Mon, Mar 20, 1944: subways

"The subways are fun to ride. For 5¢ you can go almost anyplace in the city.  After depositing your nickel in the slot at the turngate, you find yourself underground on a station platform.  The train comes roaring up at about 50 mph and seems to stop on a dime.  The doors remain open 10 or 15 seconds while passangers get on or off, and it zooms on its way....
"The boat ride out to the famed Statue was my first in anything larger than a rowboat.  I didn't get seasick, at least.  The Liberty Statue was really enormous and a work of art.  In her left hand she holds the declaration of Independence; in her right a torch; and her foot is stepping out of a shackle."
--Letter from my father, Sidney DeVere Brown, Asbury Park, N.J., to my grandfather, Leonard Reeves Brown, Bloomington, Kans., Monday, March 20, 1944.  My father had been a Navy ensign for more than eight months, when his wrote this letter about his first ever boat ride.