new york

Bowery Subway Stop Review: Is This Thing Safe?

The New York City subway system is a hell of a machine. With 468 stations in Gotham’s 468 square miles, this maze of rails and turnstiles moves nearly 5.5 million commuters around town on an average weekday. And, because it never closes, maintenance is a tricky proposition. Case in point: the Bowery stop. What Is…

Joel Huerta, wearing his brother’s NYPD Auxiliary vest, heads back to his own apartment after clearing the local florist’s walk; there, he will continue to clear a path in what has become one of New York City’s more snow-filled winters. Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

New York Wants To Kill All Of Its Invasive Swans

Swans: elegant symbols of romantic love or terrorizers of plants, small children, and airplanes? The non-native mute swan has been wreaking enough havoc in New York City that the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation wants to declare it a “prohibited invasive species.” By 2025, under the proposed plan, there will be virtually no more wild…

NYC’s Charming Water Towers Are Actually Bacteria-Filled Horrorshows

Ah, New York—the sparkling skyline! The bustling streets! The… poop-filled water tanks? According to a new report from The New York Times, the city’s roughly 17,000 water tanks are totally unsanitary and widely unregulated. First of all: Why does NYC still use water tanks? The answer is relatively simple: Many buildings taller than six or…

New York’s ice-choked East River—seen from Pier 1 Playground in Brooklyn—is evidence of the extraordinary cold temperatures gripping much of the central and eastern United States this week. Video of the scene shows the frigid water moving at a surreal and unexpected speed.

22 Images From NYC’s Golden Age of Bridge Building

These days, we tend to think of New York’s bridges as traffic obstacles. But at the turn of the last century, the bridges that sprang up in thickets around Manhattan’s shores were objects of wonder and civic pride—near magical pieces of infrastructure that took many years (and lives) to build. A New York Times article…

At 351 Keap Street, in Brooklyn, a married couple built an entire apartment out of five shipping containers for $50,000. The home is built on a lot that’s only 20 feet wide and 40 feet deep, and you can watch a video about its construction here.

This so-called Manatus map, originally drawn in 1639, is the oldest map of New York City in the New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery. The prominence offered to Brooklyn, that massive land mass in the bottom middle, ought to please the hipster types. Manhattan is that little nub above it. [Untapped Cities]

Tour the Hidden Art Gallery on the High Line’s Last Unfinished Stretch

It’s easy to forget that beyond the tourist- and greenery-covered High Line, there are still 300 yards of old, rusting train track. This last patch of decaying NYC railway will soon be turned into the final stretch of the super-successful park—but for now, they’re home to a little-known outdoor gallery. Right now, the trail is…

Starchitects, Bridges, Drought: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week

Starchitects don’t build ’em like they used to—and now one’s getting sued for it. Chris Christie remains in troubled waters over a bridge. And if you thought the Polar Vortex was bad, how about the looming Emergency Drought? It’s all this week in What’s Ruining Our Cities. Starchitecture is ruining Valencia, Spain The City of…

Stunning sunset in Manhattan

New York has at least a few magical moments through the day. This is probably the best, when the sun is about to disappear engulfed by New Jersey and Manhattan is still alive and buzzing. Hungarian photographer Örs Cseresnyés captured this moment perfectly. It’s my current desktop background (I miss NY). Here are some more…

Tour a Secret Art Show Inside a Condemned NYC Apartment Building

Last week, as New York City suffered through blistering cold temperatures, 43 street artists were secretly painting three entire floors of a soon-to-be-demolished apartment building. We got to visit during an exclusive, two-hour show on Friday night. The show, called Surplus Candy, was the brainchild of street artist Hanksy. I spoke with Hanksy’s manager about…

Watch America’s Tallest Hotel Get Built in Less Than 60 Seconds

The only thing cooler than gawking at record-breaking architecture is watching record-breaking architecture get built. The tallest hotel in North America, a Marriott Residence Inn on top of a Marriott Courtyard, just opened in Times Square. This is what it took to build the tower. https://gizmodo.com/inside-the-highest-hotel-rooms-on-earth-1497119712 https://gizmodo.com/inside-the-highest-hotel-rooms-on-earth-1497119712

Inside the Highest Hotel Rooms on Earth

Hey there, thrill-seeker. Do you like altitude? Do you like views? Well, why not book a night in one of the tallest hotels on Earth? The tallest hotel in the U.S. opened up in Times Square this week, spurring us to take a peek at the tallest rentable rooms in the world. The 68-stories of…

Beautiful aerial picture of New York City covered with snow

The folks fromElysium Weddingstook this neat picture of a snow-covered New York City from an airplane. You can see Manhattan in the middle, with Queens and a bit of Brooklyn on the top right corner and New Jersey on the bottom left corner. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us in Facebook.

How to Traverse an Urban Snowscape

Winter storms continued to slam the Northeast today. Meanwhile, a record setting “polar vortex” embarked on its frigid march through the Midwestern United States.This photo, taken by AP photographer John Michillo on Friday, shows one enterprising New Yorker making the best of the year’s first major snowpocalypse. (A note to those Midwesterners facing subzero temperatures…

A Tour of the Largest Commingled Recycling Plant in the U.S.

As of last month, New York City’s Sunset Park waterfront is home to the largest commingle recycling facility in the nation. After its inaugural run on opening day, the facility shut down for some final tweaks and testing before it opens full time. During this period of maintenance, Gizmodo visited the new facility for a…

This 1901 Cartoon Takes a Humorous Look at the Future of New York

The folks over at Ohio State University’s Cartoon Library and Museum have posted a fantastic cartoon from 1901 that takes a humorous look into the world of tomorrow — specifically that far off, futuristic year of 1987. Drawn by J. Campbell Cory for the New York World newspaper, this “prophetic vision of the 20th century”…

How Many Windows Are There in Manhattan?

The shimmering wall of windows that makes up Manhattan is breathtaking, and seems almost infinite. But Michael Pollak—the wizard behind The New York Times’ “F.Y.I” series, which plumbs deep and weird questions about New York—got down to brass tacks this week, estimating how many windows are on the island. You might be asking yourself questions…

Houston struggles to save the Astrodome, London vows to make biking safer, L.A. sees light rail successes, and San Francisco mounts a shitty campaign for its sewers. It’s Christmastime in the city for this week’s urban reads. The blind Vancouver artist Carmen Papalia leads “Blind Field Shuttle” walking tours through cities so residents can discover…