Our New Favorite Map of NYC

The Big Adventure is often on the lookout for quality New York City memorabilia that we can hang on the wall in our home or office. They is so much cheap garbage out there (sorry, Times Square vendors) that we let out a little of yelp of excitement when we discovered this.

Are you familiar with those large MTA neighborhood maps that provide detail about a specific set of blocks? They can be spotted in  just about every subway station in the system. Now, the MTA has put several of them up for sale in their only Transit Museum store!

Station Size: Unframed 44 x 49 inches $115

These Neighborhood Print Maps are available as custom-made unframed prints as large as 44 inches by 49 inches - the same size that are found in subway stations! It looks like there are 68 different maps available from Astoria to Union Square. A giant map with great detail that would look great on our office wall...if we didn't work in an cubicle the size of phone booth.

Station Size: Unframed 44 x 49 inches $115

Station Size: Unframed 44 x 49 inches $115

Neighborhood Map Print

Neighborhood Map Print

Neighborhood Map Print

Neighborhood Map Print

Neighborhood Map Print

The bad news? They run about $115 per print. Ooof!

Buy your MTA Neighborhood Print Maps Here

Saying Adios to The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel Tours

The New York City Department of Transportation has squashed All Atlantic Avenue Tunnel Tours. Ah, so sad. The Big Adventure wanted to mark the occasion now that one of the most unique, homegrown NYC tours has been closed.

To catch you up to speed, the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel is officially the world's oldest subway tunnel. This passageway was built way back in 1844 beneath a busy street in Brooklyn. It runs a half-mile long and accommodated two standard gauge railroad tracks. In 1861, the tunnel was sealed, closed and completely forgotten about. 

Fast forward 120 years later to when an intrepid eighteen year old explorer named Bob Diamond rediscovered the long forgotten Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in 1981. Diamond offered Grade A tours to the public for years and years. The tour was incredibly well received and led by a lively guide who doubled as a great story teller. Plus it offered the chance to crawl to unexplored dark places by sneaking down a manhole in the middle a of a busy Brooklyn avenue. The now famous tunnel is even listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In December,  Diamond even planned to lead a film screening in the tunnel!

  Good times for all until mid-December 2010. Suddenly, the NYC DOT canceled their contract for use of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel with apparently with little explanation. The NYFD stated that the tours can't continue due the risk of only a single entrance - a ladder through a manhole near Court St. However, that was never an issue for the last 30 years.  Lots of uproar. Lots of surprise. Oh, yes and the NYC government also deep-sixed the one hour National Geographic TV special on the tunnel

We know that The Big Adventure Blog is intended to let you know what you CAN do in NYC, rather than what you can't do, but we wanted to mark the passing (for now) of this fantastic NYC tour. Hope springs eternal as petitions and protests are in the works to get the tunnel reopened. 

Get the whole scoop at 

http://www.brooklynrail.net/no_more_tunnel_tours.html  

UPDATE: On 2/21, the New York Times posted a fascinating article called "Fighting to Return to a Subway Vault" detailing Bob Diamond's lawsuit to get the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel Reopened. Amazing writing. Read it here