New York, New York

Ah, New York!  The sights, the sounds, the smells!  I grew up in Albany, NY, and I had an aunt and uncle who lived in the city.  We would sometimes take the train down on the weekends and use their apartment if they were going to be away (it wasn't big enough for all of us to be there!).  I remember being fascinated by the subway, and how every time I came up from underground, it was a grand adventure, because I never knew exactly where we were.  Maybe because of these early trips, I never found the subway intimidating or difficult to navigate.  Or, maybe it was because I mainly stuck to midtown!

Im 2007, the company I worked for had a satellite office in Bangalore, India, and we would often have people come and work with us in the states.  One weekend, I took a few people to NYC.  We were standing on a platform, waiting for a train, when a dog-sized rat scurried out of a break in the wall, ran directly behind my legs, and then ran into another hole!  Later, they said this was one of the highlights of the trip!

Fun Facts:

• 7th busiest transportation system in the world
• The station turnstiles began accepting tokens instead of coins in 1953
• In 2003, tokens became obsolete, and only Metro Cards were accepted
  
• If the entire length of the tracks were laid out end to end, they would equal 660 miles, and would reach from NYC to Chicago
• There are 9 "ghost" stations, 8 of which are stations no longer in use, and one that has never been used
• Subway cars were painted all white in 1981 in an effort to stop graffiti artists.  As you can guess, this did not work!
• When the subway system was accessed with tokens, desperate people would jam the machines and suck the tokens out of slots with their mouths. In order to combat this, the MTA would spray the slots with chili powder