Statue
of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty, the most enduring symbol of New York City - and
indeed, the USA - can trace its unlikely origins to a pair of Parisian
Republicans. In 1865, political activist Edouard Ren? Lefebvre de Laboulaye
and sculptor Fr?d?ric-Auguste Bartholdi went to a dinner party and came
away with the notion of building a monument honoring the American conception
of political freedom, which they would then donate to the Land of Opportunity.
Twenty-one years later, on 28 October 1886, the 151ft (45m) Liberty
Enlightening the World, modeled on the Colossus of Rhodes, was finally
unveiled in New York Harbor before President Grover Cleveland and a
harbor full of tooting ships. It's a 354-step climb to the statue's
crown, the equivalent of climbing a 22-story building, and if you want
to tackle it, start early to avoid the crowds - it's hard to contemplate
the American dream with your nose to the tail of the person in front.
Empire State Building
New York's original skyline symbol, the Empire State Building, is a
limestone classic built in just 410 days during the depths of the Depression.
Standing 102-stories and 1454ft (436m) above 5th Ave and 34th St, it's
on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria. The famous antenna was
originally to be a mooring mast for zeppelins, but the Hindenberg disaster
put a stop to that plan. One airship accidentally met up with the building:
a B25 crashing into the 79th floor on a foggy day in July 1945, killing
14 people. Taking the ear-popping lift to the 86th or 102nd floor observation
desks can entail a bit of waiting around, but it's worth it when you
get there.
Central Park
It's easy to see what a boon Central Park is when you're standing up
the top of the Empire State: the 843 acre (337 hectare) rectangle of
bobble-topped green bits are a welcome contrast to the concrete and
traffic mosh jostling in the rest of Manhattan. When Central Park was
officially opened in 1873 it was intended to be an oasis from the city's
bustle. However the commotion which is New York seeps into the botanic
calm in the form of joggers, skaters, musicians and tourists. Quieter
areas are above 72nd St, where the crowds thin out and the well-planned
landscaping becomes more apparent. There's a small zoo in the park,
organized and casual sport (predominantly baseball and Frisbee) to watch
or play, a swimming pool and various free performances.
Times Square
Dubbed the 'Great White Way' after its bright lights, Times Square has
long been celebrated as New York's glittery crossroads. The Square went
into deep decline during the 1960s when the movie palaces turned XXX-rated
and the area became known as a hangout for every colorful, crazy or
dangerous character in Midtown. A major 'clean-up' operation removed
most of the sleaze and now the combination of color, zipping message
boards and massive TV screens makes for quite a sight. Up to a million
people gather here every New Year's Eve to see a brightly lit ball descend
from the roof of One Times Square at midnight, an event that lasts just
90 seconds and leaves most of the revelers wondering what to do with
themselves for the rest of the night.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Upper East Side is home to New York's greatest concentration of
cultural centers: 5th Ave above 57th St is known as Museum Mile. The
big daddy of these is the Metropolitan Museum of Art ('the Met'), New
York's most popular tourist site, which functions something like a self-contained
cultural city-state with three million individual objects in its collection.
It's best to target exactly what you want to see and head there first,
before culture and crowd fatigue sets in. Exhibitions range from Egyptian
mummies through to baseball cards so even if (when?) you get lost, you're
sure to stumble upon some interesting stuff.
Museum of Modern Art
One of New York's greatest museums as well as one of its most architecturally
significant buildings, the Museum of Modern Art, 11 W 53rd St, has a
first-rate collection and puts on important retrospectives each year.
Known as 'MOMA,' the museum boasts a permanent collection of masterpieces
including Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Van Gogh's Starry Night
and Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie-Woogie. Claude Monet's Water Lilies
rates a whole gallery to itself. MOMA also has an outstanding photography
collection and a very cool gift shop.
Other Museums
In addition to the heavyweights, New York has dozens of museums that
would bring tears of joy to any self-respecting Rotarian in a mid-sized
town. Museum Mile's Solomon R Guggenheim Museum is a distinctive spiral
space designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to hold one of the 20th century's
greatest private bequests. The Whitney Museum of American Art, which
specializes in contemporary art, is nearby.
American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West and 79th St, is
most famous for its three large dinosaur halls but don't dismiss the
rest of the permanent collection (which numbers about 30 million artifacts).
Temporary exhibitions often have an emphasis on hands-on or interactive
displays, making the museum extremely popular with kids. Couch potatoes
should definitely check out the Museum of Television & Radio, a
great place to head when it's raining or when you're simply fed up with
walking. Over 75,000 US TV and radio programs are available from the
museum's computer catalog and you can sit down and veg out at one of
90 consoles.
SoHo
SoHo (from 'south of Houston') is the city's leading area for art galleries,
clothing stores and boutiques selling oh-so-precious curios. The area
is a paradigm of inadvertent urban renewal, having transmogrified from
the city's leading commercial district post-Civil War, to a tuned-in
artists colony in the 1950s, to the impossibly expensive gorgeousness
of today. Its beautifully restored cast-iron buildings are some of the
best examples of this style in the world. Some cutting edge cats (self-styled,
of course) say it's all over for SoHo - too self-conscious, too trendy,
too pricey - but the galleries are undeniably good and no-one's forcing
you to buy autographed tea-cosies from hustler-designers with wares
to sell.
Tribeca
Though not as touristy or architecturally significant as SoHo, Tribeca
has an even cooler etymology: it's the 'TRIangle BElow CAnal' St. This
neighborhood of old warehouses and loft apartments has a fair share
of sceney restaurants and bars, along with Robert De Niro's Tribeca
Films production company. It's not unusual to spot a star hanging out
at a local restaurant or bar, and Tribeca's desolation chic makes the
area a favorite for fashion photographers. As yet, the neighborhood
isn't overrun with boutiques and chain stores, and some of the warehouses
are still derelict. It won't stay like this for long though - the music
of Tribeca is a chorus of cash registers pinging in developers' heads.
Greenwich Village
The Village (as New Yorkers call it) is one of the city's most popular
neighborhoods, and a symbol throughout the world for all things outlandish
and bohemian. The area's reputation as a creative enclave can be traced
back to at least the early 1900s, when artists and writers moved in,
followed by jazz musicians who played at famous (still functioning)
clubs like the Blue Note and Village Vanguard. By the '40s the neighborhood
was known as a gathering place for gays. The coffeehouses on Bleecker
St hark back to New York's beatnik '50s and hippie '60s. Bob Dylan reputedly
smoked his first joint in the Village, Jimi Hendrix lived here and the
Rolling Stones recorded here. Greenwich Village is still a vibrant and
varied area, packed with historic sites, cafes, shops, gay bars, and
Washington Square Park, purportedly the most crowded recreational space
in the world. |
