NEW YORK TRANSIT MUSEUM (Jay St-MetroTech)

Since 1976, the New York Transit Museum has been telling the story of how mass transit transformed New York City into what it is today. Perhaps it’s fitting that the city that never sleeps has a subway that never stops. The museum is located in a 1936 subway station in Downtown Brooklyn. Even the museum entrance is identical to that of a subway station. In addition to the elevated and subway cars, there are also vintage turnstiles, city buses and changing exhibits. The rotating selection of vintage train cars on display dates back to the early 20th century.

While it’s hard to imagine (like the Pearl Jam song) cigarette ads in subway cars in the 21st century, they were once as prevalent as smartphone ads are now. Anyone longing for the days when Viceroy was a prevalent cigarette brand can take a trip down memory lane at the transit museum.

The Subway Fare Media exhibit goes back to the first paper tickets that were issued in 1904. After more than 30 years of real coins, the system was switched to tokens in 1953. Tokens lasted for another 50 years until being completed phased out by the MetroCards, which are still in use today.

While Boston may have had the first subway, no other public transit system in the United States can rival New York’s 469 stations, over 650 miles of mainline track and 24-hour service. The system moves more than 4.5 million passengers per day. To put that into perspective, that’s more people than live in the second largest American city (Los Angeles at around 4 million).