Land area: 789 km²
Local time: Monday 6:21 AM
Weather: 19°C, Wind NE at 11 km/h, 90% Humidity
Getting there: 19 h 15 min flight. View flights
Population: 8.406 million (2013)
Sports teams: New York Mets, New York Knicks, more
Area codes: Area code 212, Area codes 718, 347 and 929, Area code 917
Empire State Building
Address: 350 5th Ave, New York, NY 10118, United States
Floors: 102
Construction started: March 17, 1930
Height: 381 m, 443 m to tip CTBU
The Empire State Building is a 102-story skyscraper located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (381 m), and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 feet (443 m) high.Its name is derived from the nickname for New York, the Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years, from its completion in early 1931 until the topping out of the original World Trade Center's North Tower in late 1970. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the tallest building in New York, until One World Trade Center reached a greater height in April 2012. The Empire State Building is currently the fifth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States and the 25th-tallest in the world. It is also the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas. When measured by pinnacle height, it is the fourth-tallest building in the United States.
The Empire State Building is generally thought of as an American cultural icon. It is designed in the distinctive Art Deco style and has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate.It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture.
The building is owned by the Empire State Realty Trust, of which Anthony Malkin serves as Chairman, CEO and President. In 2010, the Empire State Building underwent a $550 million renovation, with $120 million spent to transform the building into a more energy efficient and eco-friendly structure.The Empire State Building is the tallest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified building in the United States, having received a gold LEED rating in September 2011.
Central Park
Address: New York, NY, United States
Area: 3.41 km²
Hours:
Open today · 6:00 am – 1:00 am
Phone: +1 212-310-6600
Owners: New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Established: 1857
Central Park is an urban park in middle-upper Manhattan, New York City. Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States as well as one of the most filmed locations in the world.
It opened in 1857 on 778 acres (315 ha) of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, two soon-to-be famed national landscapers and architects, won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they titled the "Greensward Plan". Construction began the same year, continued during the American Civil War further south, and was expanded to its current size of 843 acres (341 ha) in 1873.
It was designated a National Historic Landmark (listed by the U.S. Department of the Interior and administered by the National Park Service) in 1962. The Park was managed for decades by the New York City Department of Recreation and Parks and is currently managed by the Central Park Conservancy under contract with the municipal government in a public-private partnership. The Conservancy is a non-profit organization that contributes 75% of Central Park's $57 million annual budget and employs 80.7% of the Park's maintenance staff.
Statue of Liberty
Artist: Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi
Address: New York, NY, United States
Construction started: September 1875
Height: 93 m
Created: October 28, 1886
Architects: Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, Gustave Eiffel, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Richard Morris Hunt
The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculptureon Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the United States. The copper statue, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor, was built by Gustave Eiffel and dedicated on October 28, 1886. It was a gift to the United States from the people of France.
The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States, and was a welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad.
Bartholdi was inspired by French law professor and politician Édouard René de Laboulaye, who is said to have commented in 1865 that any monument raised to American independence would properly be a joint project of the French and American peoples. He may have been minded to honor the Union victory in the American Civil War and the end of slavery. Due to the troubled political situation in France, work on the statue did not commence until the early 1870s. In 1875, Laboulaye proposed that the French finance the statue and the Americans provide the site and build the pedestal. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions.
The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in Madison Square Park in Manhattanfrom 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened due to lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World started a drive for donations to complete the project that attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar. The statue was constructed in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.
The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service. The statue was closed for renovation for much of 1938. In the early 1980s, it was found to have deteriorated to such an extent that a major restoration was required. While the statue was closed from 1984 to 1986, the torch and a large part of the internal structure were replaced. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, it was closed for reasons of safety and security; the pedestal reopened in 2004 and the statue in 2009, with limits on the number of visitors allowed to ascend to the crown. The statue, including the pedestal and base, was closed for a year until October 28, 2012, so that a secondary staircase and other safety features could be installed; Liberty Island remained open. However, one day after the reopening, Liberty Island closed due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York; the statue and island opened again on July 4, 2013. Public access to the balcony surrounding the torch has been barred for safety reasons since 1916.
Rockefeller Center
Address: 45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111, United States
Area: 9 ha
Hours:
Open today · 7:00 am – 12:00 am
Architect: Raymond Hood
Phone: +1 212-332-6868
Architectural style: Modern architecture, Art Deco
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres (89,000 m2) between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Commissioned by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Address: 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, United States
Hours:
Open today · 10:00 am – 5:30 pm
Customer service: +1 212-535-7710
Founded: 1870
Director: Thomas P. Campbell
Founders: George Palmer Putnam, John Taylor Johnston, Howard Potter, Eastman Johnson
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (colloquially The Met), located in New York City, is the largest art museum in the United States and among the most visited art museums in the world. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is by area one of the world's largest art galleries. There is also a much smaller second location at The Cloisters in Upper Manhattan that features medieval art.
Represented in the permanent collection are works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. Several notable interiors, ranging from first-century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Met's galleries.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue.
As of 2012, the Met occupies about 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2). Admission is pay what you wish with a recommendation of $25
Times Square
Address: Manhattan, NY 10036, United States
Times Square is a major commercial intersection and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. Brightly adorned with billboards and advertisements, Times Square is sometimes referred to as The Crossroads of the World, The Center of the Universe, the heart of The Great White Way,and the "heart of the world". One of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District and a major center of the world's entertainment industry. Times Square is one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated fifty million visitors annually. Approximately 330,000 people pass through Times Square daily, many of them tourists;while over 460,000 pedestrians walk through Times Square on its busiest days.
Formerly Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building, the site of the annual ball drop which began on December 31, 1907, and continues today, attracting over a million visitors to Times Square every New Year's Eve.
Duffy Square, the northernmost of Times Square's triangles, was dedicated in 1937 to Chaplain Francis P. Duffy of New York City's U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment and is the site of a memorial to him, along with a statue of George M. Cohan.
Grand Central Terminal
$$ · Train Station
Iconic train station known for its grand facade & main concourse, also offering shops & dining.
Address: 89 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017, United States
Phone:+1 212-340-2583
Hours:
Open today · 5:30 am – 2:00 am
Grand Central Terminal (GCT) is a commuter (and former intercity) railroad terminal at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States.
Built by and named for the New York Central Railroad in the heyday of American long-distance passenger rail travel, it covers 48 acres (19 ha) and has 44 platforms, more than any other railroad station in the world. Its platforms, all below ground, serve 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower, though the total number of tracks along platforms and in rail yards exceeds 100.
The terminal serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York State, and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. Until 1991, the terminal served Amtrak, which moved to nearby Pennsylvania Station upon completion of the Empire Connection. The East Side Access project is underway to bringLong Island Rail Road service to the terminal.
Although the terminal has been officially called "Grand Central Terminal" since the present structure opened, it has "always been more colloquially and affectionately known as Grand Central Station", a name of one of the earlier railroad stations on the same site. "Grand Central Station" is the name of the nearby U.S. Post Office station at 450 Lexington Avenue and the name also refers to the Grand Central – 42nd Street subway station which serves the terminal area.
Grand Central Terminal features both monumental spaces and meticulously crafted detail. In a February 2013 BBC News article, historian David Cannadine described it as one of the most majestic buildings of the twentieth century. In 2013, Grand Central Terminal hosted 21.6 million visitors, rendering it one of the ten most-visited tourist attractions worldwide.
In 2006, Argent Ventures transferred ownership of the station to Midtown TDR Ventures. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that is the parent of Metro-North, holds a lease until 2274.
Museum of Modern Art
Address: 11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019, United States
Hours:
Open today · 10:30 am – 5:30 pm
Architectural styles: International Style, Modern architecture, Contemporary architecture
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world The museum's collection offers an overview of modern and contemporary art,including works of architecture and design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated books and artist's books, film and electronic media.
Ellis Island
Established: January 1, 1892
Management: U.S. National Park Service
Architectural style: Renaissance Revival architecture
Architect: Edward Lippincott Tilton, William A. Boring
American Museum of Natural History
Address: Central Park West & 79th St, New York, NY 10024, United States
Hours:
Open today · 10:00 am – 5:45 pm
Director: Ellen V. Futter
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Address: 1071 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128, United States
Hours:
Open today · 10:00 am – 5:45 pm
Founded: 1939, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Founders: Frank Lloyd Wright, Solomon R. Guggenheim, Peggy Guggenheim
Parent organization: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation