Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
49th St; tours adult/child $24/20, children under 6yr not admitted; tours every 15mins
8:30am-5:30pm Mon-Thu, to 6:30pm Fri & Sat, to 4.30pm Sun; B/D/F/M to 47th-50th Sts-Rock-
efeller Center)
leave from the lobby of the GE Building every 15 minutes; note that chil-
dren under six are not admitted.
The Today Show
broadcasts live 7am to 11am daily from
a glass-enclosed street-level studio near the fountain.
New York Public Library
CULTURAL BUILDING
(Stephen A Schwarzman Building;
www.nypl.org
; Fifth Ave at 42nd St; 10am-6pm Mon & Thu-Sat,
to 8pm Tue & Wed, 1-5pm Sun, guided tours 11am & 2pm Mon-Sat, 2pm Sun; B/D/F/M to 42nd
St-Bryant Park, 7 to 5th Ave)
Flanked by two huge marble lions nicknamed 'Patience' and
'Fortitude' by former mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the stairway leading up to the New
York Public Library is a grand entrance. The massive, superb beaux-arts building stands
as testament to the value of learning and culture in the city, as well as to the wealth of the
philanthropists who made its founding possible. A magnificent 3rd-floor reading room
has a painted ceiling and bountiful natural light - rows of long wooden tables are occu-
pied by students, writers and the general public working away at laptops. This, the main
branch of the entire city library system, has galleries of manuscripts on display, as well
as fascinating temporary exhibits. A controversial redesign of the building has been pro-
posed. Immediately behind the library is beautifully maintained
Bryant Park
, a grassy
expanse furnished with tables and chairs, and even a lending library, chessboards and
Ping Pong tables in warm weather, as well as an ice-skating rink in winter.
Empire State Building
NOTABLE BUILDING, LOOKOUT
(
www.esbnyc.com
; 350 Fifth Ave at 34th St; 86th-floor observation deck adult/child $25/19, incl
102nd-floor observation deck $42/36; 8am-2am, last elevators up 1:15am; B/D/F/M, N/Q/R
to 34th St-Herald Sq)
Catapulted to Hollywood stardom both as the planned meeting spot
for Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in
An Affair to Remember,
and the vertical perch that
helped to topple King Kong, the classic Empire State Building is one of the most famous
members of New York's skyline. It's a limestone classic built in just 410 days, or seven
million man-hours, during the depths of the Depression at a cost of $41 million. On the
site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the 102-story, 1472ft (to the top of the an-
tenna) Empire State Building opened in 1931 after 10 million bricks were laid, 6400 win-
dows installed and 328,000 sq ft of marble laid. Today you can ride the elevator to obser-
vatories on the 86th and 102nd floors, but be prepared for crowds; try to come very early
or very late (and purchase your tickets ahead of time, online or pony up for $50 'express
passes') for an optimal experience.
