This list is a work in progress – feel free to leave recommendations in the comments!
You may also be interested in places I’ve been but not yet blogged about.
Brooklyn
- 58 Joralemon Street – subway emergency exit (I’m sure there are a bunch more of these around too…)
- Brooklyn Navy Yard abandoned hospital
- Gowanus Canal and Gowanus Canal flushing tunnel
- Grand Ferry Park
- New York Transit Museum – always!
- Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant visitor center
- Streetcars behind Fairway
- Transmitter park
Bronx
- Hudson Gardens, 2728 Henry Hudson Parkway East (apartment complex)
- North and South Brother Islands
- More of Pelham Bay Park: Amtrak bridge…
- Woodlawn Cemetery
Manhattan
- Abandoned buildings on Governors Island
- Abandoned 69th Street Transfer Bridge
- Circumnavigate Manhattan
- FDR Drive: Fake left-exit ramp/median between 34th and 23rd Streets
- FDR Four Freedoms Park
- Gracie Mansion, though I don’t know much about it
- The Intrepid (and space shuttle Enterprise)
- Little skinny park next to FDR/East River
- Lower East Side Tenement Museum
- Train platform under the Waldorf-Astoria
Upper Manhattan
(Harlem and north)
- Following Amtrak tracks in Harlem on foot/Freedom Tunnel
- Highbridge
- Inwood Hill Park
- Marble hill: one way streets, Metro North station, another view of Broadway Bridge
- Riverbank State Park
- West Harlem Piers Park
Queens
- Cavalry Cemetery
- Floyd Bennett Field
- Flushing Meadows/Corona Park, particularly abandoned structures
- Gantry state park
- Jamaica Station (primarily because of this dance project)
- Lawrence Family Cemetery
- Walk the Triboro Bridge Randall’s Island to Queens
Staten Island
Westchester and points north
- Abandoned Glenwood Power Plant
- Bennett College (abandoned)
- Danbury Railway Museum
- Essex Steam Train
- Grossinger’s abandoned resort
- Hudson Valley Rail Trail
- Indian Point Energy Center
- Kensico Dam in Valhalla, maybe also Kensico Cemetery
- Old Croton Aqueduct trail
- Play next to the Bronx River Parkway
- Ride the Metro North Hudson line pretty far north
- Storm King Art Center
Long Island
New Jersey
- Paulinskill Viaduct aka Hainesburg Viaduct
- Volunteer Railroader’s Association (Hawthorne) event(s)
Outside of the tri-state
- Arkansas
- California
- Bodie State Historic Park
- Fort Point
- Golden Gate Bridge
- Treasure Island
- Western Railway Museum
- Maine
- Maryland
- New York
- Ohio
- Cedar Avenue Power Plant
- Ohio and Erie Canal (we went on a field trip in elementary school, if I’m thinking of the right thing)
- Ride the Cleveland Rapid
- Pennsylvania
- Washington
Outside of the country
- Berghain nightclub
- Buzludzha, Bulgaria
- Cherynobl (for real, they have tours)
- Panama Canal
- Wuppertal Schwebebahn
Non-place-specific things to do
- Nap in a park
- Dance to music from the car outdoors
- Play in warm summer rain
- Bring friends
- Watch Amtrak trains go by
- Take the/a car on a ferry
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Golden Gate Bridge? (wink wink nudge nudge)
Absolutely! I’ve added it :)
The Fort Smith, Arkansas, Trolley Museum runs a Birney streetcar through the historic downtown daily April through October and weekends the rest of the year.
The Western Railway Museum, south of Fairfield, California, has an extensive collection of electric streetcars, interurbans, and light rail vehicles from different eras and from around the world. Vistors can ride a streetcar and an interurban along a stretch of restored Sacramento Northern track. The bookstore is quite impressive.
Thanks for the suggestions, Michael! I’d heard about the Western Railway Museum before. Both sound great and I’ve added them to the list (as well starting to sub-organize by state).
I think you might like Treasure Island, out here in SF, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Island_(California)
If for no other reason than you can get a pretty great view of the new Bay Bridge East Span being built!
There are also some really interesting buildings from various expos and Worlds Fair type deals, and the whole place kind of feels like a ghost town sometimes…
And I have to take you to Fort Point, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Point,_San_Francisco
It’s an old military fort, which is kind of a museum now but feels very much abandoned most of the time (it was actually closed when we were there a long time ago, but we walked up to it I think!). And it’s right under the GG bridge (you can look up from the top of the fort into the supports of the bridge!).
@Jess, yes to Treasure Island! I’d actually heard about that and it sounds like my kind of weird place. And I’m down for Fort Point too! One day I’ll visit again. Thanks for the recommendations, I’ve added them above!