This 700ft-tall clock tower soaring above Madison Square Park’s southeastern corner was completed in 1909. If it looks familiar, it's because it was modeled after Venice’s world-famous campanile (bell tower) in Piazza San Marco. Ironically, this New World version is now older than its muse: the original Venetian tower collapsed in 1902, with its replacement not completed until 1912.
Despite being upstaged by taller Manhattan skyscrapers these days, the 41-level building remains one of the largest four-dial timepieces in the world, each of its four clock faces measuring a big-is-better 26.5ft in diameter.
