"ElectriCity: Powering New York’s Rails"

Commuters who take the subway for granted got a taste of the system’s complexities during Hurricane Irene, when the MTA revealed that it would take eight hours to power down the system, and another substantial chunk of time to get the trains back up and running. The massive effort to keep mass transit moving is explored in this exhibit, where visitors learn how subway cars are powered, from the early steps of producing an electric current to the cars finally traveling along the track.