Macy’s was the original department store of Herald Square, a retail hub at the intersection of Broadway and Sixth Avenue. In 1902, the company moved its base of operations to the square from its original location on 14th Street. A number of competing department stores emerged, one of which was Gimbels which opened in 1910. They commissioned Daniel Burnham – architect of the Flatiron Building and numerous buildings in Chicago – to build their store. The company was fiercely competitive against other stores in the area&nbsp;and threw impressive events to attract customers. For example, in 1911, they held an airplane race between three pilots, offering a prize of $5,000 to the first pilot that flew from the New York store to their branch in Philadelphia. They also operated one of the earliest “bargain basements” in the country, though these low prices may have been one of the factors that led to the chain’s eventual demise. The store was featured in the 1947 Christmas comedy film Miracle on 34th Street. However, it could not compete with the ever-growing Macy's, and in 1986, Gimbels closed down.

In 1925 Gimbels constructed a Beau Arts style copper bridge connecting its original store to recently opened extension across the street. It was designed by William Lamb and Richmond Shreve, whose company led the construction of the Empire State Building. Today the skybridge is officially closed for visitors, though there are plans to reopen it in the future. Three stories high, the bridge offers stunning views of West 32nd Street. It has acquired an aged verdigris patina, similar to that of the Statue of Liberty.

Sketch from 1927 by Gerald K Geerlings, showing the construction of the Gimbels skybridge (www.boweryboyshistory.com)

The skybridge as it appears today (www.boweryboyshistory.com)

Inside the skybridge (www.boweryboyshistory.com)

A view of the streets below (www.boweryboyshistory.com)

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Only the Store Is Gone, NY Times Article on Gimbels

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Gimbels was one of the most successful department stores of the early twentieth century, though it failed when contending with Macy’s in becoming the foremost department store chain in the city. Today, the building is known as the Manhattan Mall, and no trace of Gimbels remains other than some faded lettering on one side of the structure and a magnificent aged copper skybridge that crosses over West 32nd Street. 

Gimbel’s Skybridge, New York

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This short walking tour takes you to some of the most famous and historical sights located within Midtown Manhattan!! Starting at the Chrysler Building, the tour will feature such marvels as Grand Central Station, the main branch of the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, the Empire State Building, Macy's at Herald Square, and Madison Square Garden.

After the groundbreaking of the building on September 19, 1928, it was evident that there was a fierce competition in New York City to build the world's tallest skyscraper. When William Van Alen first designed the building, it was originally created for contractor William H. Reynolds and was intended to be a speculative office building. As work continued on the Chrysler Building, a former partner of Alen named H. Craig Severance was working to complete a rival building, the Bank of Manhattan Trust building at 40 Wall Street. Originally designed to be 68 stories, or roughly two feet taller than the original plans for the Chrysler Building, it was then changed to 71 stories before being completed in May 1930. Van Alen and Chrysler, though, had other plans. In secrecy, they arranged an off-site construction of an&nbsp;185-foot spire, which was then brought for construction within the building in four sections. On October 23, 1929, the spire was hoisted and constructed on the building, surpassing the Manhattan Trust Building by 121 feet, much to the chagrin of the Severance team.Once complete, the Chrysler Building climbed 77 stories into the New York skyline, using 20,961 tons of steel, nearly 400,000 rivets, and 3,826,000 bricks&nbsp;to bring this skyscraper to fruition. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world ahead of the Manhattan Trust Building. However, the title of world's tallest building would soon change hands once the Empire State Building completed construction less than one year later on May 1, 1931, with 102 stories to its name. Although the Chrysler Building has lost the distinction of being known as the world's tallest building, its still considered to be a beloved landmark by New Yorkers.

The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco-style skyscraper located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan and was the former headquarters of the Chrysler Corporation. Designed by William Van Alen, it stands at a towering 1,046 feet tall and was the world's tallest building before being surpassed by the iconic Empire State Building in April 1931. It is the tallest brick building in the world, although it contains a steel frame. When Walter Chrysler commissioned the building, he dedicated it to "world commerce and industry."

Chrysler Building

There were four competing railroads: the Hudson River, New York Central, New York &amp; Harlem, and New York &amp; New Haven, that each connected the city to communities to the north and the east. During the 1860s, Cornelius Vanderbilt bought controlling stock in the first three and merged them into a single rail empire, in which all four are united today as Metro-North.The railroads brought people, profits, and pollution, which caused citizens to complain. New York banned soot-belching steam engines below 42nd Street in 1854. Despite the restrictions, though, the Hudson, New Haven, and Harlem Railroads all wanted to expand&nbsp;and agreed to share a transit hub, with 42nd Street being the logical location. The location opened in 1871, known as Grand Central Depot, with three towers representing the three railroads participating. After 30 years, the building underwent renovation and was renamed Grand Central Station. A new building was unveiled in 1913&nbsp;and was named Grand Central Terminal.

Grand Central Terminal, also known as Grand Central Station or Grand Central, is a railroad terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Serving nearly 200,000 commuters each day, it is one of the busiest train stations in the world. Within the concourse of the Terminal, on top of the information booth, is the iconic four faced brass clock with an estimated worth between $10-20 million. 

Grand Central Terminal

The origins of the library date back to the 19th century, when New York was becoming one of the world's most important cities. By the second half of the century, it had surpassed Paris, France in population and quickly closing in on replacing London, England as the world's most populous city. If the city was to become one of the world's great centers of urban culture, it must have a great library. Although there were already two important libraries, the Astor and Lennox, one-time governor Samuel J. Tilden bequeathed a bulk of his $2.4 million fortune to "establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York."&nbsp; Both the Astor and Lennox libraries were beginning to experience financial troubles by 1892, as a result of dwindling endowments and expanding collections. A New York attorney named John Bigelow presented a bold plan to combine the resources of the Astor and Lennox libraries to form the New York Public Library. His plan was finally signed on May 23, 1895 as an unprecedented example of private philanthropy for the public good. The site chosen to place the new library was the Croton Reservoir, a popular strolling place located in a two-block section of Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets. Dr. John Shaw Billings, the newly named director, drew a rough sketch of what he wanted, which would turn into the early blueprint of the largest marble structure attempted by the United States. After roughly 500 workers spent two years dismantling the reservoir and preparing the site, the first cornerstone was placed on November 10, 1902. By the end of 1906, exterior work was completed, which then launched five years of interior work, with 75 miles of shelves being added in 1910. On May 23, 1911, the official dedication took place with one million books being put in place in a ceremony presided over by President William Howard Taft and attended by Governor John Alden Dix and Mayor William J. Gaynor. The following morning, the New York Public Library officially opened its doors to the public with roughly 30,000 to 50,000 people filing through the doors.

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building is a part of the New York Public Library, consisting of four major research libraries and almost 90 branch libraries located throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. The Beaux-Arts building, located on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, houses outstanding collections in humanities and social sciences, as well as a children's collection. The building is being restored to its original purpose of providing library services for "the free use of all the people." Among the 15 million items and artifacts are medieval manuscripts, ancient Japanese scrolls, baseball cards, dime novels, and comic books. 

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library (Main Branch)

The area in 1686 was designated public property by New York Colonial Governor Thomas Dongan. George Washington's troops even raced across the site after routing the British at the Battle of Long Island near the start of the Revolutionary War. The land went under the jurisdiction of New York City in 1822 and became a potter's field a year later. In preparation for the Croton Reservoir on the adjacent part of the land, the potter field was decommissioned in 1840 and later renamed Reservoir Square. The area was later used as an encampment for Union Army troops in the Civil War, with a failed permit suggesting an armory be built on the site. Reservoir Square was later renamed in 1878 Bryant Park to honor the recently deceased poet and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant. Around the same time, plans were approved for the New York Public Library, which was later completed in 1911 with two comfort stations located near the east end of Bryant Park. The north half of the park was closed throughout the 1920s due to the construction of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) subway tunnel along 42nd Street. In 1934, there was a contest to redesign the park, with the winning submission including a classical scheme of a large central lawn, formal pathways, and an oval plaza containing the Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain at the west end. In 1974, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the park as a scenic landmark. Although the park was a prime spot for crime and drug trafficking in the 1970s, but by the 1990s all the crime and traffickers were gone and lunchtime head counts averaged around 4,000. In the summer of 1988, numerous renovation projects that included new entrances, restaurant pavilions, and concession kiosks were introduced and completed in stages by the 1990s. Bryant Park then reopened in April 1992 to praise from citizens, media, and urbanists. Bryant Park Today Modern-day Bryant Park, though less than ten acres in size, offers a wide range of activities and features. There are a formal lawn and gardens with promenades, and the park attracts over 120 species of birds. There's an outdoor reading room (created during the Great Depression by the New York Public Library); the Art Cart, which offers free art supplies and classes; restaurants and food kiosks; and games and game social events including chess, backgammon, and other table and park games. In the winter, the park is transformed into the Winter Village, with an ice skating rink and holiday shops. Park events include tai chi, yoga, juggling, fencing, Shakespeare and piano performances, poetry recitations, and tours.Walking tours include information about the park's history, design, and amenities, and last about 45 minutes each. A free audio tour voiced by Matthew Broderick is also available through both the Bryant Park official website and iTunes. Bird walks are offered in the mornings and afternoons, and 120 species have been spotted so far.

Bryant Park is a privately run public park located in New York City's Manhattan borough. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 40th and 42nd Streets, directly across from the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library. With the park's gigantic lawn, it is an ideal place to host concerts, movie nights, or even to relax after a long day's stroll of the city. Visitors may also enjoy the park's carousel among its seating for food and relaxation. Once winter hits, the park is turned into its winter iteration: the Bank of America Winter Village.

Bryant Park and the New York Public Library

The Engineers' Club of New York City, founded in 1888, was the first purely social organization for engineers in the United States. Originally the club was located at 10 West 29th Street, then at 374 Fifth Avenue, but with the rising importance of engineering in the development of city infrastructure, the club's membership (1,000 members by 1903) outgrew the building. Club member Andrew Carnegie offered a million dollars toward a unified headquarters for New York City's engineering clubs; he offered an additional half million in 1904 for the construction of a pair of connected buildings instead: the Engineers' Clubhouse (on 40th Street, facing Bryant Park and the New York Public Library) and the Engineering Societies' Building (on 39th Street). The United Engineering Society, encompassing the 9,000 members from all the engineers' societies of the city, was formed as part of the process. Whitfield and King, a small architectural firm, won the design contest for the Engineers' Clubhouse contract, most likely in part due to the fact that Whitfield was Carnegie's brother-in-law. Andrew Carnegie's wife, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, laid the cornerstone of the building in 1905. On April 25, 1907, the 12-story Renaissance Revival clubhouse was completed, with the three base stories faced in white marble, the middle seven stories in red brick with marble embellishments, and the top three stories projecting outward. It held 66 bachelor flats, a 300-seat banquet hall and two large dining rooms, a penthouse and roof garden, and club and billiard rooms. The 35% membership increase upon the opening of the new clubhouse made it necessary, within three years, for the Engineers' Club to construct an additional building abutting the clubhouse, which opened in April of 1915. By 1925, the club added to its facilities again by purchasing the buildings to either side of the clubhouse. Additional bedrooms and a lounge were housed at 28 West 40th Street, and additional office space was provided at 36 West 40th.

 By 1972, the Engineers' Club was the only remaining club on West 40th Street, and the Engineering Societies had relocated to the United Engineering Center building at 345 East 47th. The Engineers' Club struggled financially and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1977. The Clubhouse and its two neighboring properties were sold in 1979 and converted for residential use with ground-floor retail. Since 1983, the former Engineers' Club Building has been an apartment house&nbsp;and is now known as Bryant Park Place. The building has seen very few alterations since its construction, the most extensive work having been the expansion of the penthouse apartments and repair work to the marble elements of the exterior in the mid-1990s. 



The Engineers' Club Building is a New York City Landmark and a State and National Register of Historic Places listing. It is an early example of a high-rise clubhouse building, looks almost exactly as it did over 100 years ago, and is a visual reminder of the prominence of the social club and the bachelor apartment at the turn of the 20th century, as well as of the commercial transformation of Midtown Manhattan and New York State's role as an engineering center of the United States. In addition, the club boasted prominent historical figures including Andrew Carnegie, President Herbert C. Hoover, Thomas Edison, Charles Lindbergh, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry Clay Frick, H.H. Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla. In fact, when Tesla received the Edison Medal on May 18, 1917, it was in the Engineers' Club Building that his formal dinner reception was held. When the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, a commemorative plaque was placed on the building by the Co-op Board.



Inscription:

Bryant Park PlaceA COOPERATIVE CORPORATION ORIGINALLY KNOWN AS"THE ENGINEERS CLUB"

In 1903, Andrew Carnegie presented the professional association of engineers with a donation to fund the establishment of a professional club. Designed by the architects Whitfield and King and completed in 1907, the Engineers Club was one of the first "skyscrapers" in Midtown. The adjoining brownstones to the east and west were purchased by the club in 1923 and 1920 respectively.

The club's renowned membership included Andrew Carnegie, President Herbert C. Hoover, Thomas Edison, Charles Lindbergh, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry Clay Frick, H.H. Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla.

During the 19th century, American engineers helped transform America from a largely agricultural nation to an architectural and industrial empire and a world power. The club was Carnegie's tribute to ordinary men doing extraordinary things.

Bryant Park Place stands today as an architectural link to the rich heritage and proud traditions of the nation as it came of age in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Engineers' Club Building is a New York City Landmark and is on the State and National Register of Historic Places. It is an early example of a high-rise clubhouse building, looks almost exactly as it did over 100 years ago, and is a visual reminder of the prominence of the social club and the bachelor apartment at the turn of the 20th century, as well as of the commercial transformation of Midtown Manhattan and New York State's role as an engineering center of the United States. In addition, the club boasted prominent historical figures including Andrew Carnegie, President Herbert C. Hoover, Thomas Edison, Charles Lindbergh, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry Clay Frick, H.H. Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla. In fact, when Tesla received the Edison Medal on May 18, 1917, it was in the Engineers' Club Building that his formal dinner reception was held. When the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, a commemorative plaque was placed on the building by the Co-op Board.

Engineers' Club Building

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many of the old brownstones in the former residential area were demolished to make way for the factories and showrooms that would soon populate the Garment District. Judson S. Todd purchased several houses on West 38th Street in 1912. Todd hired architect Frederick Zobel, who designed a twelve-story building for manufacturing and retail. The building, with a facade of terra cotta and brick, was completed in 1913. Within a short period of time, the building filled with tenants, most of whom were milliners. The building's 20,000 square foot ground floor was leased by Winifred T. McDonald, a female entrepreneur, who used the space as a tearoom and restaurant. McDonald wanted to capitalize on the increasing amount of foot traffic in the area. She spent $7,000 in alterations to the space before opening the tearoom and restaurant in 1915.&nbsp; The rapid development of the Garment District was not without its critics. The Save New York Movement grew out of the frenetic pace of development in the district, largely because well-heeled shoppers didn't care to rub elbows with hundreds of factory workers who spilled out onto Fifth Avenue each day. The movement established a restricted zone, which manufacturers were encouraged to avoid.&nbsp; Eventually, the Colony Arcade Building felt the effects of this movement. In 1916, one of its largest tenants, Hollow &amp; Perlow, moved out. The company manufactured silk shirtwaists (known as blouses today) and&nbsp;opted to move their operations further south in search of less expensive real estate and in support of the Save New York movement. The building continued to house mostly millinery firms through most of the twentieth century. In 2012, the building, which remained largely unchanged from the time of its construction, reopened as the Refinery Hotel. The hotel incorporated elements that reference the building's past as a central part of the Garment District. The hotel&nbsp;features a bar and lounge known as Winnie's, a nod to Winifred McDonald. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.&nbsp;

The Colony Arcade Building in New York's Midtown is a historically significant structure within the Garment District. The three-block-long building was completed in 1913 and housed a number of tenants, most of which were millinery firms. These companies occupied the upper floors were skilled workers produced hats and apparel that was distributed throughout the United States. The ground floor was home to a women's tea room and a restaurant and bar for men which helped the district's developers increase foot traffic in the district as part of their strategy to increase the value of their real estate holdings. The building, which has been the home of the Refinery Hotel since 2012, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel features a bar and lounge known as Winnie's, a reference to entrepreneur  Winifred McDonald who leased the bottom floor of the building over a century ago and operated the tea room and restaurant.  

Colony Arcade Building (Refinery Hotel)

The Silent Protest Parade, organized by W.E.B. Du Bois and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, saw 8000 to 10,000 African Americans march along Fifth Avenue on July 28, 1917. The march was organized as a protest to fight against the endemic violence against Black Americans in 1917. The worst instance and leading cause of the protest was the East St. Louis Race Riot that led to the deaths of over 200 African Americans in Illinois.

NAACP Protest Against Racial Violence, 1917

B. Altman's third and final New York location was the first large-scale Fifth Avenue store in the city. It was designed by Trowbridge and Livingston, who also designed the St. Regis Hotel (1904) and the Hayden Planetarium (1935). Built with French limestone in the Renaissance Revival style, the architects made the store fit smoothly into its posh Fifth Avenue neighborhood by using the same Italianate palazzo models that had been employed by many of the large private mansions in the area. (French limestone had only previously been used for residences, not commercial buildings.)&nbsp;The construction of the store was the beginning of&nbsp;a trend of Fifth Avenue stores stretching to 59th Street, which included Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, Lord &amp; Taylor’s, and many others. The store at the height of its success was a kind of miniature community, containing a medical department for employees (and, on an emergency basis, for customers), with seven beds, a doctor and two nurses; a school for younger employees; and, in the sub-basement, a power plant. This last came in handy during New York’s 1965 power Blackout,&nbsp;which made the store a refuge for those fleeing the dark and the sweltering heat, and the store's staff passed out free sandwiches to those who sought temporary shelter there. The company was driven into bankruptcy when it was acquired by a real estate developer who misguidedly tried to turn the store&nbsp;into a franchise. (The Fifth Avenue side was then occupied by Oxford University Press, and finally by the CUNY Graduate Center.) The New York Public Library purchased the Madison Avenue side to construct its new Science, Industry and Business Library (known as SIBL) at an estimated cost of $100 million, half of which was raised from charitable contributions and half from public funds. The library opened in 1996 to widespread praise, with the library's president calling it "a prototype of the 21st-century Library." According to the library's mission statement, SIBL “commits its exceptional resources and expertise to providing open access to information in support of education, research, and entrepreneurial activities.”&nbsp; The architects&nbsp;were Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman LLC, whose design goals were flexibility and accessibility. A 33-foot-high atrium unites the lobby area with the research collections on the lower level. A stainless steel staircase leads down from the entrance lobby to the Research Library, which comprises extensive research facilities, a 125-seat Conference Center and an Electronic Training Center with four modifiable classrooms. On that level also is a wall of electronic ticker tape and televisions&nbsp;tuned to business channels to provide up-to-the-minute information. SIBL is a full-service circulating library with storage for a collection of 1.5 million volumes, an open-shelf reference collection, periodical shelving and a full catalog area. In the years since it opened, changes in the information environment, including the expansion of the Internet, led the library to customize its services for small businesses that have limited time to spend in the library.&nbsp;For example, one SIBL program, SCORE, provides free, in-depth business counseling for business owners and small businesses.&nbsp;The Job Search Center is a one-stop-shop for job seekers, providing events from lectures to workshops, databases, and one-on-one professional career coaching.&nbsp; Several years ago, the library announced its Central Library Plan (CLP), the object of which was to close and sell SIBL and the Mid-Manhattan branch at 40th Street, remove 1.5 million books&nbsp;from the main research library (Schwarzman Building) at 42nd Street&nbsp;to a remote location in New Jersey, and place the collections of Mid-Manhattan and SIBL permanently in the main library. The plan was estimated to cost at least $300 million, fully half of which would be taxpayer-funded.&nbsp;The Committee to Save the New York Public Library and other groups and prominent individuals strongly opposed this plan, and contentious New York City Council hearings were held to debate the issue.&nbsp;In the end, under great public pressure, the CLP was abandoned.

The historic B. Altman's Department store, which occupied an entire city block between 5th and Madison Avenues and 34th and 35th Streets, was the third location for the now-defunct retail giant. Constructed in 1905 in the Renaissance Revival style, the Fifth Avenue side opened in 1906 to critical acclaim, with the Madison Avenue side completed in 1914. The building was given landmark status by New York City in 1985, just four years before the store went bankrupt and ceased operations in 1989.

The Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) of the New York Public Library system, located on the Madison Avenue side of the former store, was initiated in 1991 and opened to the public in 1996. It is a premier public business library with electronic resources, print materials and services for both start-ups and established businesses. A recent plan to sell the space and move its collection to the main library location (Schwarzman Building) on 42nd Street was abandoned, but the library's future remains uncertain. 

The Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) (formerly B. Altman's)

Legend has it that the concept of the building was created from a competition between Walter Chrysler, creator of the Chrysler Building, and John Jakob Raskob from General Motors to see who could create the taller building between the two. After seeing that Chrysler had already created a tall building in Midtown Manhattan, Raskob put together a team of investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith, and chose the architecture company Shreve, Lamb and Harmon to design the building. The team purchased a parcel of land at 350 Fifth Avenue, the spot of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and demolished the hotel and began construction of the building that would soon define a city.&nbsp;The original designs called for it to be a flat-topped building but later announced that a 200-foot mooring mast would be added. On March 17, 1930, construction began on the structure by erecting 210 steel columnns, with twelve of them running the entire building height. A tight work schedule was put in place by construction firm Starrett Bros. &amp; Eken with the belief that "the sooner the building opened, the sooner the owners could start making money by collecting rent from tenants." Construction supposedly went so fast that the building rose at a rate of four and a half floors per week. On May 1, 1931, after over a year of construction, the Empire State Building officially opened its doors, giving New Yorkers a new sense of pride in the midst of the Great Depression.The building itself has garnered much fame since its opening. The beginning of its long-running fame began after part of the 1933 film King Kong was set outside the building, as the gigantic gorilla ascended the structure with the film's heroine before being shot down by planes with machine guns. Planes would later put the structure to the test when a B-25 Bomber crashed into the building on July 28, 1945, killing fourteen people and leaving an eighteen-foot-wide tear in the façade of the building.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Empire State Building lost its title of world's tallest building in 1972 when the twin towers of the World Trade Center were completed.&nbsp; &nbsp;

On May 1, 1939, a button was pressed in Washington, D.C. by President Herbert Hoover that turned on the lights to the world's tallest building at the time. The Empire State building, though now the fifth tallest building in the United States and the thirty-fourth tallest in the world, is still one of the most well-known structures in New York City. Standing at 102 stories tall, it's impossible to not find this gargantuan structure located on 5th Avenue. Visitors can view the Big Apple from the famous Observation Deck on the 86th floor. 

Empire State Building

In 1868, Broadway was just beginning its transformation into the neon-lit entertainment center that it would become. It was a time when well-heeled New Yorkers were slowly moving northward toward Madison Square, and businesses, hotels, and residences followed suit.&nbsp;Elias Higgins, a carpet manufacturer who made a fortune and then expanded into real estate development, was prescient when he decided to build an elegant new hotel at this location on Broadway. Higgins worked with architect Henry Engelbert, with whom he would collaborate on numerous buildings in the city, including the Grand Central Hotel. The Grand Hotel was built in the French Second Empire style and included&nbsp;a total of eight stories, including two inside the mansard roof. Like many of the Paris apartments it emulates, the building features a cast iron ground floor with large windows.&nbsp; Higgins planned for the building to be a residential hotel. Consequently, the hotel was built without kitchens or dining rooms, as residents would eat in a communal dining room. Later, as the theater district moved closer to Times Square, it made economic sense to convert the property into a traditional hotel with a restaurant.&nbsp; Over the course of the twentieth century, the hotel and the building's fortunes declined. By the 1980s, the building was a single occupancy hotel whose owners painted over the marble facade in violation of landmark laws. The ground floor was divided into leasable storefronts in the 1950s. In recent years, preservationists were able to remove the paint without damaging the marble and significant restoration work has helped to preserve the building's facade.&nbsp;

In the years following the Civil War, the areas along Broadway and Fifth Avenue became home to numerous fashionable businesses and residences. One of those was the Grand Hotel, which was commissioned by Elias Higgins in 1868. Higgins was a successful carpet manufacturer who expanded into real estate, often building impressively elegant structures. As its name suggests, the Grand Hotel was an opulent white marble structure. As the theater district shifted northward, new luxury hotels and theaters were built beyond this neighborhood. By the turn of the century, Times Square became the location of the city's leading hotels and the Grand Hotel became something less worthy of its moniker as vice-filled what was then known as the Tenderloin District. Thanks to preservationists, the building once again offers a grand facade and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. 

Grand Hotel 

James Gordon Bennett, Sr. was born in Scotland on September 1, 1795, to a Roman Catholic family in a Presbyterian community. After studying at a Catholic seminary in Aberdeen, Scotland, he decided not to pursue the priesthood. Instead, at age 24, he emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1817. From there, he moved to Boston, where he worked as a clerk and proofreader for a bookseller and printer. During the 1820s, Bennett moved to New York City and worked as a freelancer in the newspaper business. He was hired by Aaron Smith Wellington of the Charleston Courier, but failed to fit into South Carolina society and returned to New York less than a year later. The innovative New York Enquirer hired Bennett as the first Washington correspondent for a New York City newspaper.Upon his return to New York, Bennett attempted to start his own newspaper and failed twice. In 1835, he raised $500 and successfully founded the New York Herald, originally headquartered in a basement office. Amid fierce competition, Bennett managed to bring the Herald to the forefront not only in New York City&nbsp;but across America, where it enjoyed the largest circulation of any newspaper in the nation. This success was due largely to Bennett's innovative nature. His was the first newspaper to publish Wall Street stock prices&nbsp;and the first New York paper without political allegiances. Though he was publicly attacked and even beaten for his denouncements of political figures, Bennett was also seen as an honest voice in journalism. He hired investigative reporters to gather the news, was quick to adopt the telegraph as a means of receiving news from other cities in the 1840s, and used high-speed printing presses when they became available. In spite of the wealth Bennett accrued from the Herald's success, he remained an outsider in New York society. Whether it's because he preferred a private home life or because he offended society with his fierce editorials, outspoken opinions, and personal attacks (including mockery of rival publishers such as Horace Greeley and Henry J. Raymond) remains unclear. During the American Civil War, the Herald employed more than sixty reporters, and Bennett usually managed to publish news from the battlefield before anyone else.

When James Gordon Bennett, Sr. died on June 1, 1872, his son, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., took over the publication of the New York Herald. The younger Bennett had been educated in Paris and had served the Union during the Civil War. He was supposedly saved from running his ship aground by the hoot of an owl. This might explain his interest in the birds, which he expressed in the form of preservation editorials in the Herald, a collection of live owls, and his commission for the new Herald building in 1890. The new building, designed by architect Stanford White, was lined with twenty-six bronze owls and a statue of Minerva (the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena, who is symbolically associated with owls). The building no longer exists, but two of the owls and the statue of Minerva are now incorporated into the James Gordon Bennett Memorial in Herald Square.

Unlike his father, James Gordon Bennett, Jr. was a man who enjoyed the town, yachting, carousing, attending parties, and habitually driving naked through the streets in a coach. Though he kept up the New York Herald's sales and reputation, his own reputation did not fare so well. In 1877, while intoxicated at his fiancee's family New Year's party, Bennett urinated into the fireplace in front of the whole company. Caroline May (or her family) called off the engagement, and May's brother attacked Bennett with a horsewhip before challenging him to a duel. The duel ended with neither party injured, but Bennett left for France soon afterward to found the Paris Herald (now the International Herald Tribune) in 1887. While abroad, Bennett also funded the expeditions of Henry Morton Stanley (to Tanzania) and George Washington De Long (to the North Pole). Bennett died in 1918, and the New York Herald merged with Horace Greeley's New York Tribune (which might have horrified the elder James Gordon Bennett), forming the New York Herald Tribune, which operated until 1966.

The monument in Herald Square was dedicated in 1928. Monument Inscription: 

A MEMORIAL TO JAMES GORDON BENNETT (1795-1872) FOUNDER OF THE NEW YORK HERALD IN 1835 AND TO HIS SON JAMES GORDON BENNETT (1841-1918) THROUGH WHOSE VISION AND ENTERPRISE THE NEW YORK HERALD BECAME ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREAT NEWSPAPERSTHE BRONZE FIGURES OF MINERVA AND THE BELLRINGERS ARE THE WORK OF ANTONIN JEAN CARLES. THEY STOOD, FROM 1895 TO 1921, ABOVE THE CORNICES OF JAMES GORDON BENNETT'S NEW YORK HERALD BUILDING ON THE NORTH SIDE OF HERALD SQUARE AND TOLLED THE ACTIVE HOURS TO THE MILLIONS. IN 1928, THEY WERE GIVEN BY WILLIAM T. DEWART, PUBLISHER OF THE NEW YORK SUN, TO NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, THROUGH WHOSE GENEROSITY IN 1928 THEY ENTERED ON PERMANENT LOAN, THE CARE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, THAT THEY MAY BE HERE RESTORED TO THEIR ORIGINAL AREA OF PLEASANT SERVICE, AND TO THEIR PLACE IN THE HEARTS OF OUR CITIZENS. FUNDS FOR THE RESTORATION WERE PROVIDED BY SUBSCRIPTION OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS WHOSE LIVES ARE DEEP ROOTED IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF HERALD SQUARE.MCMXL

The James Gordon Bennett Monument in Herald Square is dedicated to the founder of the New York Herald newspaper and his son, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., who managed the paper after his death. The monument includes bronze sculptures of Minerva and two owls, which were part of the Herald building (now destroyed) designed by Stanford White in 1890.

James Gordon Bennett Monument

The very first&nbsp;Macy's store in the world opened in 1854 on 14th Street and 6th Avenue. The store quickly expanded to include locations throughout the city. In 1902, this store opened as the flagship of the growing retail chain. The store expanded all the way to&nbsp;7th Avenue in 1924.&nbsp;When this store was completed in 1902, it was the first to incorporate modern-day escalators, with some of the original wooden escalators still operational to this day.The Macy's star has become one of the most recognizable brand icons in the world. The star dates back to a teenage decision by the store's&nbsp;founder, Roland Hussey Macy. hile a young man in Nantucket, Macy decided that he would like a tattoo similar to that of mariners that would "guide him" through life. The star was later incorporated as part of the Macy's brand as a reminder of its founder.When one enters Macy's through the Broadway and 7th Avenue entrance on 34th Street, they can find a memorial plaque dedicated to two of the co-founders of Macy's: Ida and Isidor Strauss. The couple perished on the ill-fated Titanic voyage. The plaque, notably called the "My Heart Will Go On" plaque, reads "their lives were beautiful and their deaths glorious."

Dating back to the establishment of Macy's flagship store in 1902, Macy's Herald Square now includes an entire block and remains one of the most iconic shopping destinations in the world. This ten-story department store became the first to adopt the modern escalator. The store sponsors the Thanksgiving Day Parade and was featured in the classic film "Miracle on 34th Street." Known as "America's Largest Department Store," the store includes ten restaurants and several historic plaques throughout the exterior and interior of the building. 

Macy's Herald Square (1902)

The original Madison Square Garden was opened near Madison Square Park in 1879 with a seating capacity of just 10,000. One of the main tenants, P.T. Barnum, who hosted his circus their, called it "the Great Roman Hippodrome." The second building opened in 1890 at the same site&nbsp;but was plagued with scandal as architect Stanford White was murdered on the rooftop restaurant over an affair with Evelyn Nesbit, a married actress. The third incarnation was the first to move away from Madison Square Park and opened in 249 days in 1925, located at Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets.In 1926, one year after MSG III was opened, the venue was granted a franchise with the National Hockey League&nbsp;and formed the New York Rangers. Two years later, the Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadians in Game 5 to win their first Stanley Cup in 1928. In 1946, the Basketball Association of America, later renamed the National Basketball Association, granted the Garden a basketball franchise, thus the New York Knicks were established, first being called the Knickerbockers. In 1970, the Knicks overcame the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 to win their first NBA championship. Today, the Rangers have four Stanley Cup victories to their name, while the Knicks have two NBA championships.The fourth&nbsp;and most current location of Madison Square Garden opened in 1968 between 31st and 33rd Streets from 7th to 8th Avenue. This venue has become the home of some prominent sporting events, such as the "Fight of the Century" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier on March 8, 1971. The Garden hosted&nbsp;the first WrestleMania in 1985, the fourth Stanley Cup victory by the Rangers in 1994, and numerous relief concerts for the victims of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and Superstorm Sandy. One of the oldest stadiums that host professional teams in the United States, the Garden was completely renovated in 2011.

Constructed in 1968 and Located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, Madison Square Garden remains one of the most iconic arenas in the United States. This structure is the fourth New York arena to bear the famous name, with the first Madison Square Garden being opened in 1879 and located next to Madison Square. The first arena included shows by P.T. Barnum as well as pivotal public meetings and political events.

Madison Square Garden

In 1945, during World War II, Penn station was at its peak, and served more than a million people on a daily basis. In 1947, the train station declined due to construction of the interstate highway system, and reported a tremendous operating loss for the first time. Pennsylvania Railroad sold the station rights to real estate William Zeckendorf in the 1950s.&nbsp;Demolition on the station began&nbsp;in 1963.

The new Penn station is entirely out of sight from the street; it sleeps beneath the Madison Square Garden on 33rd street and two Penn plazas. The station spans three-levels underground with the concourses located on the upper two levels and the train platforms located on the lowest level. Two original levels of the concourse have been renovated and expanded. The tracks and platforms are original except for newer track connection to the west side rail yard and the Amtrak empire corridor which serves Albany and Buffalo. There are three new added areas which serve Amtrak, NJ Transit and LIRR. On a daily basis, Long Island Rail Road transports approximately 233,340 commuters, the New Jersey transport about 93,300, while Amtrak serves approximately 28,487 passengers.

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Once known as Pennsylvania train station, a portion of the station first opened on August 29,1910. The project cost $114 million. On November 27, 1910, the rest of the building was completed and the station was used during the golden age of railroad passenger travel. In 1906, the railroad honored Alexander Johnson Cassatt, the president of Pennsylvania railroad company, with a statue which was placed in the station arcade. The statue was preserved and relocated to the modern station. A few late presidents of the United States also arrived at Penn Station whenever they traveled by rail. The first Pennsylvania station was constructed in 1904 and demolished on October 28, 1963. It was considered the largest building in the world ever built at one time.  

Penn Station

The Post Office had a staff of up to four thousand personnel, including a division of postal police, a dedicated medical staff, photographers, and Postal Office Inspectors that ensured everything was running smoothly. A train line ran underneath the building, which had its own access and by which mail was occasionally delivered. This mail was sorted in an enormous glass-covered mail handling hall that covered more than an acre of space. A network of pneumatic tubes was installed around the building and surrounding city, which allowed mail to be quickly distributed to Grand Central station. With this system, mail bags could be sent from the post office and reach their destination in about two minutes.

The granite building is as long as the railway station it is based on, stretching across the entire space between 31st Street and 33rd Street. Access is via a tall staircase that almost spans the whole length of the building. The facade is colonnaded with twenty Corinthian-style columnns, each one beautifully fluted. Inside, a main corridor runs the full length of two blocks. The walls are made with Botticino marble and decorative ironwork, the floors of Knoxville marble. A two-story high ceiling is decorated with ten different seals of countries that were members of the Postal Union. The offices are clad in white drywall and linoleum, and those of the Postmaster and Postal Office Inspectors feature mahogany wood paneled walls and marble floors.

In 1990, many of the buildings services were made redundant, so it started reducing its staff and closing many of the cavernous spaces within. Many of the building’s most interesting spaces remain vacant to this day, though there are plans to redevelop it as an extension of Pennsylvania Station: the Moynihan Station. Today, some portions of the building remain open&nbsp;and contain interesting objects from postal history: a green Irish post-box, a horse-drawn carriage for delivering mail, and a 1920s mail courier bike.&nbsp;

In 1910, work began on the United States General Post Office on 8th Avenue, across the street from the recently finished Pennsylvania Station. Three years later, and at a cost of more than five million dollars, the building was finished. Designed by the architect firm, McKim, Mead and White, the Classical style of the new post office mirrored that of the Pennsylvania railroad terminal across the road. It boasts one of the longest colonnaded facades in the world, and is well known for Ira Schnapp’s Trajan-style carved quotation from the Histories by Herodotus: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” The post office opened for business in September 1914 and was the largest in the country; operating twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the building was extended to 9th Avenue, under direction of the postmaster, General James A. Farley. From that point on the whole structure was known as the James Farley Post Office. 

James Farley Post Office

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856. There is an interesting story concerning Tesla's birth. He was born&nbsp;as lightning struck, and the midwife of his birth said that&nbsp;"he'll be a child of the storm," but Tesla's mother replied, "No, of light," which would prove to be true in his future endeavors. In 1875, Tesla began attending an Austrian Polytechnic School and at first maintained perfect marks, but he began to do worse in classes partially due to intellectual disagreements with his professors&nbsp;and dropped out after his third year of classes. In 1882, Tesla found himself obsessed with the puzzle of alternating current (A.C.). This obsession caused Tesla to have a nervous breakdown that almost caused his death. Shortly after his recovery, the answer to the puzzle came to him in a vision. He was sitting on a beach, watching the sunset and reciting&nbsp;Goethe's Faust. An idea came into his mind, and he drew a diagram of it in the sand. This idea provided improvements to the Edison generator in the form of an automatic regulator. A year after this, Tesla began advertising his A.C. motor to investors. Unfortunately, few understood the advantages of using an alternating current over the D.C (direct current)&nbsp;of Edison's designs. As a result, Tesla generated interest but not financial backing.&nbsp;In the summer of 1884, Tesla began working with Edison, who liked his intelligence but had no interest in the A.C. system. Nevertheless, Tesla had great success working with Edison, improving upon at least twenty of Edison's designs.&nbsp; The Tesla Electric Light Company began in 1885&nbsp;when he was asked to improve the arc lighting system, but after this, he was forced out of Edison's company and now had to rely on his own name for business. Unfortunately, Tesla's company did not reach its full potential because Tesla prioritized research over development&nbsp;and theory over application. He spent too money coming up with brilliant ideas&nbsp;but didn't make the money back by putting the ideas to use. Though his income was unstable for years, his later research was eventually backed by tycoon J.P Morgan. This funding allowed him to finally get his own lab to operate in. It was in&nbsp;his Colorado Springs Laboratory that Tesla made several breakthroughs about wireless power transmission. Once his research in Colorado Springs proved successful, he moved to New York to work on the most ambitious idea he had ever had - a tower that would be able to transmit power to any location from one singular point. This tower was known as the Wardenclyffe Tower. Morgan did not care for this project, so he terminated his role as an&nbsp;investor. Tesla went looking for new investors but couldn't convince any other investors to back his research. They either did not care for the project, for its cost, or did not believe in the technology. A famous example of this is Tesla claiming that he had built&nbsp;"Death Rays capable of destroying 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 250 miles." This is what led to Nikola Tesla's unfortunate death in 1943. He was in New York City at the time to complete work on the Wardenclyffe Tower, but he was left penniless after failing to develop a good business model that was capable of getting people to support his work. His demise was believing in humanity and personal dreams in a society of capitalism and finances.

Nikola Tesla passed away at the age of 86 on January 7, 1943, during a stay at the Hotel New Yorker. At the time of his death, Tesla had incurred an incredible amount of debt. The cause of his death was coronary thrombosis caused by a blood clot. During his life, Tesla was a renowned inventor, engineer, and physicist. However, critics claimed that Tesla often exaggerated the potential of his inventions to help raise funds among investors. Still, he proved to be a talented inventor, but despite his talent and ambition, some of his ideas such as the smartphone and the death ray were impossible for him to complete. The hotel placed plaques honoring Tesla near the entrance of the New Yorker Hotel and on the door of the room in which he passed, room #3327.

Site of Nikola Tesla's Death

Originally called the Manhattan Opera House, the building was constructed in 1906 by Oscar Hammerstein. Hammerstein wanted this venue to be an alternative to the Metropolitan Opera. The Metropolitan Opera later paid him $1.2 million to stop operating the facility as an opera house. This prompted the theater to become a public and private event center that housed a variety of meetings, concerts, and other performances. The venue expanded in the mid-1980s to bring in music and other cultural events with the addition of an audio recording studio. Though the building itself is over 110 years old, millions of dollars have been invested in renovations to ensure it stays around for generations to come.One of New York City's hidden gems is the Grand Ballroom located on the 7th floor of the building. Once a rooftop garden, it has since become an "event planner's dream," possessing a 10,000 square foot acoustically enhanced space with elegance and beauty abound. With up to 1,200 seats, the Grand Ballroom can turn into anything that a planner desires, whether it be a meeting room, fashion show, television shoot, or concert. The possibilities are endless.The Hammerstein Ballroom is one of the most elegant destinations for any special event. With 12,000 square feet to spare, you can sit virtually anywhere and have an unobstructed and breathtaking view of the stage in any of the nearly 4,000 seats that are in this space. The Hammerstein Ballroom is so large that it was once used as a sports venue for Extreme Championship Wrestling for its One Night Only pay-per-view events held in promotion with World Wrestling Entertainment.

The Manhattan Center is a performance venue located at West 34th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue that houses two recording studios, a Grand Ballroom, and the famous Hammerstein Ballroom. A viable venue choice for New York City, the Center has hosted numerous galas, music and television performances, and cultural events that range from vaudevilles to concerts. This renowned performance venue is just a five-minute walk from Macy's Herald Square.

Highlights of Midtown Manhattan Tour

Gimbel’s Skybridge, New York

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information