…
The oldest fence in NYC surprising has an iconic place in American History
Made of wrought iron, the fence around Bowling Green Park in the Financial District was installed in 1771, a year after a 4,000 pound statue of King George III, that had recently been experiencing vandalism, was installed in the center of the park. After the Declaration of Independence was read at nearby City Hall on July 9, 1776, a mob rushed Bowling Green, toppled the statue then shipped it to a foundry to be turned into musket balls. On the top of the fence posts you can still see saw marks, which are remnants from the Sons of Liberty cutting off the little iron royal crowns that once adorned the posts in order to melt them down for musket balls as well.
Curious relics from 19th century New York hidden on older townhouse stairway railings
Next time you’re walking through a more historical part of the city, look down at the base of the stairway railings and you’ll spot boot scrapers. In a century when the streets were comically dirtier than they are now, mainly thanks to thousands of horses required for transportation, these sneaky little railing additions kept gentlemen from tracking mud and manure into others’ homes.
We all know the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe over the subway gate, but where was it taken?
Somehow the most famous subway grate in the world is unmarked and unloved. The grate over which the iconic imagine of Monroe getting her white dress blown up by an uptown 6 train passing underneath can be found at Lexington and 52nd Street and you’ll need to read its story here since there’s sadly no plaque to memorialize its legacy.
One of the bloodiest streets in American History is in New York and not where you think
Spend enough time getting lost in Manhattan’s Chinatown and you’ll eventually find yourself on a quirky 200-yard stretch with a 90 degree bend in it. Now it’s dotted with curious Chinese storefronts and eccentric restaurants but in the early 1900s Doyers Street was quite literally stained with blood at any given time (due to violence), earning itself the name “the Bloody Angle”. There were two major gangs competing for control of the neighborhood (and all opium dens and prostitution rings) and this street was their battleground for years.
Did you know the FDR was built partially out of rubble from the European Theater in WWII?
During World War II, the city of Bristol, England underwent an attack that destroyed over 85,000 buildings in the city. Bristol was a major port for American supply ships and since there were no supplies to bring back, ships would use masonry and rubble as ballast. When the ships arrived back in New York, they dumped the rubble along the East River from 23rd to 34th Street, which became the foundation for that part of the FDR.
The peephole at the West Village IFC Theater where you can watch movies from the street
When facing the entrance to the right, look for a small metal circle about five feet from the ground. On the circle, you will notice two more, eye-width apart. Get close, slide over the eye covers and you will have a direct view into one of the theaters. If a film is currently playing on screen, you’ll be able to watch from the sidewalk, all while looking a bit like a crazy person.