By Patricia Schultz
Author of 1000 Places To See Before You Die
And 1000 Places To See in the USA and Canada Before You Die
This is Metropolis. This is Gotham City. This is the one all the other cities wish they were – "the only real city-city" as Truman Capote put it. New Yorkers are only half-kidding when they call it the capital of the world…and maybe it is.
Even the locals admit to never seeing it all, or ever really knowing it all. Visitors come from all corners of the world to see it first hand and then, overwhelmed by the possibilities, settle on picking and choosing as if from a glorious Chinese menu. Here is a sampling of just a few of its don't-miss highlights:
Times Square, Crossroads of the World
Times Square is the most recognizable intersection in the world, a six-block stretch where Broadway and Seventh Avenue cross, creating a heady vortex of light and energy. This is the place where Damon Runyon's guys and dolls earned their lettuce in the 1930s, and where peepshows and drug addicts forged New York's apocalyptic reputation in the 1970s. That all started to change in the early '90s, when the city invited Disney and a number of other business giants to collaborate in the area's revitalization, and today the place is once again the Great White Way, a family-entertainment and business district where the old movie palaces have been restored and the sidewalks are paved with tourists, TV crews, multinational retail, and some of the brightest and most visible advertisements on earth.
Times Square is home to some three dozen theaters between West 42nd and West 53rd streets, their marquees lit up with a mix of revivals (Gypsy), new contenders (Spring Awakening), modern classics (Chicago), and seemingly everlasting troupers (Phantom of the Opera). Ticket prices tend toward the stratospheric (with orchestra seats usually around $100), but if you wait in line you can get same-day half-price orchestra seats at TKTS booth (scheduled to reopen in late summer at its original Duffy Square location, the operation is temporarily relocated half a block away on W. 26th within the Marriott Hotel). Boards list available shows, but don't count on being able to scoop tickets for the big hits.
Pre- or post-theater, area restaurants range from classics to themed tourist traps. On West 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues—a stretch known as Restaurant Row—Joe Allen has been busy since 1965, serving diners drawn to its legendary hamburgers, butcher paper tablecloths, and exposed brick walls full of signed theater memorabilia. A few blocks east, Virgil's Real Barbecue is on the themey side with its two-story roadhouse interior and good ole boy knickknacks, but it has surprisingly authentic, delicious meat—Texas beef brisket, pulled Carolina pork, and Memphis pork ribs. If that's just not NYC enough for you, walk up to the Carnegie Deli, an only-in-New-York kosher deli whose air is redolent of pastrami and Henny Youngman jokes. Tables are set elbow to elbow, and the seasoned waiters like to chide wide-eyed tourists as part of their shtick, but when they tell you that you won't be hungry till next week after eating one of their mile-high sandwiches, they aren't kidding.
Times Square: between 42nd and 48th Sts. along Broadway and 7th Ave. Visitor info: www.nycvisit.com. TKTS: www.tdf.org/tkts. Cost: generally half the price of orchestra seats. Joe Allen: Tel 212-581-6464; www.joeallenrestaurant.com. Cost: dinner $30. Virgil's: Tel 212-921-9494; www.virgilsbbq.com. Cost: dinner $30. Carnegie Deli: Tel 800-334-5606 or 212-757-2245; www.carnegiedeli.com. Cost: sandwiches from $13
The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
People think of the Statue of Liberty as an all-American symbol, but she's not, really. Born and bred in France, she was intended to symbolize not one country but rather an abstract, revolutionary idea: liberty, for everyone, everywhere. The idea for Lady Liberty, whose proper given name is Liberty Enlightening the World, was allegedly born at a dinner party in 1865, when the host, French Senator Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye suggested presenting a gift to America in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
It wasn't until 1886 that the 151-foot-tall copper-clad statue finally took her place atop a 27,000-ton stone-and-concrete pedestal. Enclosed by the star-shaped walls of Fort Wood on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island), the statue sits just over a mile from lower Manhattan. Lady Liberty's timing couldn't have been better: Beginning in 1892, the U.S. saw the largest wave of immigrants in its history. For many of the newcomers arriving at the port of New York, the Statue of Liberty became the first and most perfect glimpse of their new land.
Today, you can reach the island by tour boat from Battery Park. Ranger-guided tours take visitors onto the lower promenade of Fort Wood and then up to the pedestal's observation platform for a view of the statue's interior framework, designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame). Liberty's crown is no longer open to visitors, and her torch has been off-limits since 1916 after it was damaged when German saboteurs blew up a munitions dump on nearby Black Tom Island. The torch was replaced during the 1980s and the original now sits in the lobby museum.
Slightly to the north, and accessible by the same tour boats, Ellis Island was the processing station for roughly 12 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954.
A good view of Lady Liberty and the Manhattan skyline can also be found on the Staten Island Ferry, which runs to and from New York's outermost borough—and it's free too. For a longer ride, the Circle Line offers sightseeing around the harbor or all the way around Manhattan Island—it's a New York classic.
Statue of Liberty: www.nps.gov/stli. Ferry to Liberty & Ellis Island: Tel 212-269-5755; www.circlelinedowntown.com. Ellis Island: www.nps.gov/elis Circle Line Tours: Tel 212-563-3200; www.circleline42.com. Best times: weekdays, when the lines can be shorter.
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Patricia Schultz is the author of 1000 Places To See Before You Die (Workman) and 1000 Places to See in the USA & Canada Before You Die (Workman)
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Comments: 16
Thank you ...I really enjoyed the synopsis and can't wait to buy the book!
Your article is featured in today's Community DateBook™
Like Leslie, I'd love to hear more about NYC! Or how about adventures just outside the city like the Botanical Gardens?
When I go I already have many things planned for me before I get there....
I've lived there..my daughter lives there now....
I think I'll check this book out and plan a day for exploration....
Ceiling of Grand Central Station
Chrysler Building, one of, if not the most beautiful building in the world
Grand Central Park
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977148029&nav=MyGather
Started off crappy......pulling out of my driveway at the ungodly hour of 5:30 A.M. windows foggy, tired, i barrel in reverse, an scrap the side of my car with woody, tough hedges, thinking I'll only have to buff it out. Get to the bus pick up to meet the girls, look at my poor car and i RIPPED off the entire passenger side of the bumper,(which explained the scrapping niose I heard on the way). The whole side of the car was so gouged, 'buffing' wasn't gonna help. (Yeah I know, how did I do that on hedges? As I said, they were very tough and woody.) So i get on the bus and one of my friends ,whom I love dearly) just doesn't understand, says i shouln't let it bother me . That car is my 'baby', i wax it, armor-all it, keep it nice and clean, AND what i had to go through to get that car! (I had a brand new Mitsubishi Eclipse ,3 months old, and some moron with no license,no insurance crosses th ecenter line and totals it, along with crushing my knee cap, leaving me with 1/2 a knee cap and had to endure surgury and therapy) So, all I can think about is my deductable i have to pay, my premiums will increase, time off from work for estimates, the whole freakin' hassle of it. I try to put on a happy face, we go to FAO Swartz, was NOT my choice, i am an adult, I don't enjoy looking at toys. I tryed to enjoy the giant piano that was featured in the movie "Big". Then this same friend suggests we walk around. 30 blocks later we head for "mars 2112' restaurant as suggested by another friend. I would've preferred a NY deli, or Hard Rock, or a diner,where we know what we're getting. So backtrack 40 blocks ,walking aimlessly cuz nobody brought a map, we find the restaurant. $2.00 to get in includes a 'virtual simulator ride' in a spaceship thing. I did'nt know thats what it was because I get sick on those things, it just feels like bad turbulance to me. So i endure the ride, we sit to eat and the menu sucked, overpriced, place loaded with loud kids. I order a veggi burger w/ fries $16.95. Crappy too. Then my friend just HAS to see the Central Park carosel. At this poiint, we've walked AND backtracked from 8th st to 59th st, the start of central park. It's a freakin merry-go-round for heavens sake!!! I didn't see the attraction. My other friend and I would've rather seen a show or gone to a museum,etc, as we have been to NYC a dozen times and have seen it all. THEN the icing on the cake was we're wating to cross the street and a pigeon DUMPS ALL OVER ME!!!!!!! On my face, in my hair, my clothes. Shes laughing, I'm in tears by now. (I probably would've been laughing too if I hadn't torn my car to shreds that morning. Messed up car= $2500.00 Bus Trip To New York=$35.00 Lunch at a stupid restaurant= $20.00 Getting crapped on at the end of the day= PRICELESS!!!!!!!
Oh, and BTW, enrich your experience on Gather by joining us at pointmasters.gather.com.
I LOVE NEW YORK, I see You Do Too !