9/11 Memorial advance tickets on sale today

by Sean McLachlan on


After many years of construction, the 9/11 Memorial at the site of the World Trade Center in New York City will open on September 12. Advance tickets go on sale today.

It’s officially called the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, and entrance is free but reservations must be made over the Internet in advance from the memorial’s website. A phone line will also open to handle group requests of ten or more people. Entry is carefully timed and all visitors must go through security. Once inside, however, visitors can stay as long as they like.

The museum’s opening ceremony will take place on September 11, but entry is reserved for officials and relatives of the victims.

Advance tickets are necessary because the memorial can only hold about 1,500 people at a time.

[9/11 Memorial photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

New York City opens America’s first elevator museum

by Meg Nesterov on

Going up (or down) to New York? Hit the button for Queens and head to the country’s first elevator museum. Former elevator repairman and collector Patrick Carrajat opened the museum last week to chronicle the history of the American elevator from the oldest Otis elevator in 1861 to an autographed photo from the movie Titanic of the ship’s elevator. Located in Long Island City, the “nexus of the elevator world” for its proximity to elevator companies and many of the city’s subway lines, the one-room museum is full of elevator paraphernalia but mostly serves as a showcase for Mr. Carrajat’s extensive knowledge and stories about his career. He hopes to eventually move the museum into a bigger space with room for an antique elevator.

The free museum is open weekdays and some Saturdays, check www.elevatorhistory.org or call

917-748-2328 for more details.

Want more ideas for a visit to Queens? Check out our Undiscovered New York guide to modern art in Long Island City.

Photo courtesy Flickr user Grevel.

Woodlawn Cemetery named National Historic Landmark

by Sean McLachlan on


New Yorkers have always known that Woodlawn Cemetery was someplace special. This Bronx burial ground is the final home for many of the rich and famous. It’s beautiful too, a parklike setting with 400 acres of ornate headstones and mausoleums, such as this one for Frank Winfield Woolworth. Yes, that Woolworth.

Founded in 1863 in an age when wealthy families vied with each other to have the most elaborate mausoleum, it attracts thousands of visitors a year who don’t even know anyone buried there. The public certainly knows of many of them: Harry Carey, David Farragut, Duke Ellington, Fiorello La Guardia, Frank Belknap Long, Herman Melville, Bat Masterson, and Joseph Pulitzer to name a few.

Now the cemetery has been named a national Historic Landmark, the highest honor that can be given to a U.S. historic site. Visiting Woodlawn makes a soothing and contemplative break from the high-powered vibe of New York City. If you like cemetery art, check out our picks of creepy and beautiful cemeteries around the world.

[Image courtesy Woodlawn Cemetery]

New York’s Most Fascinating Park, Floating Above the City

by Paul Brady on

In a town where 500 square foot apartments can fetch $4,000 a month, the installation of a small slice of lawn calls for a mayoral press conference. And Mayor Bloomberg was there on June 8 for the opening of the second phase of the High Line, New York’s most innovative park, built on an abandoned elevated rail line on the far West Side.

Years in the making, the new section includes a stretch of brilliant green grass, bird houses, adolescent trees and a new perspective on a newly resurgent Manhattan neighborhood that’s getting more alluring (and affluent) by the moment.

Traveling the American Road – New York’s High Line


As someone who calls New York home, I explored the first section a few years back when I worked in Chelsea Market, the bougie shopping center that’s home to Food Network, Google, MLB.com and other wanna-be-big start-ups. The park, newly opened at the time, was just out the door-and a wonderful place for a mental health break.

With the new section, now pushing all the way north to 30th Street, the park should draw more people, which drives more business along the corridor. Real estate signs are sprouting up, and a pop-up beer garden has appeared, along with food trucks and a temporary art installation. (It happens to be sponsored by AOL, but I only found out about that when I visited.) Also along the new portion of park? The first U.S. property from Grupo Habita, a super-trendy Mexican boutique hotel group that’s a favorite of the Chelsea and Mexico City art sets.

It’s quite the resume for a disused rail trundle, left to rot in a forgotten corner of the city. No wonder the mayor-and tourists by the tens of thousands-are showing up to see what’s happening.

What’s for dinner? NYC airport geese soon to be served on a platter

by Libby Zay on

Take a gander at this: In an effort to control airport bird population, New York City plans to start collecting unwanted geese and ship them off to Pennsylvania, where they will be cooked for meals.

But before you get your feathers in a ruffle, know that the plan will actually benefit those in need. The birds, which were previously rounded up and gassed, will be donated to food banks to help feed hungry Pennsylvanians. Apparently, the birds will be shipped out of state because New York has not established safety protocols for processing and consuming wild goose meat.

The Department of Environmental Protection calls the roundup of geese a “sensitive topic,” but is in favor of the plan. We’ll just have to wait and see what all the animal activists have to say about it. Last summer, there was a huge public outcry over the roundup of hundreds of geese in Prospect Park, Brooklyn in the name of airline safety. The topic has been a huge issue since January 2009, when a flock of geese disabled US Airways Flight 1549, forcing it to ditch in the Hudson River.

[Photo by Dendroica Cerulea, Flickr]