• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1739 0

shoulder-to-shoulder crowds that many New Yorkers studiously avoid. Originally named after the New York Times (whose headquarters have relocated nearby), the area has seen many changes since the first subway line opened in 1904 with a 42nd street station. You won't find speakeasies and unsavory clubs but a family-friendly destination with a pedestrianized stretch of Broadway and stadium seating behind discount theater ticket seller TKTS—all under the glare of brand names like Mtv and M&Ms. While the focus of the entertainment may have shifted over the years, it's still the heart of New York's theatre scene with 40 Broadway theaters nearby. If you like sensory overload, the chaotic mix of huge underwear billboards, flashing digital displays, on-location television broadcasts, and outré street performers it will give you your fix.

After its $1.8 million renovation, Times Square Visitor Center is a savvy place to take shelter and get your bearings when the crowds start to overwhelm you. On display are a past New Year’s Eve ball and a New Year’s Eve "Wishing Wall," where you can write on confetti that will become one of the actual pieces to flutter down at midnight on January 1. You can also take a free walking tour of Times Square, and watch a video on Times Square’s unsavory past in a mock-peep booth. Stop by for multilingual kiosks, MetroCards, a peek in the gift shop, sightseeing and theater tickets, and (most important!) free restrooms. | 1560 Broadway, between 46th and 47th Sts., Midtown West | 10036 | 212/869–1890 | www.timessquarenyc.org | Times Square Exposé tour, free | Tours leave Fri. at noon from the Visitor Center | | Subway: 1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, S to 42nd St./Times Sq.

Top of the Rock.

Rockefeller Center’s multifloor observation deck, first opened in 1933 and closed in the early 1980s, reopened in 2005 to be embraced by visitors and locals alike. Arriving just before sunset affords a view of the city that morphs before your eyes into a dazzling wash of colors, with a bird’s-eye view of the tops of the Empire State Building, the Citicorp Building, and the Chrysler Building, and sweeping views northward to Central Park and south to the Statue of Liberty.

Transparent elevators lift you to the 67th-floor interior viewing area, and then an escalator leads to the outdoor deck on the 69th floor for sightseeing through nonreflective glass safety panels. Then, take another elevator or stairs to the 70th floor for a 360-degree outdoor panorama of New York City on a deck that is only 20 feet wide and nearly 200 feet long.

Reserved-time ticketing eliminates long lines. Indoor exhibits include films of Rockefeller Center’s history and a model of the building. Especially interesting is a Plexiglas screen on the floor with footage showing Rock Center construction workers dangling on beams high above the streets; the brave can even “walk” across a beam to get a sense of what it might have been like to erect this skyscraper. TIP The local consensus is that the views from the Top of the Rock are better than those from the Empire State Building, in part because the Empire State is part of the skyline here. | Entrance on 50th St., between 5th and 6th Aves., Midtown West | 10020 | 877/692–7625 or 212/698–2000 | www.topoftherocknyc.com | $21 adult | children under 6 not admitted | Daily 8–midnight; last elevator at 11 pm | Subway: B, D, F, M to 47th–50th Sts./Rockefeller Center.

WORTH NOTING

Daily News Building.

One of the city’s most unusual lobbies resides in Raymond Hood’s Art Deco and modernist tower. An illuminated 12-foot globe revolves beneath a black glass dome. Around it, spreading across the floor like a giant compass and literally positioning New York at the center of the world, bronze lines indicate mileage to various international destinations. The Daily News, however, hasn’t called this building home since the mid-1990s, 15 years after it played the offices of the fictional newspaper the Daily Planet in the original Superman movie. | 220 E. 42nd St., between 2nd and 3rd Aves., Midtown East | 10017 | Subway: 4,