A Brooklyn Odyssey

Tonight I planned to go to a Digital Dumbo networking party with free beer.

In case you are not familiar with the acronyms, Noho is the Manhattan area "North of Houston" street and Dumbo is in Brooklyn "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass."

It is normally a 10 minute trip by the F train from Broadway/Lafayette to York Street. But I missed the F so I got on the D train at 6:30 PM, which "also" goes to Brooklyn, and has a nice view of the Brooklyn Bridge as it goes over the adjacent Manhattan Bridge.

Things started to look bad as the D train passed OVER Dumbo coming off the bridge, but I figured in a couple of stops I could transfer back to the F going back into Manhattan.

The transfer point is actually in Coney Island at the end of the line, so I got off the D at 50th Street to reverse direction. I considered taking the D back to my starting point in Manhattan and taking the F - if only I had done that. I shrewdly noted the R train connects with the F so I waited for it. After a D train came and left going back into Manhattan, I checked the map again, and noted the R did not stop there so I had to take the next D to get to the R.

At 36th street I transferred to the R and picked up the F as planned at 4th Avenue. The F was headed in the right direction and if all went well I would reach my destination soon. Two stops before York Street, the F train turned into a G and proceeded to Hoyt/Schemerhorn Street and I jumped off the train. I was beginning to feel like "Charlie on the MTA"

I hopped on the A train already across the platform, which stops at High Street, also near Dumbo. However, the train I was on was going the wrong way, out to Far Rockaway. I looked for a station where I could switch direction and got off at Nostrand Avenue. I inspected every stairway, but they all led to the local C train and none crossed over. I thought I would have a better chance of changing direction on the local so I waited a LONG time for the C train, still going the wrong direction.

I took the C two stops, and at Utica Avenue I switched to the A train going back to Manhattan. But when I arrived at High Street at 8:30, after two hours and seven trains, the party was wrapping up so I stayed on the A to Port Authority to go home to New Jersey.

Jersey, eh? I lived most of my life in Manhattan, I can negotiate the trains and busses there with my eyes closed - but Brooklyn was another story - and a good one!