Roosevelt Island Tramway

For the price of a subway swipe, a red cabin lifts you out of 59th Street, climbs alongside the Queensboro Bridge's great steel lattice, and carries you 250 feet over the East River to Roosevelt Island. The ride lasts about three minutes, and for most of it you are level with the penthouses — Midtown's towers stacking up behind you, the river and its barge traffic sliding below.

It has been running since 1976, the first commuter aerial tramway in the country, and it remains an actual piece of the transit system rather than an attraction — which is exactly its charm. Ride it at dusk, when the bridge lights come on beside you, walk Roosevelt Island's west promenade for the skyline, and tram back.