Student & Group Attractions
1. American Museum
2. Art Appreciation
3. Famous Buildings
4. Parks & Botany
5. Places to See
6. Multicultural Studies
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Parks & Botany
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New York Botanical Garden and Brooklyn Botanic Garden
The New York Botanical Garden is home to the nation’s largest Victorian glasshouse, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a New York City landmark that has showcased NYBG’s distinguished tropical, Mediterranean, and desert plant collections since 1902. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, tours, concerts, dance performances, and symposia are always on the roster, as well as special one-time events featuring elements of the Garden at their peak. Each spring, BBG celebrates the flowering of the Japanese cherry trees with our annual Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival), and each fall is spiced up with a multicultural Chile Pepper Fiesta!
Central Park
Designed in 1858 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, envisioning a wooded urban oasis from treeless, rocky terrain and stagnant swampland, Central Park is New York City’s backyard -- a place where people of all social and ethnic backgrounds mingle. The 843-acre Central Park, covering six percent of Manhattan, has more than 26,000 trees, 58 miles of scenic paths, and nearly 9,000 benches on 843 acres. Attracting 25 million people a year, it also houses the Central Park Zoo and Wildlife Center, lakes, boathouse, sports facilities and entertainment. Four visitor centers are: Belvedere Castle, a 19th century stone castle and home to the Henry Luce Nature Observatory; The Dairy Visitor Center and Gift Shop, in a Victorian building with a reference library; Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, with hands-on exhibits; and North Meadow Recreation center, with indoor/outdoor climbing walls, basketball and handball courts.
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Bryant Park
A park since 1842, Bryant Park’s midtown location – one block from Times Square – is a big lunch hour destination in warm weather, typically hosting more than 5,000 workers on a football field-sized lawn. Amenities include a French-style carousel (mid-park on 40th Street), chess tables, free yoga classes, 25,000 varieties of flowers, and free wireless access. Bryant Park provides multiple venues for year-round events and gatherings. Six flower beds border Bryant Park’s lawn to the north and south—three on the shady south side and three on the sunny north. Along the northern and southern sides are twin promenades bordered by London plane trees (Platanus acerifolia), the same species found at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, and contributing to Bryant Park’s European aura.
Behind New York Public Library between 40th and 42nd streets. |
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Chelsea Piers
Saved from being paved over by a failed highway project, historic Chelsea Piers has emerged into a $120 million privately financed 30-plus acre waterfront sports-entertainment complex housing a golf driving range, ice- and roller-skating, bowling, and a health club. With the Statue of Liberty National Monument as part of the panorama, four once-neglected piers – 59, 60, 61, and 62 – also have shops and restaurants. Luxury liners of yesteryear once departed from the Piers amid hoopla and champagne. In 1910, the Chelsea Piers debuted with speeches noting eight-years of construction after three decades of talk. In 1907, even before the Piers were done, the Lusitania and Mauretania docked there. For the next 50 years, Chelsea Piers was the city's premier passenger ship terminal, an embarkation point for WWI and WWII soldiers, and finally, a cargo terminal. Obsolescence struck with jets and container ships requiring facilities Manhattan could never provide. Redevelopment of the four surviving Chelsea Piers brings to mind the days when the famed White Star and Cunard lines, with as many as 20 stacks in view, prepared to sail. As the high and mighty disembarked, so did immigrants from steerage below, by 1910 arriving daily by the thousands. Most ships came first to Chelsea Piers, before transferring to ferries bound for Ellis Island and freedom.
South Street Seaport
Experience New York’s salty maritime history at the South Street Seaport, boasting a museum and numerous shops and restaurants.
Staten Island Ferry
For Manhattan skyline spectacle, take the Staten Island Ferry from New York harbor. The ferry runs 24 hours a day and is free at all times. (Vehicle fare is $3.) Big facelifts set for 2004 wrap-up are underway at the St. George and Whitehall Ferry Terminals, to serve more than 65,000 daily riders with enhanced dining and an outdoor promenade easing pedestrian access between Bay Street and the terminal.
Statue of Liberty National Monument
The Statue of Liberty National Monument, measuring 151 feet on a 154-foot pedestal (with a 35-foot waist and an 8-foot index finger), is the tallest statue of modern times. France presented the 450,000-pound Lady Liberty to the U.S. in 1884, commemorating the alliance of the two countries during the American Revolution. It features the American Museum of Immigration.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Birthplace National Historic Site
He remains the only U.S. president born in New York City, yet locals and visitors alike often unknowingly walk past the brownstone where Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the U.S., was born Oct. 27, 1858. His father’s success as an importer/exporter meant the house where a frail yet bright Teddy lived until age 14 had gas lighting, sumptuous furnishings, and a backyard stretching all the way to 19th Street. The four-story house is filled with Roosevelt family furniture including T.R.’s child-sized chair by the library fireplace. Roosevelt, growing up to become a strapping colonel of the Rough Riders, declined to buy his birth home when plans were announced to raze it in 1916 for a commercial building. In 1919, the year of Roosevelt’s death, the Women’s Roosevelt Memorial Association acquired the site, demolished the new building, and reconstructed his home as a memorial. Period rooms of the narrow, dark Victorian house are restored to reflect their 1865-1872 appearance.
Times Square Visitors Center
Times Square draws approximately 37 million visitors spending up to $16.4 billion annually. The Times Square Visitors Center, in the restored landmark Embassy Movie Theatre, is steps from more than 5,000 businesses with 250,000 employees, and from world-renowned landmarks and tourist attractions. Times Square is surrounded by 45 Broadway theaters, drawing 11.6 million people annually and generating tickets sales of more than $588 million. Times Square is also the hub of New York’s hospitality industry, surrounded by 28 hotels, accounting for one-fifth of all New York City hotel rooms.
Tribute – A Celebration of New York City
Tribute is a performance of the never-ending symphony that is New York life. In the heart of Tribute is the Remember Experience viewed in one of two custom-built high definition projection theaters. Visitors also can walk around the floating multimedia screens and explore artwork from the underground and emerging artists gallery. The Remember Experience itself celebrates the beauty and vitality of a city undeterred by tragedy. Remember, speaking from shadows of two fallen giants, dares telling the New York story as never before told. Featured are a September 11th Memorial Hall, a café overlooking historic Bowling Green Park, and a gift shop.
United Nations Headquarters
United Nations Headquarters, in Midtown Manhattan, offers one-hour tours departing from the United Nations Public Lobby daily covering the Secretariat Building, the domed General Assembly Building, Conference Building and the Hammarskjold Library. The name "United Nations," coined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was first used in the "Declaration by United Nations" of Jan. 1. 1942, during WW11, when representatives of 26 nations pledged to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers. United Nations Day is celebrated annually on Oct. 24.
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium, known as the house in the Bronx that Babe Ruth built, opened in 1923 for a capacity of 58,000, and was the first ballpark large enough to be called a stadium. Bleachers in right center field are sometimes called Ruthville.
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Apollo Theater
A major entertainment landmark, Harlem's Apollo Theater was originally known as Hurtig & Seamon's New (Burlesque) Theater, with vaudeville and burlesque for white audiences. In 1934, Frank Schiffman, a white entrepreneur, started showcasing leading black entertainers for mixed audiences, putting the Apollo forever on the map. Legends such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Dinah Washington played the Apollo, where amateur nights jump-started careers for Pearl Bailey, James Brown, and Gladys Knight. Wednesday is amateur night. Back-stage tours, in groups of up to 20 take place daily, linking past, present and future. Gift shop merchandise includes vintage Apollo items.
Bronx Magnetism
As for the Bronx, some say how Swede it is, since it was settled in 1639 and named for the Swedish settler Jonas Bronck. More than 60 landmarks and historic districts are in the Bronx, including the Edgar Allen Poe Cottage on the Grand Concourse and the Van Cortlandt Mansion and Museum in Van Cortlandt Park. Wave Hill, a former private estate once home to Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt, among others, has spectacular views overlooking the Hudson River and New Jersey’s soaring 500-foot cliffs, the Palisades. Its 28-acres, given to the city for use as a public garden, also has wooded paths, herb and flower gardens, and benches for contemplation. The Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Park show cases more than 600 species indoor in indoor/outdoor environments.
Carnegie Hall
Since Walter Damrosch conducted the first "Young People's Concert" in 1891, Carnegie Hall has taught all ages about music. Each season includes concerts for families, workshops for teachers and musicians, programs for students and schools, and free concerts in NYC neighborhoods. One-hour backstage tours, (212) 903-9765, detail the story of Andrew and Louise Carnegie and how the Hall was saved from demolition in 1960. Carnegie's century-long performance tradition showcased artists from Tchaikovsky to Mahler, from Horowitz to Callas to Bernstein, Judy Garland and the Beatles. Gift shop merchandise strikes a chord celebrating the Hall's 111-year-plus history.
Ellis Island
Lower Manhattan’s Ellis Island, point of entry to millions of immigrants from 1892 to 1924, has exhibits relating the history of the processing station. Among immigrants passing through and going on to illustrious careers are: Irving Berlin, musician, arrived in 1893 from Russia; Marcus Garvey, politician, arrived 1916 from Jamaica; Bob Hope, comedian, arrived in 1908 from England; Knute Rockne, football coach, arrived in 1893 from Norway; and the von Trapp family of "Sound of Music" fame, arrived in 1938 from Austria.
Empire State Building
Midtown’s famed Empire State Building, at 1,454 feet tall, was built in 1931 in Art Deco style with 2 million square feet of office space and an observation tower on the 102nd floor. Construction took one year and 45 days including Sundays and holidays with 7 million man hours. The cost ($24,718,000) was halved by onset of the Depression, with the total cost ending at $40,948,900, including land.
Grant’s Tomb
Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War general and two-term U.S. president, rests beside his wife Julia in the largest mausoleum in the U.S. The two grand sarcophagi are modeled after Napoleon's tomb in Les Invalides in Paris. The white granite mausoleum overlooking the Hudson River and Riverside park was completed in 1897, and also displays Grant memorabilia and Civil War artifacts. More than one million people attended the parade and dedication ceremony of Grant's Tomb, on April 27, 1897.
Green-Wood Cemetery
Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, an “outdoor museum” filled with extraordinary works of sculpture and architecture, is home to graves of national figures including musical great Leonard Bernstein, artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, newspaperman Horace Greeley and William “Bill the Butcher” Poole, the 19th-century gang leader depicted in Martin Scorsese’s film Gangs of New York. The cemetery conducts regular public tours year-round for $10. Self-guided walking tours are also available.
Greenwich Village
Lower Manhattan’s Greenwich Villages, east, central, and west, are long the focal point of New York's artistic and literary life, and a popular visitor attraction with lively street activity in and around historic Washington Square.
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SoHo and TriBeCa
Within a quarter of a square mile, SoHo has roughly 250 art galleries, four museums, nearly 200 restaurants, and 100 stores. Blocks south of Houston (pronounced HOW-ston) and north of Canal streets are home to the city's largest concentration of cast-iron fronted buildings, built as warehouses and manufacturing spaces, but converted to living spaces, called lofts, for artists and sculptors who appreciated the larger spaces. These 19th-century architectural gems (often Victorian Gothic, Italianiate, and neo-Grecian), prized by preservationists, are now home to the better-heeled. When SoHo became too upscale for starving artists, many moved further downtown to another then half-abandoned industrial district, TriBeCa (the Triangle Below Canal), which has since become a hot destination, most notably for dining. One TriBeCa frontrunner, actor Robert De Niro, has lived and worked in the neighborhood for some 20 years.
Little Italy
Little Italy in Lower Manhattan, and the place to buy Italian cheeses, sausages and breads, is an excellent place for immersion into Old World atmosphere. In summer, al fresco dining on Mulberry Street is reminiscent of an evening in Naples or Rome. |
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Chinatown and Civic Center
In Lower Manhattan adjacent to the Civic Center, New York City's Chinatown, a packed neighborhood still growing rapidly, is the largest Chinatown in the U.S., with the largest concentration of Chinese in the western hemisphere! Both a tourist attraction and the home of the majority of Chinese New Yorkers, Chinatown has hundreds of restaurants (especially on Mott, Pell and Doyers streets), booming fruit and fish markets, and shops for knickknacks and sweets on winding, crowded streets. The Civic Center, anchored by City Hall, is a landmark building which has been the seat of City government for 186 years. The Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCa) has exhibits of national scope. |
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