10 Things You Discover When You Visit Every Neighborhood In NYC

After walking through every neighborhood in the five boroughs, these are my favorite spots in each borough.

I walked through every neighborhood in New York City's five boroughs, discovering a lot about the city along the way.

Here are my two favorite spots in each borough.

Staten Island: The Boat Graveyard

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The Arthur Kill Marine Scrapyard is home to the ruins of ships. Trek out to Staten Island and you'll be rewarded with a fascinating place to explore.

The folks at Big Nose Kate's Bar don't seem to mind if you have a post-adventure beer, even if you smell like river muck.

North Shore Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

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This forgotten branch of the Staten Island railway has only been abandoned since 1989, but it's already fallen into the harbor.

You can still walk along most of the route.

The Bronx: Bartow Station

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Did you know there is an abandoned railroad station in Pelham Bay Park? This is how New Yorkers used to get to City Island.

Designed by Cass Gilbert built in 1908 for the Harlem River Branch of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, this station has been abandoned since the 1930s.

NYU's uptown campus

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Bronx Community College has an unusually grand campus, thanks to NYU's failed expansion efforts.

Many of the older Beaux-Arts buildings on campus were designed by Stanford White, which are a stark contrast against some more modern Brutalist structures.

Queens: Marine Air Terminal

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Most people don't go to airports for the architecture, but LaGuardia's Marine Air Terminal is a leftover from the grand dreams of Howard Hughes.

Take the shuttle out to terminal A, get a cup of coffee, and imagine what it must have been like when flying was upscale and aquatic.

Fort Totten

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Fort Tilden is getting a lot of attention lately, but Fort Totten is also worth the trip to the furthest edges of Queens.

Technically this is a park, but it feels like urbex.

Manhattan: Audubon Terrace

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This was supposed to be Manhattan's museum campus. That didn't quite pan out. The buildings here are abandoned, semi-abandoned, or used for a wildly different purpose than intended, aside from the Hispanic Society of America.

After you've absorbed your fill of Spanish and Portuguese art, wander through Trinity Cemetery before you get back on the train.

Four Freedoms Park

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Public works are never quick, but Louis Kahn's Four Freedoms Park took an exceptionally long time.

The whole experience of the Roosevelt Island Tram, the ruins of the Smallpox Hospital, and the stark lines of the park is quite stunning.

Brooklyn: Sheepshead Bay Pier

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Sheepshead Bay is a strange place. It has people from all over the world, the water, great food, semi-convenient transit options, and a motley crew of weird houses. It’s also full of highly suspicious but friendly locals who don’t go to Manhattan for anything but work.

Do yourself a favor and eat at Roll'N'Roaster.

Deadhorse Bay

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Want to escape the city without leaving? It’s time to go to a landfill. Really.

Most people don't visit landfills on their day off, but Deadhorse Bay is an exception. This bottle beach has a great view of the Rockaways and a distant Manhattan skyline.