Times Square is a dazzling spectacle of video screens, LED signs, and flashing lights. Depending on who you ask, it can be seen as either a captivating world wonder or a bustling tourist hub. Today, Times Square is known for its family-friendly attractions, featuring themed restaurants, theaters, and hotels. It has also emerged as a significant business district.
While the vivid lights can be appreciated at any hour, visiting Times Square at night offers an especially mesmerizing experience. The whole area comes alive as the signs and screens burst into vibrant colors. Among its many claims to fame, Times Square is celebrated worldwide for the iconic New Year's Eve ball drop that draws thousands of visitors each year.
For those curious about the grittier Times Square of the past, traces of it can still be found near the Port Authority Bus Terminal and on Eighth Avenue to the west. Despite the area's transformation, these parts retain some character of the bygone era.
The TKTS Booth in Times Square offers discounted tickets for Broadway and off-Broadway shows, attracting theater enthusiasts looking for a good deal. Yet, there's more to this booth than affordable tickets. Behind it lies a striking red-lit glass staircase, serving as an elevated viewpoint. From these "bleachers," visitors can escape the street's bustle and enjoy a unique vantage point of the crowd and the endless flickering lights.
Above the booth, a video screen provides a live feed of the top step, offering passersby a fleeting chance to see themselves on one of the many displays that define Times Square.
When One Times Square was unveiled in 1905, it stood as the second-tallest building in the world. Originally built to house The New York Times, it served this purpose for less than a decade. Despite its brief tenure as a newspaper headquarters, the building remains a landmark for its role in the annual New Year's Eve ball drop.
Another notable feature of One Times Square is the famous Dow Jones news and sports ticker, the first of its kind. This news zipper, attached to the building's lower facade, continues to capture the attention of onlookers, broadcasting live updates to the many who pass by daily.
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square
A self supporting arm of the MTA, it is housed in the Subway's former Court Street Station, on a spur line from the current A and C lines. Closed to passengers in 1946, it was reopened in 1976 as the New York Transit Exhibit and was popular enough to be made permanent. The museum is made up of two underground levels: the Mezzanine, which hosts exhibits on the construction of the subway, surface transportation in New York, fare collection and rotating exhibits on various transit-related subjects; and the station platform, which houses about 20 retired subway cars dating as far back as 1903 and a working signal tower. The museum sponsors events throughout the year, including simple art projects, walking tours on the subway, and rides on the museums' fleet of retired trains. There is also an annex of the museum in Grand Central Station in Midtown Manhattan.
Probably the most famous of the Guggenheim foundations (others found in Bilbao and Venice), which hold avant-garde modern art by artists such as Kandinsky and Mondrian, the New York branch is housed in a unique and famous building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and rendered in a rounded, organic form and completed in 1959. Be sure to take the elevator to the top floor, then follow the spiral viewing floors downwards to the street level. One of eight buildings by Wright to be listed as a world heritage site.
One of the foremost conservatories of those disciplines in the United States.
A visual arts center featuring the Panorama of the City of New York, a large architectural scale model of New York City. Originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair, the 9,335 ft² (867.2 m2) display depicts all 895,000 of the city's buildings (excluding Far Rockaway due to space limitations). It was last fully updated in 1992 and select newer buildings are added on an ongoing basis. The Twin Towers of the original World Trade Center remain in place. In addition to the Panorama, the museum has several other exhibits, including items related to the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, Tiffany glass, and various 20th-century artworks.
Governors Island has a long military history, home to headquarters and military posts of the United States Army from 1794 until 1966, then a complex for the U.S. Coast Guard before becoming a historic district open to tours.
The former residence of William Dyckman, who owned several hundred acres of farmland covering much of what is now Inwood and Washington heights. Nestled incongruously at the otherwise unremarkable corner of 204th and Broadway, the farmhouse has been converted into a small museum of life in early Manhattan and hosts various programs for the neighborhood. The "Hessian Huts" in the back yard are a leftover from the British occupation of Manhattan during the Revolutionary War!
One of Brooklyn's most prized brownstone neighborhoods. It is predominantly residential, characterized by late 19th- and early 20th-century rowhouses with architectural significance. Street signs in the Historic District are brown rather than green.
A sort of mini forest, described by its designer as a "wild garden," the Ramble is sculpted out of a wooded hillside, with winding paths, rocky outcrops, secluded glades, and a tumbling stream. If one travels through the ramble when the trees are full, it is easy to lose sight of the city's skyscrapers; it's as if you're no longer in Manhattan. The Ramble is also an excellent place to bird watch, with over 250 species of birds that stop here on their migration.
For most of the 18th century, Africans in New York City were buried in a graveyard outside the city. The graveyard was eventually forgotten and was rediscovered in 1991. This museum and memorial site commemorate the estimated 15,000 Africans that were interred on the site of the memorial. Note that the museum is located inside of a Federal building so airport-style security should be expected.
Built in 1802 (and physically shifted from its original location), this was the home of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers and the first Secretary of Treasury.
On this site on April 30, 1789, George Washington stood on a balcony overlooking Wall Street and was inaugurated as the first president of the United States. The old building on the site had been used as New York's city hall and had hosted some of the first congregations of the colonies in the lead-up to the American Revolution, such as the Stamp Act Congress. After the revolution the building, now Federal Hall, briefly housed Congress, the Supreme Court, and Executive Branch offices before the national capital moved to Philadelphia. The current building dates to 1842 and was used first as a Customs House, then later the US Sub-Treasury (millions of dollars of gold and silver were kept in the basement vaults). Today the building is maintained by the National Park Service as a museum dedicated to the history of the site. Guided tours of the building are available, or you can just walk in and look up at the rotunda and view some of the artifacts, such as the bible Washington used in his inauguration ceremony.
This is historic home that was built by local businessman James Bouton in 1891. Eight years later, Conrad Voelcker bought the house, and the Voelcker family lived in the house for three generations. Today, it is a museum, and there is a Victorian garden and a bird sanctuary outside.
General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife are buried in this imposing mausoleum, the largest tomb in North America. If you come when it is closed, you can still see the impressive facade, but coming during open hours gives you the opportunity to view the murals, the tomb and various documentation inside. Across Riverside Drive, there is a viewpoint to look across the Hudson River, a museum, gift shop and restrooms.
Collection of more than 200 paintings of the artist, exhibited on three floors of a classic townhouse.
A very impressive skyscraper with a green spire which was completed in 1930 and surpassed the height of the nearby Woolworth Building (see Manhattan/TriBeCa#See), making it the tallest building in the world until the Chrysler Building was completed just a month later (which in turn lost that title to the Empire State Building less than a year later). The building was leased by Donald Trump in 1995, hence its current name.
Affiliated with Columbia, Teacher's College is an architectural gem with its block length Beaux Arts and neo-Gothic façades.
This pretty building was built as Brooklyn's city hall in 1851 and is still a very significant official building in very active use.