Originated by Bank Street founder Lucy Sprague Mitchell, the Long Trip took place in the spring between 1935 through 1951. Faculty and student teachers would travel together to encounter the complexity of a distant environment and confront its social and political issues—the labor movement, poverty, conservation, government intervention programs, race relations—and the consequences for children, their education, and their families. Mitchell would prepare participants beforehand with a lesson on human geography related to the place they traveled, to explore how earth forces affect human behavior. The Trip was integral to the teacher education program of the Bureau of Educational Experiments (later known as Bank Street College).

Revived in 1996 by Fern Khan, then Dean of Continuing Education, and Carol Hillman, a Bank Street alumna and former Board of Trustees member, the Long Trip is now open to students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of Bank Street.