March 19, 2008
Upcoming tours: Navy Yard, train tunnel, watershed
There are several unusual, upcoming tours of note in New York City. Some are free, though reservations are highly encouraged for most. The list:
New York Marble Cemetery
March 23 - First open day of the season for the oldest public non-sectarian cemetery in New York City. (Open once a month through November.)
Atlantic Avenue Tunnel tour - Brooklyn Historic Railway Assoc.
March 30 - Climb down a manhole at Atlantic Avenue and Court Street, (pictured,) into a forgotten train tunnel built in 1844.
Tunnels and Chambers - NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation
March 30 - Billed as “the big unveiling of the Endicott Batteries, a labyrinth of
concrete hidden among trees and bushes” at Fort Totten in Queens. Bring a flashlight.
Top tier of Fort Wadsworth's Battery Weed - National Park Service
March 30 - A rare tour of the to of Battery Weed, as well as the restored turn-of-the-century lighthouse.
The First Walk - The Municipal Art Society
April 6 - Retracing the steps of the very first Municipal Art Society walking tour of 1955, which was "such a novelty then that newspapers sent reporters and a photographer to cover it." Covers Madison Square, Gramercy Park, Stuyvesant Square and will end "as that first tour did -- at venerable Pete's Tavern on Irving Place." (Led by Francis Morrone, architectural historian and NewYorkology contributor.)
Grand Avenue Bus Depot - New York Transit Museum
April 13 - Behind-the-scenes tour of the 500,000 square foot Bus Depot and Central Maintenance Shop in Maspeth, in operation since Fall 2007.
Lantern tour of Fort Wadsworth - National Park Service
April 14 - 7 p.m. tour of the fortification at the foot of the Verrazano Bridge. Flashlights required.
Cheese Caves - Murray's Cheese
April 19, May 17, June 21 - Now offered on the third Saturday of every month, the much-loved cheese shop on Bleecker opens its subterranean cheese caves for $10 tours.
Fresh Kills Park Tours - NYC Urban Park Rangers
April 19 - First free bus tour of the season of Staten Island's retired landfill currently being turned into a park. Tours run through November.
Ft. Greene House Tour - Fort Greene Assoc.
May 4 - Tour classic brownstones to modern homes in Brooklyn.
Landmarks House and Garden Tour - Brooklyn Heights Assoc.
May 10 - Self-guided tour through five private homes in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District
Bus Tour of the Catskill Watershed - American Museum of Natural History
May 17 - Guided tour, bus ride inlcuded, of the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County. Organized by AMNH and the Department of Environmental Protection.
Brooklyn Navy Yard - Center for the Urban Environment (formerly Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment)
June 1 - Guided bus tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard with Richard Drucker, senior vice president for external affairs of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, followed by a walking tour of Vinegar Hill, home to Irish immigrants and other ethnic groups who worked on the Brooklyn waterfront in the late 19th century.
Additonally, the National Park Service routinely offers tours of New York City`s First Control Tower, Nike Missile Radar Site at Sandy Hook, and the Sandy Hook Lighthouse Keepers Quarters.
The Downtown Third Thursday free lecture series are not tours per se, but they will get you rare access to the New York Stock Exchange and the rebuilt WTC 7 building.
A little father afield, Long Island's Lighthouse Challenge weekend is set for May 17 and 18.
Earlier: Touring backstage, behind-the-scenes New York
March 19, 2008 11:09 AM in Architecture, Cheap Stuff, Downtown, History, Kids, Museums, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology, Tours, Transportology
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