Times Square.
'Times Square' is a major intersection in
Manhattan,
New York City at the junction of
Broadway and
Seventh Avenue and stretching from West
42nd to West
47th Streets. The Times Square area consists of the blocks between Sixth and
Eighth Avenues from east to west, and West 40th and West 53rd Streets from south to north, making up the western part of the commercial area of
Midtown Manhattan.
Smaller than
Red Square in
Moscow, the
Puerta del Sol in
Madrid,
Champs-Elysées in
Paris,
Trafalgar Square in
London, and
Tiananmen Square in
Beijing, Times Square has nonetheless achieved the status of an iconic world landmark and has become a symbol of its home city. Times Square is principally defined by its animated, digital advertisements.
History
Broadway at 42nd St. in 1880.
NYPD kiosk at Times Square
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Looking towards 1 Times Square.
Another view of Times Square.
Before and after the
American Revolution, the area belonged to
John Morin Scott, a
general of the New York
militia where he served under George Washington - the man who became the first
President of the United States. Scott's
manor house was at what is now 43rd Street, surrounded by
countryside used for
farming and breeding
horses. In the first half of the
nineteenth century it became one of the prize possessions of
John Jacob Astor, who made a second
fortune selling off
lots to
hotels and other
real estate concerns as the city rapidly spread
uptown.
In the early
1900s, ''
New York Times'' publisher
Adolph S. Ochs moved the
newspaper's operations to a new
skyscraper on 42nd Street in
Longacre Square. Ochs persuaded Mayor
George B. McClellan, Jr. to construct a
subway station there, and the area was renamed "Times Square" on
April 8,
1904. Just three weeks later, the first electrified
advertisement appeared on the side of a
bank at the corner of 46th Street and Broadway.
The ''New York Times'' moved to more spacious offices across Broadway in
1913. The old Times Building was later named the
Allied Chemical Building. Now known simply as
One Times Square, it is famed for the "ball" which "drops" from a tower on its roof every
New Year's Eve.
As New York City's growth continued, Times Square quickly grew as a cultural hub full of
theaters,
music halls, and upscale hotels.
Celebrities such as
Irving Berlin,
Fred Astaire, and
Charlie Chaplin were closely associated with Times Square in the
1910s and
1920s.
The atmosphere changed with the onset of the
Great Depression during the
1930s. In the decades afterward, it was considered a dangerous
neighborhood. The seediness of Times Square, especially its adult businesses, was an infamous
symbol of New York City's
decline and corruption from the
1960s until the early
1990s.
In the
1980s, a commercial building boom began in the West 40s and 50s as part of a long-term
development plan conceived under Mayors
Ed Koch and
David Dinkins. In the mid-1990s, Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani (
1994–
2002) led an intense effort to "clean up" the area, increasing
security, driving out
pornographic theaters, drug dealers and "
squeegee men" and opening more
tourist-friendly
attractions and
upscale establishments. Advocates of the
remodeling claim that the neighborhood is infinitely safer and cleaner. Detractors, on the other hand, argue that the changes have diluted or
"Disneyfied" the character of Times Square and have unfairly targeted lower income New Yorkers from nearby neighborhoods such as
Hell's Kitchen.
In
1990, the State of New York took possession of six of the nine historic theaters on 42nd Street. The
New 42nd Street nonprofit organization was appointed to oversee their restoration and care. The theaters were variously renovated for Broadway shows, converted for commercial purposes, or demolished.
In November 2006, the traffic pattern through Times square was modified significantly in what is nicknamed by the New York City Department of Transportation as the "Times Square Shuffle." Cars traveling south on Seventh Ave can no longer stay on Seventh Ave when they reach Times Square. The road turns into Broadway, and to stay on Seventh Avenue drivers are now required to make a series of turns before reaching Times Square.
[1]
New Year's Eve in Times Square
One Times Square is the site of the annual
New Year's Eve ball drop. On
December 31,
1907, a ball signifying
New Year's Day was first dropped at Times Square, and the Square has held the main New Year's celebration in New York City ever since. On this night hundreds of thousands of people congregate to watch the
Waterford crystal ball being lowered on a pole atop the building (though not to the street, as is a common misconception), marking the new year. It replaced a lavish fireworks display from the top of the building that was held from 1904 to
1906, but was outlawed by city officials. Beginning in
1908, and for more than eighty years thereafter, Times Square sign maker
Artkraft Strauss was responsible for the ball-lowering. During
World War II, a minute of silence, followed by a recording of church bells pealing, replaced the ball drop because of wartime blackout restrictions.
On average, about 750,000 revelers crowd Times Square for the New Year's Eve celebrations. However, for the millennium celebration on December 31,
1999, published reports stated approximately 2 million people overflowed Times Square, flowing from 6th Avenue to 8th Avenue and all the way back on Broadway and Seventh Avenues to 59th Street, making it the largest gathering in Times Square since August
1945 during
celebrations marking the end of World War II.
In
1972, entertainer
Dick Clark began hosting a live half-hour
ABC special detailing the event entitled ''
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'', which not only aired the descent of the ball, but also performances from popular bands and commentary from various hosts in other cities, notably
Las Vegas,
Los Angeles, and
Orlando. During the
millennium celebrations in
1999,
Peter Jennings based ABC's operations in Times Square, hosting ''
ABC 2000 Today''.
Times Square today
The theaters of Broadway and the huge number of animated neon and LED signage have long made it one of New York's iconic images, and a symbol of the intensely urban aspects of Manhattan. Times Square is the only neighborhood with zoning ordinances requiring building owners to display illuminated signs. The density of illuminated signs in Times Square now rivals that of
Las Vegas. Officially, signs in Times Square are called "spectaculars."
In
1992, the Times Square Alliance (formerly the Times Square
Business Improvement District, or "BID" for short), a coalition of city government and local businesses dedicated to improving the quality of commerce and cleanliness in the district, started operations in the area. Times Square now boasts attractions such as
ABC's
Times Square Studios, where ''
Good Morning America'' is broadcast live, elaborate
Toys "R" Us,
Virgin Records, and
Hershey's stores, as well as restaurants such as
Ruby Foo's (
Chinese food), the
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (
seafood) and
Carmine's (
Italian) along with a number of multiplex movie theaters. It has also attracted a number of large financial, publishing, and media firms to set up their headquarters in the area. A larger police presence in Times Square has improved the safety of the area.
A notable example of the signage is the curved seven-story
NASDAQ sign at the
NASDAQ MarketSite at
4 Times Square on 43rd Street. Unveiled in January
2000, it cost $37 million to build. The sign is 120 feet (36.6m) high. NASDAQ pays more than $2 million a year to lease the space for this sign. This is actually considered a good deal in
advertising as the number of "impressions" the sign makes far exceeds those generated by other ad forms.
General Electric leased, through its
NBC Universal division, the famous
Panasonic Astro Vision screen plate in the middle of Times Square until
October 13,
2006 when
News Corp. took over and started showing
Fox News Channel.
In 2002, NYC's outgoing mayor,
Rudy Giuliani, gave the oath of office to the city's next mayor,
Michael Bloomberg, in Times Square after midnight on
January 1 as part of the 2001–2002 New Year's celebration. Approximately 500,000 revelers attended the fete. Security was high following the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with more than 7,000 New York City police on duty in the Square (twice the number for an ordinary year).
Notable landmarks
Times Square is an eclectic 24/7 intersection of art and commerce, where the chaos of hundreds of advertisements scream for your attention. The meeting place of Broadway and Seventh offers exposure to more consumers from more countries than any place on earth. The quest to dominate this landscape has produced a wild cacophony of jumbotron screens, LED newscrawlers, and multi-story billboards. A few famous examples:
Corporate presence
The following corporations are headquartered at Times Square with many others having corporate presences in the area:
Major buildings on and near Times Square
Times Square in popular culture
★ The Times Square neighborhood, notably its busiest intersection, has been featured countless times in literature, on television, in films, in music videos and recently in video games. Among the more notable instances:
★ Times Square currently serves as the shooting location for
ABC's ''
Good Morning America'',
MTV's ''
Total Request Live'' (taped in a studio overlooking the Square), and the annual ''
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve''. The
studio where ''Good Morning America'' is broadcast from is where Peter Jennings hosted ''
ABC 2000 Today'',
ABC News's coverage of the millennium, and where
Dick Clark hosts ''
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve''.
★ The first opening credit crawl of ''
Saturday Night Live'' featured cast members' names and, later, photographs, superimposed over billboards in Times Square.
★ In a scene in the
2001 film ''
Vanilla Sky'',
Tom Cruise is shown alone in Times Square. Times Square was shut down for three hours to film this scene.
[Roger Ebert Review of Vanilla Sky, December 14, 2001]
★ '
Spider-Man'' and ''
King Kong'' each had climatic scenes set in Times Square
★ In the 2001 film
Zoolander there is one scene near the start where
Derek Zoolander (
Ben Stiller) walks down Times Square.
References
★ ''The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square'' by
James Traub (ISBN 0-375-50788-4)
See also
★
Duffy Square, the northern section of Times Square.
★
Naked Cowboy, New York City street performer and prominent fixture of Times Square
★
Times Square-42nd Street subway station
External links
★
Times Square Alliance
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