Tomorrow, the tryptophan-induced Thanksgiving coma you've been enjoying will end and the Monday morning commute will find you cryin' all of the time. And yet, things are so much better than they ever were before, as you can see in the vintage 1970 documentary about the transit system below. It's a great little history lesson all about the newly-formed MTA and the problems they were facing at the start of a new decade. And if you want to see an epic pissy eye roll, then skip ahead to the 5:40 mark in the first part.
Someone really wanted to set the mood at the start: there's a 2:30 intro/musical overture, featuring a bunch of shots of people waiting for trains (close-up on watch, cue OMINOUS MUSIC). More highlights: if you want to see what MTA board meetings looked like then, skip to :55 in the second video; check out the LIRR bar cars at 3:25 in the second video; and check out the all-new Metropolitan cars (which look a lot like the last generation of Metro-North trains) at 4:00 in second video. Oh, and if you're a fan of very stilted testimonials from satisfied customers with awesome perms ("The service is fine here, but I'm glad the MTA decided to paint and improve and clean it up. From a woman's point of view, we really appreciate it"), skip to 3:25 in the third video.
For more subway nostalgia, previously we took a look at a 1961 documentary about the "daily miracle" of the subways, and the series of hilarious, honest, self-deprecating, and altogether awesome MTA ads from 1989.
