Last Saturday New Yorkers and visitors to the Big Apple were treated to a "Bus Bash" on Governors Island, a short ferry trip from Battery Park and a venue affording amazing views of the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey. New York's Transit Museum ferried four of their fleet of preserved buses across from their Brooklyn base, a couple of Fishbowls, a 1958 GM 5106 standard and tail ending the line up here, the first air conditioned bus built for America. It too was a GM TDH-5106 model of 1956, surprisingly the air conditioning pod predates the space era. Air conditioning was not the only innovation, it also featured the push-type rear exit door, wrap around rear seating and flourescent lighting. The bus was bought in 1957 by he Fifth Avenue Coach Company and later absorbed into what is now the city's MTA. Despite the lovely weather and scenic attributes of Governors Island, the four buses were lined up in heavy shadow from a blanket of trees. Apparently last year Museum officials struggled in the heat at a more exposed venue.
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