Explore New York

The Statue of Liberty is a copper statue on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, a gift from France designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with an iron framework by Gustave Eiffel. It was dedicated in 1886 and stands on a granite pedestal by Richard Morris Hunt. Ferries carry visitors to the island, the pedestal and, with a reservation, the crown.

The Empire State Building is a 102-storey Art Deco skyscraper on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and completed in 1931. Visitors pass exhibition galleries on the second and 80th floors on the way to the open-air observation deck on the 86th floor and the enclosed observatory on the 102nd.

Madison Square Garden is an indoor arena in Midtown Manhattan, built above Pennsylvania Station between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Opened in 1968, it is the fourth venue of that name and the home of the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. It also hosts concerts, boxing and other events, and guided tours go behind the scenes.

The Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of the banker J. P. Morgan, built by Charles McKim between 1902 and 1906 on Madison Avenue. It became a public institution in 1924 and shows illuminated manuscripts, rare books, music manuscripts and drawings in the original library rooms and in a glass extension by Renzo Piano.

Edge is an observation deck on the 100th floor of 30 Hudson Yards, a skyscraper on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan. Opened in March 2020, its triangular sky deck projects about 24 metres out from the building at a height of some 335 metres, with outward-leaning glass walls and a glass floor panel that looks straight down to the street.

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building is the flagship of the New York Public Library, a Beaux-Arts marble building by Carrère and Hastings on Fifth Avenue that opened in 1911. Two stone lions flank the entrance steps; inside are the Rose Main Reading Room, exhibition galleries and research collections.

Bryant Park is a 3.9-hectare park in Midtown Manhattan between 40th and 42nd Streets, behind the main building of the New York Public Library. Named in 1884 after the poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant, it was rebuilt in the 1930s and restored in 1988–1992, and has a central lawn, tree-lined terraces, movable chairs and a carousel.

The Chrysler Building is a 319-metre Art Deco skyscraper at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, completed in 1930 for Walter Chrysler. Its stainless-steel crown of stacked arches and its eagle gargoyles are seen from the street; it is an office building, so visitors view it from outside.

Summit One Vanderbilt is an observation deck on the top floors of One Vanderbilt, a 427-metre skyscraper by Kohn Pedersen Fox beside Grand Central Terminal. Opened in October 2021, it spans floors 91 to 93 and combines mirrored rooms designed by Kenzo Digital, glass balconies that protrude from the facade, an outdoor terrace and glass lifts on the outside of the tower.

Grand Central Terminal is a railway terminal at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, opened by the New York Central Railroad in 1913. Behind its Beaux-Arts facade with a clock and sculpture group lies the Main Concourse with a ceiling painted with constellations. Metro-North trains leave from here, and Long Island Rail Road trains from Grand Central Madison below.

Madame Tussauds New York is a wax museum on 42nd Street in Times Square, opened in November 2000 and run by Merlin Entertainments. Its themed rooms show life-size wax figures of actors, musicians, athletes and politicians, with sets such as a Broadway stage and the Oval Office where visitors pose beside the figures.

United Nations Headquarters is the seat of the UN General Assembly and Security Council, on the East River in Midtown Manhattan. Completed in 1952 to designs by an international board of architects led by Wallace Harrison, with Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier, it can be visited on guided tours of the General Assembly Hall, the Security Council Chamber and the garden.

Times Square is the bow-tie-shaped crossing of Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 47th Streets in Midtown Manhattan, renamed in 1904 after The New York Times moved into the tower now called One Times Square. Large illuminated billboards rise above its pedestrian plazas, Broadway theatres surround it, and the ball drop has marked New Year's Eve here since 1907.

The Museum of Broadway, at 145 West 45th Street near Times Square, tells the history of Broadway theatre over more than 300 years. It opened in November 2022. A map room with a film shows where the theatres stand, a two-floor timeline displays costumes and props from hundreds of productions, and a section explains the jobs behind a show.

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings between 48th and 51st Streets in Midtown Manhattan, developed by John D. Rockefeller Jr. The 14 original Art Deco buildings went up from 1931 to 1939 around 30 Rockefeller Plaza and a sunken plaza with a winter ice rink. Art fills the buildings, and the Christmas tree is lit here every year.

Top of the Rock is the observation deck on the 67th to 70th floors of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Art Deco centrepiece of Rockefeller Center completed in 1933. The deck first opened in 1933, closed in 1986 and reopened in 2005. It has an indoor level and open-air terraces behind glass panels, the highest about 260 metres above the street.

St. Patrick's Cathedral is the Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of New York, on Fifth Avenue opposite Rockefeller Center. James Renwick Jr. designed the Gothic Revival church; building began in 1858, it was dedicated in 1879 and its two 100-metre spires were added in 1888. Inside are a marble nave, side chapels, stained glass and two pipe organs.

Radio City Music Hall is an Art Deco theatre at 1260 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center, designed by Edward Durell Stone and Donald Deskey. It opened in 1932 with about 6,000 seats and is the home of the Rockettes and their annual Christmas show. It hosts concerts and award shows, and guided tours visit the Grand Foyer and auditorium.

The Intrepid Museum is a military, aerospace and maritime museum aboard USS Intrepid, a Second World War aircraft carrier moored at Pier 86 on the Hudson River since the museum opened in 1982. Its flight and hangar decks display dozens of aircraft and the Space Shuttle Enterprise, and the pier holds a Concorde and the submarine USS Growler.

The Paley Museum is the New York home of the Paley Center for Media, founded in 1975 by CBS founder William S. Paley as the Museum of Broadcasting. Since 1991 it has occupied a building by Philip Johnson at 25 West 52nd Street. Visitors watch programmes from a library of about 160,000 television and radio shows, see exhibitions and attend screenings.