Test 8/25-3
Author: Cux | Category: General
Testing…
25 Aug 2026
Reflections on April Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2023
Author: Ria | Category: A to Z Challenge, Museums, New York
This is the first time that The Big Jackfruit Tree is taking part in the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge. And the experience was awesome, to say the least.
To start with, there was no question about the theme… it had to be about New York. After much thought, the criteria was decided… every day feature an attraction in the city (museum, monument, memorial, park, whatever) that is located within the five boroughs of NYC, entry is free during all open hours, and the location is reachable by public transit.
Here I’ve to express my thanks to my circle of friends for their suggestions and recommendations. There is no way I could have completed the list of without their help. So thank you!
The next phase was the most interesting… visit each of the identified location and take photos. Happily, this was completed before winter and all I had to do was select the photos for use, adjust color, crop and resize, and add the copyright watermark. And of course, do the write-ups. What’s the hurry… the Challenge started only in April!
Whoever has participated in the Challenge knows the rest of the story… April rolls around, a-post-a-day is staring you in the face! And this was double trouble for me as our sister blog Pepper Route was also participating! For a month, life was on hold, fingers were on the keyboard, and eyes were going wonky.
And at the end of it all when you have posted the Z… the immense joy, the satisfaction, the sense of achievement, makes it all worth the trouble. All I need now, is the T-shirt! 🙂
Somewhere around the letter M, I was thinking ‘never again’. At the end of the Challenge I’m already thinking of next year’s theme! 🙂
My only regret is that I could not return the visits and comments from many of my visitors. Lack of time is not an excuse, it is actually lack of planning, I know. All I can say is that I’ll do better next time around.
Hoping that the list of attractions will be useful to visitors to New York as well as to city dwellers, even though they might already be familiar with these, here I present you the list of April Blogging from A to Z Challenge posts.
a-is-for-american-folk-art – American Folk Art Museum
b-is-for-bronx – The Bronx Museum of the Arts
c-is-for-castle – Castle Clinton National Monument
d-is-for-drawing – The Drawing Center
e-is-for-elevated – Elevated Acre… the Secret Garden!
f-is-for-federal – Federal Hall National Memorial
g-is-for-grant – General Grant National Memorial
h-is-for-hamilton – Hamilton Grange National Memorial
i-is-for-indigenous – National Museum of the American Indian
j-is-for-jazz – The National Jazz Museum In Harlem
k-is-for-king – King Manor Museum
l-is-for-little – Little Island
m-is-for-maritime – Maritime Industry Museum
n-is-for-new-york – New York Public Library
o-is-for-old – The Old Stone House
p-is-for-park – Prospect Park
q-is-for-queens – Queens County Farm Museum
r-is-for-rockefeller – Rockefeller Center
s-is-for-snug – Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
t-is-for-theodore – Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
u-is-for-union – Union Square Park
v-is-for-veterans – Vietnam Veterans Plaza
w-is-for-waterfront – Waterfront Museum
x-is-for-xception – Museum of Contemporary Art
y-is-for-yards – Hudson Yards
z-is-for-z-train – The Z Train
Thank you for your support, visits, and comments. See you all next year!
~Ria
04 May 2023
Z is for Z Train
Author: Ria | Category: A to Z Challenge | Tags: Grand Central Terminal, Manhattan, New York, Queens, Trains, Transit Museum, Z Train
Located at Queens and Manhattan, New York
Website: https://new.mta.info/maps/subway-line-maps/z-line
The Z Train
No series on New York attractions will be complete without an article on the Subway; so this is fulfilling that need, writing about the Z Train.
The New York Subway consists of more than 6,455 subway cars, 472 subway stations, and 665 miles of track. The subway trains collectively traveled about 331 million miles in 2021. They had an annual ridership of 760 million, with a weekday averaging to 2,369,655 riders, in 2021.
The Z Train, also known as the Z Nassau Street Express, runs between Jamaica Center – Parsons/ Archer in Jamaica, Queens, and Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. This is the same line that is run by the J trains.
The Z is an unusual line. It runs only on weekdays, only during peak periods in the morning and afternoon, and only in the peak direction. An express, it makes skip-stop service during those times with the J train, which operates at all times.
The complete schedule can be checked online.
Their route emblems called bullets, are colored brown. See the route color map of the Subway lines here: MTA Colors
The Z Train had its first run on December 11, 1988 when the BMT Archer Avenue Line opened, extending the line east from 121st Street to Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer.
To make J/Z service more attractive, all trains on those lines consisted of refurbished subway cars that were more quiet, graffiti-free, and had improved lighting and new floors, were expected to have air-conditioning by the summer of 1989. The service was briefly suspended after the September 11 attacks in downtown Manhattan.
Due to budget problems, the MTA announced it would eliminate the Z Train service among other service cuts, in November 2008. However, after financial support came through legislation passed by the New York State Legislature in May 2009. And the Z Train continues its run today.
A wealth of information about the Subway and bus transport is available in the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn and the Transit Museum’s Gallery and Store in the Grand Central Terminal. Though this main museum is a paid visit museum, the Transit Museum’s Gallery and Store in the Grand Central Terminal is free to visit. The gallery is located just off the Main Concourse in the Shuttle Passage, adjacent to the Station Masters’ Office.
The gallery offers changing exhibitions and educational programming to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret the cultural, social and technological history of public transportation in the New York metropolitan region. The store has a large selection of transit related publications, gifts, memorabilia, posters, and toys.
Currently on view at the Grand Central Gallery and Store is the exhibition about MTA’s latest program East Side Access which extends the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to the new Grand Central Madison station under Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan’s East Side. The project is completed and full service began at the station on February 27, 2023.
This is the largest capital project in MTA’s history, and the first expansion of the Long Island Rail Road in over 100 years.
The gallery is highlighting photographs by Patrick Cashin documenting the construction, and showcasing a model of the new terminal.
30 Apr 2023
