Introduction

I write this with the hopes of sharing the daily events that I see unfold when riding the New York City subway. I feel that as a knowledgeable New York City subway rider, I have a lot to offer the people who visit this blog as I often end up finding myself playing tour guide for those riding the subways. This is in large part due to my working knowledge of the city and the fact that people who know me often describe me as a human map or human compass due to my resourcefulness when traveling in a given direction. Regardless of what I may or may not be described as, I am hoping that I can contribute something valuable to a given passenger's travels throughout the five boroughs through this blog. The people who read this may find some of what I say to be irreverent, inappropriate, and intimidating at times but the people who are looking to learn something about navigating their way across the US' largest city will find my posts rather useful. It is my hope that every reader gets something out of this blog, if I can convince a person to ride a given subway line, I feel I've done my job, if I have scared a person off of a given subway line, I also feel that I've done my job because I've raised their awareness about New York. 


In only one year's time I have managed to master New York City on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis and the subway system in its entirety. Much of this came from riding the subway but much of this also came from my love for the city and the research I did before moving here. As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be in New York City. Maybe it was the feel of being in a larger than life city, maybe it was the feel of being at a worldwide crossroad, maybe it was the feel of the sports teams which I love (to all prospective readers, I am a huge New York Giants and New York Yankees fan), I don't know what it was exactly but ever since I was a little boy in Baltimore who visited New York on a biannual basis, I have loved it. I read about and visited New York's neighborhoods when I traveled here on my own, not just in Manhattan but in all of the five boroughs. I am familiar with how to get anywhere in any borough by any means of transportation at any time of day, the subway especially. The subway itself is most useful obviously in Manhattan, least useful in Queens, non-existant on Staten Island and too Manhattan-bound in Brooklyn and Bronx. In later blogs, I will expand upon these theories and for those who think this is an unfair characterization of the city's subway system, I am willing to engage and debate any and all ideas that would disprove the general order that I have listed above. 


To write this for people unfamiliar with New York City, the outer boroughs are Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Whenever people say "The City" in this town, they are referring to Manhattan. Whenever people say Long Island, they are referring to Nassau and Suffolk County, whenever people say Upstate they are usually referring to any part of New York State above the Bronx line. Sometimes people refer to Upstate as the part of New York above the suburban counties which make up the greater metropolitan area; Westchester County in particular is often not included as an Upstate county. The Tristates are New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut; New Jersey borders New York on the Hudson River; Connecticut borders New York on the Long Island Sound and Westchester County line near the towns of Port Chester, NY and Greenwich, CT. I am not getting off subject here about the subways, I am writing all of this if for no other reason than to put readers in a geographically correct mode when continuing to read this blog. I have heard people confused about places in New York far too often and figure to get everything straightened out on the right path in this first blog entry.


To describe the boundaries of the Five Boroughs, Manhattan is it's own island bounded by the Hudson River, East River and Harlem River. The only mainland Borough is the Bronx, it is North of Manhattan on the opposite bank of the Harlem River bounded by Westchester County on the North which roughly begins at a latitude that is at the northern boundaries of Pelham Bay and Van Cortland Parks. Staten Island is it's own island, it is South of Manhattan, Southwest of Brooklyn with in fact more road access to the state of New Jersey (New Jersey is a state which I personally despise, I warn readers ahead of time if they wish to take offense) than to the rest of New York. Staten is actually closer to New Jersey divided only by the barely navigable Arthur Kill body of water and is accessed to Manhattan by the Staten Island Ferry, accessed to Brooklyn via the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Brooklyn and Queens are the largest boroughs area wise and population wise, they are officially a part of Long Island but are considered New York City as they were annexed at some time before the twentieth century. Brooklyn and Queens have few physical boundaries, one of which being the Newtown Creek in Southwestern Queens and Northwestern Brooklyn. The boroughs are also roughly divided by the cemeteries along the Jackie Robinson Parkway and a few of the neighborhoods inbetween the two. When people refer to Long Island, they are refering to Nassau and Suffolk County, Nassau is roughly the Center of Long Island divided from Queens by roughly the Cross Island Expressway and Suffolk is the Eastern area of Long Island with a division from Nassau that is at the Eastern boundary of the town of Oyster Bay. This sums it up for the boundaries of New York City, I can provide links to maps to all interested readers.


This concludes my opening blog, I am hoping that after reading this, prospective travelers and readers can better understand the layout of New York City and its surrounding area before getting into further detail. I will in my next blog talk about a given subway line that I ride, the experiences riding it, areas it goes into, etc. I will hopefully post pictures or videos of my encounters on it, and talk about the history of that line and its sibling lines. When I say sibling lines, I am refering to subway lines which are a different letter/number but under the same color scheme. For example, the Blue Letter Lines A, C, and E are all sibling lines because they have the same general color Blue and are part of a given family of subway lines traveling across the five boroughs. But that is for another blog on another day, I appreciate you taking the time to read this, as it is you the reader who will find what I write educational or meaningful.