Empire State Building and other New York City, NY Things to Do Tips

Now the tallest building in New York City, the Empire State Building was once the tallest skyscraper in the world upon its completion in the early 1930s. Pictures exist during its construction that show welders on steel girders still hundreds of feet above the nearby Chrysler Building, once the city's champion. The tower is now mainly comprised of office buildings, and security is tight inside, but for a fee (a whopping $13) you can view the city from on high from one of its observation platforms (expect long lines). For those willing only to ramble, the lobby has nice illuminated panels, a small King Kong exhibit, and several displays and pamphlets boasting the history of the tower.

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Phone: (212) 947-1360
Address: 350 5th Avenue
Directions: 1, 2, 3 or 9 (Seventh Avenue Lines), A, C or E (Eighth Avenue Subway) to 34th Street/Penn Station.
Website: www.esbnyc.com

Not far from the Empire State Building is the Chrysler Building. As the first skyscraper to top a 1,000 feet in height, it was once the city's tallest, but now it is almost drowned by other towering marvels. Otherwise the tower is without considerable distinction, save for the triangular panels on its spire, which give the Chrysler Building its distinguished crown. Built in an Art Deco style, the public first deplored this building (as with the WTC) until they finally accepted it in time. For me the stainless steel lobby and chromium nickel gargoyles are garish and unhappy throwbacks to a time when Americans began to approve "fanciness" over function in automobiles even though many stood in soup lines and job lines when the building was completed.

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Address: 425 Lexington Ave
Directions: Grand Central subway

The Brooklyn Bridge was an engineering marvel when completed in the 1880s, the grandest suspension bridge then in existence. Far ahead of its day, the bridge has probably been more noted, recorded, photographed and applauded than any other bridge in the United States (including the Golden Gate Bridge). The bridge (as you might suspect from its name) links lower Manhattan with Brooklyn, one of five boroughs comprising New York City. Passage (unlike other NYC bridges) is free to both auto and pedestrian traffic.

N.B. Visitors with rental cars will find much cheaper parking along Cadman Plaza just off the Bridge in Brooklyn than they'll find in Manhattan.

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Directions: Take the subway A, C High St. - Brooklyn Bridge or 4,5,6 Brooklyn Bridge.

Built by USSteel for the 1964-5 World's Fair held in New York City, this gigantic globe is the largest manmade representation of the Earth ever made. Weighing over 900,000 pounds and standing twelve stories high, the Unisphere is the centerpiece of the Flushing Meadows Park that was improved at the time for the world's fair. One of the lesser known icons of New York City, this steel ball appears on the opening credits of every installment of The King of Queens.

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Directions: Flushing Meadows Park

After the Library of Congress in Washington DC, the New York Public Library is the largest in the United States with several million volumes in holdings and manuscripts. Finished in the early decades of the 20th century, and combining three private holdings at the time (the Astor, Tilden and Lenox libraries, all inscribed on the entablature), the building was largely funded by Andrew Carnegie. Today, the front steps form the perfect place to relax for daytrippers, and the library itself is a popular destination for tourists.

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Phone: (212) 930-0830
Address: Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
Directions: Take 1,2,3,9 to 42nd Street and Broadway. Walk two blocks east to Fifth Avenue.
Website: www.nypl.org

The oldest surviving continuous church in Manhattan, St Paul's Chapel barely escaped destruction with the attack on the World Trade Center. Built from the 1760s, the interior contains modest panels but has hosted illustrious parishioners. The pews of George Washington and Gov. George Clinton adorn the shoulders of the nave. Outside the rubblestone facade recalls the time when few other structures flanked the church, and the broken and timeworn headstones in the churchyard stand as they have for over two centuries. Visitors are welcomed to stroll, to worship and to photograph this gem in lower Manhattan.

Pictured clockwise from left: exterior, Washington pew, Clinton pew, interior

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Phone: 1-212-602-0747 or 1-212-602-0768
Address: Broadway and Fulton Streets
Directions: lower Manhattan by World Trade Center site
Website: www.saintpaulschapel.org

When one confronts St John the Divine, the first impressions are of scale and expense. The church is the largest Gothic church in the world and when finished (if ever) it will be the largest period. Building has continued here off and on for well over a century. Like the National Cathedral in Washington DC it joins classical architecture with modern touches. Stained glass inside depicts scenes from Biblical times to the space age (a linotype appears in one window). The interior (while magnificent) seems inferior to the west portal and the detailed images and workmanship surrounding the entrances. Visitors are free to roam and ramble the church and yards unless services are in progress.

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Phone: 1-212-932-7347
Address: Amsterdam Ave @ W. 112th
Directions: Central Park North (at its NW corner) in lower Harlem
Website: www.stjohndivine.org

A national monument since 1950, this circular fort is an early 19th-century construction that supposedly guarded lower New York City against the British navy. Today the structure is little more than a stone curtain surrounding the kiosks for the Statue of Liberty ferry (only a circular ring recalls the original fort). Windows within the wall presumably permitted cannon barrels to encompass all points of approach from the sea. Admission is free, but weaving among the ferry lines inside will require patience, and strolling outside the wall will require some imagination.

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Phone: (212)344-7220
Directions: Take the 4 or 5 to Bowling Green Station or the N/R to South Ferry Station
Website: www.nps.gov/cacl

Central Park is one of the nation's most ingenious and forward-looking ideas. Planners accumulated land as early as the 1850s to create a permanent breathing park in the middle of the island, though Central Park West and Central Park East were considered "rural" in those early decades. A walk through the park is like no other. Apart from the jazz, classical and other festivals that come here or the impromptu dance rituals which materialize every week, the park is strewn with romantic and handsome structures, retreats, ponds, monuments, platforms and other constructions. None of these crowd or interrupt one another. In autumn the hardwoods glow in red and yellow. In winter the starkness of the forests detracts nothing from the beauty of the park. Addresses on the perimeter are among the most expensive and elite in the city, and with good reason: there is no better urban retreat in North America.

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Website: www.centralpark.org

While Henry Ford almost single-handedly created the middle class, F. W. Woolworth (whose grave is in my Woodlawn Cemetery tip) did much to create the modern idea of retail economies. Instead of letting customers haggle for prices with intimidating clerks, Woolworth set prices beforehand to let shoppers buy or refuse on that fundamental alone. Under such practices he amassed a giant fortune, and paid cash for this 792-ft skyscraper in 1913. Shorter than the world's tallest the Eiffel Tower, the building was nevertheless the world's tallest skyscraper until 1930, and remains to my mind the fanciest and best designed throughout Manhattan. Tourists are not allowed inside, but from its curbside vantage off City Hall Park or viewed from the Brooklyn Bridge or lower Manhattan, the silhouette of this building and its illustrious founder and history set it apart from New York's other monoliths.

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Directions: overlooking City Hall Park from the west on Broadway Avenue