Secret New York Sights

Photo: Kaitlyn Tikkun (via Flickr)

Staten Island Boat Graveyard
One of the spookiest places in town is the Staten Island Boat Graveyard. Located far from the urban bustle in Rossville, Staten Island, this swampy patch of the Arthur Kill Road waterway is the final resting place for dozens of rusting, decomposing and abandoned boats of all sizes. The rotting ship hulls, protruding from the watery depths, are oddly majestic and beautiful (but also kind of gross; we recommend wearing long pants, not shorts, and sturdy shoes if you go). The gravesite can be found via a makeshift path off Arthur Kill Road near Rossville Avenue, about 13 miles by bike or car from the ferry terminal. It's a truly forgotten corner of the City. —AB

 

Photo: Alex Lopez

Saint Augustine's Episcopal Church Slave Galleries
Within the simple walls of Saint Augustine's Episcopal Church on the Lower East Side lies an unlikely reminder of racial segregation in New York. Cramped staircases lead to two concealed rooms, located behind the balcony, where African-American worshippers could hear church services without being seen. The rooms were informally known as the "slave gallery," even though slavery was outlawed in New York by the time they were built in 1828. Fugitive 19th-century politician Boss Tweed reportedly hid in the gallery to attend his mother's funeral. Ignored and branded for decades as a shameful part of Saint Augustine's past, the space was recently restored and opened to the public in 2009. —AB

 

Photo: John Marshall Mantel

Cold War Bomb Shelter in the Brooklyn Bridge
In 2006, City inspectors stumbled upon a hidden chamber inside the Brooklyn Bridge, located just under the bridge's Lower Manhattan entrance ramp. The room was stockpiled with decades-old military provisions for surviving a nuclear bomb attack: blankets, medicine, water containers and around 352,000 crackers. Supply boxes stamped with the dates 1957 and 1962 indicate that the bunker was used during the height of the Cold War, then later sealed up and forgotten. For security reasons, City officials have kept the exact location of the chamber a secret—most of the 150,000 pedestrians who cross the bridge each day have no idea that it even exists. —AB

And that's not the only secret space inside the belly of the bridge; located within its base, a series of vast rooms known as the Brooklyn Anchorage was used for music and theater performances, readings and art exhibitions for nearly 20 years. Each of the eight impressive rooms has brick walls and a 50-foot-high ceiling. The space was closed for business after 9/11 for security reasons and, unfortunately, will not be open again anytime soon. —EO