Give My Regards to Broadway

To me, New York City is my hometown. I know it well, so I can tell you that most visitors come to see the sights of Manhattan but do not try to include the other boroughs, which are well worth a visit. New York City consists of five boroughs – Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. Each of them has something to offer visitors. Beyond Queens, there are also the suburbs of Long Island with lovely beaches. Let’s begin with Manhattan, and then I will write about the other boroughs with links to each.

The most iconic sight in the US is the Statue of Liberty. This beautiful and very tall lady stands in New York Harbor. She was a gift from France and put together in 1886. The statue is one of the world’s largest statues, standing just under 152 feet tall and weighing 450,000 pounds. When in Manhattan you can see the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park but the best thing to do is get up close by taking a short boat trip to Liberty Island. You can enter the pedestal, but the crown remains closed to the public.

While on a touring the statue you can also stop at Ellis Island and visit the Immigration Museum. The museum is located in the historic immigration station complex, where thousands of immigrants were processed before they were allowed to enter the US. There are displays focusing on the process, the experiences, and the stories of immigrants. You can also search the on-site computer database to see a record of the immigrants who came through Ellis Island.

It is fantastic to get off the busy city streets of Manhattan and enter Central Park where you can meet up with nature. The park is a half-mile wide and 2.5 miles long. It makes life in New York City more livable. Here you can walk, see the seasons change, picnic, and just relax. Within the park, there are many attractions like Belvedere Castle, the memorial to Beatle John Lennon Strawberry Fields, the Central Park Zoo, and the Lake.

Belvedere Castle has exhibit rooms and an observation deck. It is home to the official weather station in Central Park. The castle is a shell with doors and windows open to the weather sitting on Vista Rock, a 130-foot-tall outcropping and the park’s second-highest natural elevation. Today it is a visitor center with a gift shop.

The Central Park Zoo consists of vine-clad, glass-roofed pergolas linking the three major exhibit areas – tropic, temperate, and polar. The areas are centered around a square central garden with a square sea lion pool. The pool is surrounded by glass fencing to let visitors observe the sea lions.

The Tropic Zone puts you into a rainforest with many different animals. There are Rodgriques flying foxes, emerald tree boas, cotton-top tamarins, and so many more. Among the birds are scarlet ibis, emerald starlings, African pygmy goose, and many more.

The Temperate Zone has a landscaped series of paths surrounding a lake. The animals featured are red pandas, white-napped cranes, snow monkeys, and snow leopards.

The northern side of the garden is adjacent to the Penguin and Sea Bird section. The multilevel structure has a chilled penguin house with macaroni penguins, king penguins, Gentoo penguins, and tufted penguins.

Besides the outdoor seal pool, this is also an outdoor grizzly bear exhibit.

Rockefeller Center is a vast entertainment and shopping complex in the middle of Manhattan. It is home to NBC-TV and other media. The highlight is the 70-story 30 Rockefeller Plaza, an Art Deco skyscraper offering fantastic views over Manhattan from the Top of the Rock Observation Deck.

The “deck,” as it is called, includes three floors – the 67th, 69th, and 70th. There are indoor and outdoor viewing spaces, and you can enjoy fantastic views by day or night. In the wintertime, people enjoy the outside skating rink at the base of the tower from October to April.

After Thanksgiving, the huge Christmas tree is set up in front of the skating rink and stays lit for the holiday season, turning Rockefeller Center into a magical-looking place.

One last point of interest is the famous bronze statue of Atlas in front of the International Building.

Not far from Rockefeller Center is the famous entertainment venue Radio City Music Hall. This is a designated city landmark. It is an Art Deco theater built in 1932 featuring music extravaganzas with The Rockettes and the latest movies. Today it also hosts major events like the Grammy Awards and the Tony Awards.

Broadway and the Theater District

No visit to New York City is complete without seeing a Broadway show. The Theater District encompasses many theaters and those along Broadway.

Shubert Alley is a well-known pedestrian-only alley in the Theater District. It includes two well-known playhouses, the Shubert and the Booth.

Other legendary places to see in the area are Sardi’s Restaurant, where famous actors met, and the Music Box Theater, where Irving Berlin staged The Music Box Revue in 1921.

One of the most famous landmarks and main tourist attractions is the Empire State Building which opened in 1931. The building rises 381-meters into the air and has 102-stories. At the top of the building is a mooring mast for airships. There are two observatories offering amazing views all around. On clear days you can see up to 80 miles and the neighboring states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

The 86th Floor Observatory is the city’s highest open-air observation deck, and it has been featured in countless movies and TV shows.

The Top Deck on the 102nd Floor at 1,250 feet above street level has an enclosed viewing area.

The National September 11 Memorial is a moving tribute to the almost 3,000 people killed due to the attacks on September 11, 2001, and also to the six people killed in the earlier World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.

The memorial is surrounded by trees and grass, with tranquil pools with water cascading over the sides and flowing into a seemingly bottomless square. These are the largest manmade waterfalls in North America. Around the pools are bronze panels with names of all those who were killed in the attacks.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum is housed in an architecturally impressive, curving glass building between the two pools. You can see artifacts, photos, and videos that present the story of 9/11, as well as the aftermath and impacts.

While visiting here, don’t miss the amazing Westfield World Trade Center, which includes Oculus Plaza. The building has white fins and resembles a spaceship. There are shops and high-end stores.

The One World Trade Center building has an observation deck offering amazing views from the 100th, 101st, and 102nd floors. The elevator is one of the highlights, and as you ascend, the surrounding panels show how New York City transformed over the years from a rural landscape to a metropolis. The glass building can be seen from all over the city and is a unique structure on the Manhattan skyline.

Famous Wall Street stretches for eight city blocks from Broadway to South Street. It is home to the most important stock exchanges in the world, among them the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ, and the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Don’t forget to look for the well-known bronze statue of the Charging Bull at Bowling Green on Broadway. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Financial District.

Other places to visit nearby are the impressive Trinity Church and Federal Hall.

The High Line has recently become a popular attraction. This is a former rail line transformed into an urban walking trail about two to three stories above the city's streets. It is a beautiful and unique linear public park with different plants and trees and lined with glass railings offering spectacular city views. The park stretches from Gansevoort Street at the south end of the West Side to West 34th Street at the north end, running parallel to 10th Avenue most of the way. It can be accessed at various points along the route, some offering stair access only and others elevator access.

One of the highlights of the High Line is the Hudson Yards Overlook, called The Vessel, near 34th Street. It is an impressive multilevel structure.

Times Square is known to many from photos, postcards, movies, and TV shows. It is brightly lit by billboards and screens. This is the location of the popular New York City New Year’s Eve Celebrations with the famous “ball drop” at midnight. The square is a constantly vibrant place full of people. There are bleachers at one end where you can sit back and take in the scene.

It used to be known as Longacre Square and was named Times Square in 1904 after the New York Times Tower. The newspaper first posted the day’s current headlines long its moving sign, the first of its kind in the world, in 1928.

Another thing to do here is to visit Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. There are life-like wax figurines of NYC icons such as Jimmy Fallon and the set of The Tonight Show, Broadway cast members, and shows where you can dress up and participate. The building has a glass dome that protrudes over Times Square for fantastic views.

Fifth Avenue is the premier shopping area in New York and one of the most famous shopping streets in the US. Here you can find the flagship stores of top designers like Cartier, Tiffany, Bergdorf-Goodman, the famous Apple Store Fifth Avenue, and Saks Fifth Avenue. It is also enjoyable to just take a walk along Fifth Avenue, with the best walks being from the south end of Central Park to the New York Public Library.

The New York Public Library’s main branch was designed by architects Carrere & Hastings in the Beaux Arts style. There are impressive rooms, and it has been featured in many movies and TV shows. The library is housed in the Stephen A. Schwarzman building and opened in 1911.

The Main Reading Room stretches for two city blocks, and the Periodicals Room has 10,000 current magazines.

Adjacent to the New York Public Library, you’ll find the beautiful Bryant Park. The park has monuments, gardens, and “Le Carrousel” a popular carousel.

There is a game area with chess boards, checkers, and backgammon boards for a fee. During the winter, there is a small skating rink. The park has become an urban oasis great for walking and relaxing.

Along Fifth Avenue, you’ll also see St Patrick’s Cathedral dating from 1879, which is one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival in New York. The cathedral has massive bronze doors, a white marble façade, 33-foot spires, the Great Organ, and the statue of the Pieta at the side of the Lady Chapel.

Grand Central Terminal is known as Grand Central Station. It is an amazing Beaux Arts building that opened in 1913 as a terminal for the subway and train stations. Some of the highlights are the colonnaded faces and the statues on top outside on 42nd Street.

Going down the Grand Staircase into the station. you can gaze over the concourse from the top. The restored ceiling shows a celestial scene. There are many retail shops and restaurants.

Lincoln Center is the venue for performing arts. It is home to the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the Julliard School of Music, Lincoln Center Theater, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. There are 30 indoor and outdoor stages spread throughout the center.

Carnegie Hall opened in 1891 as New York’s first great concert hall. The hall is said to have the best acoustics in the world. The hall has seen musicians from Tchaikovsky, who conducted on opening night, to Leonard Bernstein, and even The Beatles. You can get a guided tour.

Museums

The Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Met was founded in 1870. It is one of the most famous museums in the US. Its permanent collection has over two million artworks that span 5,000 years.

The museum has two sites, with the centerpiece being The Met Fifth Avenue. The highlights here include American decorative arts, arms and armor, costumes, Egyptian art, musical instruments, photographs, and more.

The Met Cloisters is located in Fort Tyron Park in northern Manhattan. This branch of the Met is housed in a structure built around medieval cloisters, chapels, and halls. It focuses on Medieval art and architecture of Europe.

The American Museum of Natural History has eight permanent exhibit halls showcasing everything from science to the environment to animals and fossils. The museum also features special exhibits such as one on sharks, with models of sharks that you can touch and the rare 22-carat Okavango Blue Diamond.

One of the highlights is the Butterfly Conservatory, where in a warm and humid climate-controlled building, you and see 500 fluttering butterflies.

The Frick Collection is a museum housed in an early 1900s mansion. The original collection was donated by Henry Clay Frick, who built the mansion to display his art collection. Displays include paintings, porcelain, and furniture laid out in sixteen galleries. On display, you’ll find artwork by Monet, Rembrandt, Bellini, El Greco, and others. The rooms surround a lovely Garden Court with tropical plants and a central pond.