30 Times Square Interesting Facts – History | At Night | Visit
Times Square is a serious business intersection within the borough of Manhattan in New York City, on the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets.
Times Square facts
- State: New York
- City: New York City
- Borough: Manhattan
- Community District: Manhattan 5
- Boundaries: Broadway, 7th Avenue, 42nd and 47th Streets
- Subway services: 1, 2, 3, 7, <7>, A, C, E, N, Q, R, W, and S trains at Times Square–42nd Street station
- Bus route: M7, M20, M42, M50, M104
- Historical features: Duffy Square
- George Michael Cohan statue
- Original Name: Longacre Square.
- Times Square Nicknames: The Crossroads of the World, the Great White Way, the Tenderloin.
- Added to National Register of Historic Places: 2001.
- Times Square Declared Smoke-Free: February 2011.
- Times Square in Films: Deep Impact, The Stand, Knowing, Vanilla Sky, I Am Legend, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
- Times Square Ball Weight: 11,875 lbs.
- Number of Lights on Times Square Ball: 32,256.
The prolonged Times Square space, additionally referred to as the Theatre District, consists of the blocks between Sixth and Eighth Avenues from east to west, and West 40th and West 53rd Streets from south to north, making up the western a part of the business space of Midtown Manhattan.
Times Square History
It acquired its name in 1904 when Albert Ochs, writer of The New York Times, moved the newspaper’s headquarters to a brand new skyscraper on what was then often known as Longacre Square.
The name caught, even after The New York Times moved throughout Broadway in 1913. Now identified worldwide as an emblem of the American spirit, Times Square is residence to many widespread Manhattan sights, together with Hard Rock Cafe, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, and ABC’s Times Square Studios (the place Good Morning America is filmed).
Known early on as Long Acre (additionally spelled Longacre) Square, it had an unsavory status because the center of illicit exercise within the 1890s, although earlier within the 19th century it had been each a business and a residential space.
The square was renamed in 1904 for The New York Times, which opened its new places of work within the Times Tower on the sq. (although it could outgrow them by 1913).
Almost instantly the sq. turned the place New Yorkers gathered to have fun the arrival of the brand new year. In 1907 the Times started decreasing an enormous glass ball down its flagpole at midnight on New Year’s Eve to mark the event.
Throughout the years, ever more subtle technology was used for the sq.’s ball drop because the custom got here to incorporate dwell tv broadcasts that shared the experience with tens of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States.
Longacre Square began with a number of brownstones constructed by a developer who noticed the potential for a brand new “uptown” neighborhood.
Following the realm’s growth, people moved to the sq. in droves, and with them got here brothels, pickpockets, and streetwalkers. Soon, in a foreshadowing of its later destiny, the realm was a veritable red-light district.
In 1895, Longacre Square had a brand new tenant, Oscar Hammerstein I, who developed big leisure complicated within the hopes of rekindling an interest in opera. This complicated, referred to as the Olympia, occupied a full block on 42nd Street and featured three theaters.
During this time, many new theaters opened on the Great White Way, so named for Broadway’s well-known light present. The vaudeville circuit discovered success together with reputable theater.
In 1904, The New York Times held a New Year’s Eve occasion to have fun their relocation to Longacre Square. Their construction was then the second tallest in Manhattan and has become the image for a brand new, vibrant period.
Every year since this first celebration, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered for the well-known and far anticipated ball drop ceremony.
At the flip of the 20th century, plenty of spectacular theatres have been established on 42nd Street, and by the second decade of the century the Times Square and Broadway space had grown to be arguably probably the most well-known leisure district within the nation, partly due to the square’s central location and since located beneath it was a big station for the newly constructed subway.
During this era, it earned the nickname “Crossroads of the World.” Moreover, in brief order, Broadway turned synonymous with American theatre, particularly musical theatre.
As the Great Depression deepened, reputable theatres on Time Square started to shut and have been incessantly transformed into motion picture theatres. As the 20th century progressed, the realm turned more and more tawdry.
By the 1960s and ’70s, it had grown to be a center for sleazy grownup leisure and was once more crime-ridden. Time Square’s resurgence within the 1990s, with the introduction of huge tourist-friendly shops, theatres, and eating places, is commonly credited to advocacy by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and to funding within the space by the Disney Company.
Times Square Functions
Times Square is a serious business intersection, vacationer vacation spot, leisure middle, and neighborhood within the Midtown Manhattan part of New York City, on the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue.
Brightly lit by quite a few billboards and ads, it stretches from West 42nd to West 47th Streets, and is usually known 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 areas, additionally it is the hub of the Broadway Theater District and a serious middle of the world’s leisure business. Times Square is without doubt one of the world’s most visited vacationer sights, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors yearly.
Approximately 330,000 people move by means of Times Square day by day, a lot of the vacationers, whereas over 460,000 pedestrians stroll by means of Times Square on its busiest days.
Formerly often known as Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the then newly erected Times Building, now One Times Square. It is the location of the annual New Year’s Eve ball drop, which started on December 31, 1907, and continues to draw over a million visitors to Times Square each year.
Times Square’s capabilities as a city sq., however, is just not geometrically a square; it’s nearer in the form to a bowtie, with two triangles emanating roughly north and south from 45th Street, the place Seventh Avenue intersects Broadway.
Broadway runs diagonally, crossing by means of the horizontal and vertical avenue grid of Manhattan laid down by the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, and that intersection creates the “bowtie” form of Times Square.
The southern triangle of Times Square has no particular name, however, the northern triangle is formally Duffy Square.
It was devoted in 1937 to World War I chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy of New York City’s U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment and is the location of a memorial to him. There can also be a statue of composer and entertainer George M. Cohan, and the TKTS ticket sales space for Broadway theaters.
Times Square Incidents
There have been a number of incidents in Times Square:
On the morning of March 6, 2008, a small bomb induced minor injury, however, there have been no reported accidents.
On May 1, 2010, Times Square was evacuated from 43rd to 46th Streets following the invention of a car bomb. It was discovered to be a failed bombing.
On May 18, 2017, a car crash at Times Square killed one particular person and injured 22 others.
On August 7, 2019, shortly after the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, a backfiring bike resulted in a stampede as a result of sound being mistaken for gunfire; the stampede injured at the least twelve people.
Times Square Number of visitors
Times Square is probably the most visited place globally with 360,000 pedestrian visitors a day, amounting to over 131 million a year.
As of 2013, it had higher attendance than do every of the Disney theme parks worldwide, with 128,794,000 visitors between March 2012 and February 2013, versus 126,479,000 for the Walt Disney World theme parks in Bay Lake, Florida, in 2012.
Even excluding residents from the visitor count, Times Square is the world’s second most visited vacationer attraction, behind the Las Vegas Strip.
The high level of pedestrian visitors has resulted in $4.eight billion in annual retail, leisure, and resort gross sales, with 22 cents out of each dollar spent by visitors in New York City being spent inside Times Square.
Times Square Corporate presence
The following corporations have company presences within the space:
Bain & Company
Barclays Capital (previously Lehman Brothers)
Bertelsmann
BMO Capital Markets
Condé Nast Publications
Diamond Management & Technology Consultants
Ernst & Young
Fashion One
Instinet
King & Spalding
Logo TV
Morgan Stanley
MTV
Nickelodeon
The New York Times Company
Revlon
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
O’Melveny & Myers
Six Flags Inc.
Thomson Reuters
ViacomCBS
ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks
Times Square Notable landmarks
Coca-Cola sign
Disney Store
Fashion One
Forever 21 (formerly Virgin Megastores)
Hard Rock Cafe New York
M&M’s World
MTV
Planet Hollywood
PlayStation Theater
Revlon
Times Square Studios
TKTS
Times Square
Major buildings on or near Times Square
1 Astor Plaza (home of Fashion One, Revlon, and MTV’s New York studios)
810 Seventh Avenue
1500 Broadway
The Bowtie Building (1530 Broadway)
1585 Broadway
AXA Center
Bank of America Tower
Bertelsmann Building
Brill Building
Church of Saint Mary the Virgin
The New York Times Building
The Orion
Paramount Theatre
“Numbered” Times Square buildings
One Times Square – The former New York Times Tower (1904)
2 Times Square – Renaissance Hotel Times Square (1992)
3 Times Square – Thomson Reuters Building (1998–2001)
4 Times Square – Condé Nast Building (1996–1999)
6 Times Square – Knickerbocker Building (1906)
7 Times Square – Times Square Tower (2002–2007)
11 Times Square – Times Square Plaza (2007–2010)
20 Times Square – 701 7th Ave (and 47th St) in development
Hotels
Hotel Carter
Crowne Plaza Times Square
Doubletree Guest Suites
Hotel Edison
Millennium Broadway
New York Marriott Marquis
Renaissance Hotel Times Square (2 Times Square)
Sheraton New York
Times Square Edition
W Times Square
Hilton Times Square
Nearby Places to See
Tenement Museum
Established in 1988, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is housed in a five-story brick tenement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. From 1863 to 1935, the construction was residence to over 7,000 immigrants from over 20 nations. This museum locations the lives of these immigrants within the context of American history with reveals of their restored residences.
NYC Police Museum
The New York City Police Museum is a superb different from the costly museums of Manhattan. Here you will discover modern and old-fashioned police gear, gun and patrol automobile shows, and a transferring tribute to these officers who lost their lives on September 11th.
Museum of Finance
The American Finance Museum options artifacts and paperwork from the previous and present of American finance. its goal is to teach and enhance the data people have of finance in American society.
Eldridge St. Museum
Originally inbuilt 1887, the Museum at Eldridge Street in Manhattan is, without doubt, one of the most traditionally widespread websites in NYC. Enjoy day by day guided excursions of this stunning NYC landmark, when you study in regards to the wealthy tradition of the Jewish inhabitants on the flip of the 20th-Century in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Trinity Church
With hands-on reveals, an old graveyard, and musical performances, your entire family could have enjoyable whereas they study. Whether they’re studying excerpts from essential New Yorker’s diaries or testing the graves of essential New Yorkers like Alexander Hamilton, there’s history and tradition galore on the Trinity Church.
Take away
Despite Times Square’s infamous status, it managed to take care of its highly effective symbolism, partly due to its “chaotic action, dense and diverse pedestrian activity, [and] continuous role as the key entertainment district.”
It additionally remained a central transit hub and supplied a “unique physical ‘experience of place,’ which derived from its small-scale buildings, open space, and illuminated lights.” Times Square’s symbolic which means, due to this fact, ignited debate and opposition with any proposed plan for renewal.
In 2018, the New York City Economic Development Council created a brief documentary in regards to the economic transformation of 42nd Street in New York City beginning within the early 1980s, from the middle of vice and crime in NYC to space the place hundreds of thousands of people move by means of every year.
Against All Odds tells the story by means of interviews with the people who made this transformation occur — mission leaders, actual property builders, architects, regulation enforcement officers, and historic preservationists. Learn more about the things to do in Napa Valley.
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