Sights in New York City
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Roosevelt Island
Not exactly part of the Upper East Side but floating in the East River between Manhattan’s eastern edge and Queens, New York’s anomalous, planned neighborhood sits on a tiny island no wider than a football field. It was once known as Blackwell’s Island after the farming family who lived here; the city bought the island in 1828 and constructed several public hospitals and a mental hospital. In the 1970s, New York State built housing for 10,000 people along Roosevelt Island’s Main St (the only street on the island). The planned area along the cobblestone roadway resembles an Olympic village or, as some observe more cynically, cookie-cutter college housing.
Zipping…
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Astor Place
This square is named after the Astor family, who built an early New York fortune on beaver pelts (check out the tiles in the wall of the Astor Place subway platform) and lived on Colonnade Row, just south of the square; four of the original nine marble-faced, Greek Revival residences on Lafayette St still exist. The large, brownstone Cooper Union, the public college founded in 1859 by glue millionaire Peter Cooper, dominates the square – now more than ever – as the school now has its first new academic building in over 50 years, a striking, twisting, nine-story sculpture of glazed glass wrapped in perforated stainless steel (and LEED-certified, too) by architect Thom…
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Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
Staten Island's buses – which accept the MTA MetroCard and leave from outside the ferry terminal – are your best bet for reaching the island's more distant attractions. Top of the list is Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, a beautiful complex of themed gardens, historic buildings, art spaces and museums 2 miles west of the ferry terminal. Highlights include an ancient-style Chinese Scholar's Garden, a Tuscan Garden modeled on the Villa Gamberaia in Florence, and the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, which showcases changing exhibitions of modern art. From Henderson St on the southern edge of the Snug Harbor complex, the Staten Island Mall-bound S44 bus…
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Columbia University
Founded in 1754 as King’s College downtown, the oldest university in New York is now one of the premiere research institutions in the world. It moved to its current location (the site of a former insane asylum) in 1897, where its gated campus now channels a staid, New England vibe and offers plenty in the way of cultural happenings.
The principal point of interest is the main courtyard (located on College Walk at the level of 116th St), which is surrounded by various Italian Renaissance–style structures. Here, you’ll find the statue of the open-armed Alma Mater seated before the Low Memorial Library. On the south end of College Walk, on the corner of Amsterdam Ave,…
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Lower East Side Art Galleries
Though Chelsea may be the heavy hitter when it comes to the New York art gallery scene, the LES has its very own collection of about a dozen quality showplaces, thank you very much. Some have actually relocated here from Chelsea in recent years, and all are now anchored by the New Museum (235 Bowery). Participant Inc, showcasing emerging talent and hosting varied performances, was one of the places hailed as jump-starting the gallery trend here when it opened several years ago. Other popular, contemporary spaces include Gallery Onetwentyeight, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, Lehmann Maupin and the new Angel Orensanz Foundation, housed in a soaring, gorgeous former synagogue…
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Bronx Zoo
The country’s biggest and oldest zoo easily justifies a subway ride into the Bronx. Some two million visit each year, with daily numbers reaching 35,000 on discounted Wednesdays and weekends, and any day in July or August (try to go Monday morning). Opened in 1899, the 265-acre zoo, home to some 4000 animals, has leafy areas that re-create different world habitats – African plains and forests, Himalayan mountains, Asian rainforests. Even if you spring for a monorail or shuttle ride around the grounds, you really can’t see it all in a day.
The best plan is to first grab a free map and find out when and where various animal-feeding sessions and demonstrations will…
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City Hall
This elegant, cupola-topped marble hall, located in placid City Hall Park facing the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, has been home to New York City’s government since 1812. In keeping with the half-baked civic planning that has often plagued large-scale New York projects, officials neglected to finish the building’s northern side in marble, due to objections about cost. Finishing the northern facade in brownstone and reducing the size of the building overall made a compromise. The domed tower was rebuilt in 1917 after being damaged by two fires, and the original marble (and brownstone) facades were replaced with limestone over a granite base in 1954–56. Its beautiful…
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Empire State Building
Featured prominently in almost a hundred Hollywood films over the years, the Empire State Building – actually a very glorified office building – is the most famous member of the New York skyline. It’s a limestone classic built in just 410 days (using seven million hours of labor) during the Great Depression, at the astounding cost of $41 million. Located on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the 102-story, 1472ft-high (to the top of the antenna) Empire State Building opened in 1931 after the laying of 10 million bricks, installation of 6400 windows and setting of 328,000 sq ft of marble. The famous antenna was originally meant to be a mooring mast for…
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Museum of the City of New York
Situated in a colonial Georgian-style mansion, this local museum focuses solely on New York City’s past, present and future. You’ll find internet-based historical resources, lots of vintage photographs and a scale model of New Amsterdam shortly after the Dutch arrival. The 2nd-floor gallery includes entire rooms from demolished homes of New York grandees.
One of the museum’s star attractions is the 12-room mansion dollhouse fabricated by Carrie Stettheimer over 25 years at the turn of the 20th century – replete with tiny art works (including miniatures of pieces by Marcel Duchamp and Gaston Lachaise).
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Guggenheim Museum
A sculpture in its own right, architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s building almost overshadows the collection of 20th century art it houses. Completed in 1959, the inverted ziggurat structure was derided by some critics, but it was hailed by others who welcomed it as a beloved architectural icon. Since it first opened, this unusual structure has appeared on countless postcards, TV programs and films. The Guggenheim came out of the collection of Solomon R Guggenheim, a New York mining magnate who began acquiring abstract art in his 60s at the behest of his art adviser, an eccentric German baroness named Hilla Rebay. The museum’s holdings include works by Kandinsky, Picasso and…
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Neue Galerie
This restored Carrère and Hastings mansion from 1914 is a resplendent showcase for German and Austrian art, featuring works by Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Egon Schiele. In pride of place on the 2nd floor is Gustav Klimt’s golden 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer – which was acquired for the museum by cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder for a whopping $135 million.
This is a small but beautiful place with winding staircases and wrought-iron banisters. It also boasts the lovely, street-level eatery, Café Sabarsky. Avoid weekends if you don’t want to deal with gallery-clogging crowds.
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Eldridge Street Synagogue
This landmarked house of worship, built in 1887, was once the center of Jewish life, before falling into squalor in the 1920s. Left to rot, it's only recently been reclaimed, and now shines with original splendor. Its onsite museum gives tours every half hour ($10; 10am to 5pm), with the last one departing at 4pm.
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New York Stock Exchange
Home to the world’s best-known stock exchange (the NYSE), Wall Street is an iconic symbol of US capitalism. About one billion shares, valued at around $73 billion, change hands daily behind the portentous Romanesque facade, a sight no longer accessible to the public due to security concerns. Feel free to gawk outside the building, protected by barricades and the hawk-eyed NYPD (New York Police Department). The online shop has souvenirs like a hooded NYSE sweatshirt, as if you’d actually been inside.
Frantic buying and selling by those familiar red-faced traders screaming ‘Sell! Sell!’ goes on at the New York Mercantile Exchange, near Vesey St. This exchange deals…
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Ikea Water Taxi
When in the area it's worth considering hopping on the Ikea water taxi operated by the Swedish furniture store from Pier 11 (six blocks south of South Street Seaport) to its store in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Besides offering the chance to get out on the water and take in breathtaking views of the city, it's free.
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Cathedral Church of St John the Divine
The largest place of worship in the United States has yet to be completed – and probably won’t be any time soon. But this storied Episcopal cathedral nonetheless commands attention with its ornate Byzantine-style facade, booming vintage organ and extravagantly scaled nave – twice as wide as Westminster Abbey in London.
Founded in the 19th century by Bishop Horatio Potter, the first cornerstone for the Cathedral was laid on St John’s Day in 1892. But the construction – as its incomplete state will attest – was hardly smooth. The engineers had to dig 70ft in order to find bedrock to which they could anchor the building. Architects died and were fired. And in 1911, the…
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St Augustine's Episcopal Church
St Augustine’s Episcopal Church is an 1828 landmark housing the largest African American congregation on the LES. Peek inside to see the restored ‘slave galleries,’ created to separate worshippers by race in the church’s early days.
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Brooklyn Botanic Garden
One of Brooklyn’s most picturesque attractions, this 52-acre garden is home to thousands of plants and trees, as well as a Japanese garden where river turtles swim alongside a Shinto shrine. The best time to visit is late April or early May, when the blooming cherry trees (a gift from Japan) are celebrated in Sakura Matsuri, the Cherry Blossom Festival.
A network of trails connect the Japanese garden to other popular sections devoted to native flora, bonsai trees, a wood covered in bluebells and a rose garden.
There are multiple entrances. The best one is at Washington Ave, south of the Brooklyn Museum, which is scheduled to be sporting a remarkable new visitors…
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Pierpont Morgan Library
Part of the 45-room mansion once owned by steel magnate JP Morgan, this sumptuous library features a phenomenal array of manuscripts, tapestries and books (with no fewer than three Gutenberg Bibles). There's a study filled with Italian Renaissance artwork, a marble rotunda and a program of top-notch rotating exhibitions.
Recent exhibition themes include Islamic manuscript painting, drawings from Revolutionary France and Charles Dickens.
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Yankee Stadium
The Boston Red Sox like to talk about their record of two World Series championships in the last 80 years, but the Yankees have won a mere 27 in that period. The team’s magic appears to have moved with them across 161st St to the new Yankee Stadium, where they played their first season in 2009 – winning the World Series there in a six-game slugfest against the Phillies. The Yankees play from April to October.
The new stadium offers hour-long guided tours of the on-site museum, the dugout, press box, clubhouse, field and Monument Park (with plaques commemorating greats like Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio). You can purchase tickets in advance through Ticketmaster.
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African Burial Ground
In 1991, construction workers here uncovered over 400 stacked wooden caskets, just 16ft to 28ft below street level. The boxes contained the remains of enslaved Africans (nearby Trinity Church graveyard had banned the burial of Africans at the time). Today, a memorial and visitors center honors an estimated 15,000 Africans buried here during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The site is permanently protected as a National Historic Landmark, and today it’s part of the National Parks Service. The visitors center requires airportlike security screenings, so leave your nail files in the hotel.
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South Street Seaport Museum
Recently renovated, this museum offers a glimpse of the seaport’s history and a survey of the world’s great ocean liners, with permanent exhibits and various other sites dotted around the 11-block area. Spanning three floors, the museum's new galleries include a battalion of model ships, antique shipping tools, and left-of-center shows covering anything from New York fashion to contemporary photography. The museum's booty also extends to a group of tall-masted sailing ships just south of Pier 17, including the Ambrose and Pioneer. Off-limits for restoration during research, access to their windswept decks and intimate interiors are normally included in the admission…
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Brooklyn Academy of Music
Founded in 1861, BAM is the country’s oldest performing arts center and supplies New York City with its edgier works of modern dance, music and theater. The complex contains a 2109-seat opera house, an 874-seat theater and the four-screen Rose Cinemas. Its stage has showcased Mercer Cunningham retrospectives, contemporary African dance and avant-garde interpretations of Shakespeare.
Every fall, BAM hosts the Next Wave Festival, which presents an array of avant-garde works and artists talks. The on-site bar and restaurant, BAMcafé, stages free jazz, R&B and pop performances on weekends.
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Green-Wood Cemetery
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American Museum of Natural History
Founded in 1869, this classic museum contains a veritable wonderland of more 30 million artifacts, including lots of menacing dinosaur skeletons, as well as the Rose Center for Earth & Space, with its cutting-edge planetarium. From October through May, the museum is home to the Butterfly Conservatory, a glass-house featuring 500-plus butterflies from all over the world.
On the natural history side, the museum is perhaps best known for its Fossil Halls, containing nearly 600 specimens on view, including the skeletons of a massive mammoth and a fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex.
There are also plentiful animal exhibits (the stuffed Alaskan brown bear is popular), galleries devoted…
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