美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Atlas Obscura' Tour Of Manhattan Finds Hidden Wonders In A Well-Trodden Place

'Atlas¹ Obscura' Tour Of Manhattan Finds Hidden Wonders In A Well-Trodden Place

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Sometimes the world can feel a bit uniform - the same department stores in every shopping mall, the same fast food chains on every corner. Atlas Obscura yanks the rug out from under that sense of monotony.

DYLAN THURAS: The world is still this huge, bizarre, vast place filled with astounding³ stuff. And if you sort of tilt⁴ your view a little bit and start looking for it, you start finding it everywhere.

SHAPIRO: Dylan Thuras co-founded the website Atlas Obscura, and now he has a book by the same name. Atlas Obscura is a guide to the world's hidden wonders, places you would not find in a typical guidebook.

THURAS: You know, very small museums - the ventriloquist dummy⁵ museum in Kentucky - or sometimes they include sort of wild places, very far-flung, like in the Turkmenistan desert there's a 200-foot-wide hole that has been on fire for 40 years. That's an amazing place. And it's kind of one of these places when you find out it exists, you're a little bit surprised you didn't know it existed before.

SHAPIRO: You don't have to go to Kentucky or Turkmenistan to find these places. Dylan Thuras wants you to find wonder in your own backyard, so he took us on a tour of some of the wonders of his backyard - Manhattan.

THURAS: So we're going to do a really fun thing that I think a lot of New Yorkers don't - I don't think they realize you can do this, but we are going to take the 6 loop, which - basically, you stay on the 6 train after its last stop. You're able to look out the subway car windows and see the City Hall Station, which is one of the most beautiful subway stations ever created. It's been shuttered since 1945, but it is this immaculate space. It's this little piece of lost New York grandeur⁶.

SHAPIRO: Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Brooklyn Bridge City Hall is the last downtown stop on this train.

SHAPIRO: We're the only people left on the train. Like a small child, I want to kneel on the bench with my nose pressed to the glass.

THURAS: You should, it's the way to do it. Wait, here it is.

SHAPIRO: OK. Oh, cool.

THURAS: So there's all this, like, green and white Gustavino tile work, there's hanging chandeliers, and that's it. That's it. It's 20 - not even 10 seconds of, like, what was that world we just went through? That's the whole thing.

SHAPIRO: That old abandoned subway station was incredible. Where are you taking us now?

THURAS: So we are going up to Bleecker Street to a place called the Earth Room, which is what it sounds like. It is 280,000 pounds of dirt that has been sitting in a room in a SoHo loft⁷.

SHAPIRO: Why?

THURAS: It is the artwork of Walter De Maria. I think it's going be fun.

SHAPIRO: A little sign tells us to buzz in and walk up to the second floor. Before we reach the stairs, we run into a tourist from Spain named Juan Carlos Fernandez.

JUAN CARLOS FERNANDEZ: Well, to tell you the truth, I want to visit this space since 1986.

SHAPIRO: For 30 years you've wanted to see this room?

FERNANDEZ: Yes, but for different reasons every time we're here in the city, we couldn't. I'm so thrilled right now. You - can you feel it in my - the tone of my voice?

SHAPIRO: You must have had such high expectations.

FERNANDEZ: No. I'll explain why. I'm a clinical psychologist. And I know if I have such high expectations, the experience, it doesn't work really well.

SHAPIRO: Was it worth the 30-year wait?

FERNANDEZ: I will say yes.

SHAPIRO: Thank you.

FERNANDEZ: Thank you very much.

THURAS: It's got, like, the real smell of, like, a forest floor.

SHAPIRO: How would you describe this room?

THURAS: So it's, like, a full floor of a SoHo loft, but every inch of the floor is covered in this, like, rich, kind of nicely groomed-looking dirt.

SHAPIRO: Somebody has raked this dirt and misted it with water every week since 1977. After the Earth Room, it's time for lunch at the kind of restaurant Atlas Obscura loves.

THURAS: We're going to El Sabroso, which is a small South American lunch counter in a freight elevator entrance.

SHAPIRO: Explain that. Or would it be better for us to just go experience it?

THURAS: We should go check it out.

SHAPIRO: We head to Midtown and walk into a sort of loading dock. There's a counter, and behind it the cook tends to eight pots bubbling on a small stove. Seating consists of a long folding table with plastic chairs.

THURAS: In a way, there's, like, a history here because Midtown has always been home to, like - to garment workers and people, you know, who were kind of working on a tighter budget. And that's still true today. So there are these sort of - there's a few kind of remaining little hidden basically, like, old-school lunch counters where you can get a great meal for, like, 6 bucks⁸.

SHAPIRO: Yeah. Chicken stew⁹, $6. Roast pork, $6.

THURAS: And it's killer¹⁰. It's, like, super killer.

SHAPIRO: Let's do it.

He's not kidding. It was the best $6 lunch I've had in a long time. Dylan is the kind of traveler who will pack every minute of a day with experiences, and that's how we treated our exploration of New York, too. He took us to see mysterious tiles embedded¹¹ in the roadway, a shuttered art deco skywalk that is completely sealed off from the world and the Conjuring¹² Arts Research Center, one of the world's largest collections of books about magic. Finally, our tour concluded with a hidden discovery that is audio only.

THURAS: An easily overlooked little wonder in the sort of exact epicenter of Times Square, Midtown Manhattan.

SHAPIRO: It's called the Times Square Hum. It comes from under a metal grate on a pedestrian island in the middle of Times Square. An artist named Max Neuhaus created it almost 40 years ago.

THURAS: It's this kind of sonic secret just, like, tucked away. Almost nobody stops and says, what is that strange noise?

SHAPIRO: Well, because we're surrounded by a million strange noises. We're in Times Square.

THURAS: For me, it sort of serves as this wonderful reminder¹⁴ that in the middle of all of this madness in what I think most people would find the most commercial, least sort of whimsical or magical place in Manhattan is this kind of little gem¹⁵ waiting for you if you're willing to sort of slow down, listen and kind of start asking questions.

SHAPIRO: OK, so we're going to let you hear this hum. Ignore the honking¹⁶ horns. Ignore the drummer. Ignore the crowds. Ignore the squeaking¹⁷ brakes. And listen for this low vibrating tone.

(SOUNDBITE OF HUM)

SHAPIRO: Dylan, do you ever worry you'll run out of things, that at some point the Atlas Obscura will be so full of wonders there won't be any left?

THURAS: We asked ourselves this question at the start, and so far the answer seems to be it is infinite. And I think that's because it's not just about oh, this is a weird¹⁸ place and we're just going to catalog them all and that'll be it. It's - honestly, it's a way of looking at the world.

SHAPIRO: Well, thank you for helping¹⁹ us see the world through this lens. It's been really fun.

THURAS: Thank you for coming on this, like, epic¹³ journey today. It's my pleasure.

SHAPIRO: Dylan Thuras is one of the co-authors of the new book "Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide To The World's Hidden Wonders."

1 atlas   

n.地图册，图表集

参考例句：

• He reached down the atlas from the top shelf.他从书架顶层取下地图集。
• The atlas contains forty maps,including three of Great Britain.这本地图集有40幅地图，其中包括3幅英国地图。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

5 dummy   

n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头

参考例句：

• The police suspect that the device is not a real bomb but a dummy.警方怀疑那个装置不是真炸弹，只是一个假货。
• The boys played soldier with dummy swords made of wood.男孩们用木头做的假木剑玩打仗游戏。

6 grandeur   

n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华

参考例句：

• The grandeur of the Great Wall is unmatched.长城的壮观是独一无二的。
• These ruins sufficiently attest the former grandeur of the place.这些遗迹充分证明此处昔日的宏伟。

7 loft   

n.阁楼，顶楼

参考例句：

• We could see up into the loft from bottom of the stairs.我们能从楼梯脚边望到阁楼的内部。
• By converting the loft,they were able to have two extra bedrooms.把阁楼改造一下，他们就可以多出两间卧室。

8 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

10 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

11 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

12 conjuring   

n.魔术

参考例句：

• Paul's very good at conjuring. 保罗很会变戏法。
• The entertainer didn't fool us with his conjuring. 那个艺人变的戏法没有骗到我们。

13 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

14 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

15 gem   

n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel

参考例句：

• The gem is beyond my pocket.这颗宝石我可买不起。
• The little gem is worth two thousand dollars.这块小宝石价值两千美元。

16 honking   

v.（使）发出雁叫似的声音，鸣（喇叭），按（喇叭）( honk的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Cars zoomed helter-skelter, honking belligerently. 大街上来往车辆穿梭不停，喇叭声刺耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Flocks of honking geese flew past. 雁群嗷嗷地飞过。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

17 squeaking   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• Squeaking floorboards should be screwed down. 踏上去咯咯作响的地板应用螺钉钉住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Can you hear the mice squeaking? 你听到老鼠吱吱叫吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

19 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。