The area in New York City formed by the intersection of Broadway, 42nd Street, and 7th Avenue, and at the centre of the city's theatre district. It takes its name from the Times Tower, built in 1904 to house the offices of the New York Times.
Times Square is the name given to a principal intersection, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Like Red Square in Moscow, Champs-Elysées in Paris, Trafalgar Square in London, or Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Times Square has achieved the status of an iconic world landmark and has become a symbol of New York.
Times Square consists of the blocks between Seventh and Ninth Avenues from east to west, and West 39th and West 52nd Streets from south to north (40.75659° N 73.98626° W), making up the western part of the commercial area of Midtown Manhattan. Ochs moved the paper's operations to a new tower, now called One Times Square, on 42nd Street in the middle of the area known as Longacre Square. Later known as the Allied Chemical Building and now known as One Times Square, the tower 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 since.
On average, approximately 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.
Times Square quickly grew as a cultural hub full of theaters, music halls, and upscale hotels. "Times Square quickly became New York's agora, a place to gather both to await great tidings and to celebrate them, whether a World Series or a presidential election," writes James Traub in The Devil's Playground: A Century of Pleasure and Profit in Times Square. The seediness of Times Square was a famous symbol of New York City's danger and corruption from the 1960s until the early 1990s. Detractors, on the other hand, argue that the changes have diluted the character of Times Square and have unfairly targeted lower income New Yorkers from nearby neighborhoods (such as Hell's Kitchen).
Times Square today
The theaters of Broadway and the huge number of gaudy animated neon and television-style signage have long made it one of New York's iconic images, and a symbol of the intensely urban aspects of Manhattan.
In 1992, the Times Square Alliance (formerly the Times Square Business Improvement District, or "BID" for short), a coalition of 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.
A notable example of the signage is the NASDAQ sign at the NASDAQ MarketSite at 4 Times Square on 43rd Street.
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.
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.
Corporate presence
The following corporations are headquartered at Times Square with many others having corporate presences in the area:
| Condé Nast Publications Ernst and Young Instinet Lehman Brothers Morgan Stanley Bain & Flom Reuters Elizabeth Taylor Viacom General Electric |
Major buildings on and near Times Square
| 1 Times Square Reuters Building (3 Times Square) Times Square Tower New York Times Tower (construction) Bank of America Tower, New York City (construction) The Orion (construction) New York Marriott Marquis AXA Center One Astor Plaza | W Times Square Ramada Renaissance Hotel Sheraton New York One Worldwide Plaza Conde Nast Building 1585 Broadway 810 7th Avenue 5 Times Square 11 Times Square (construction) |
Times Square in popular culture
The Times Square neighborhood, notably its busiest intersection, has been featured countless times in literature, on television, and in films. Among the instances:
The first opening credit crawl of Saturday Night Live featured cast members' names and, later, photographs, superimposed over billboards in Times Square.
In the 1990 film Quick Change, Bill Murray exits the subway in Times Square.
In the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Catherine O'Hara asks two New York City police officers for help in locating her lost son while in Times Square on Christmas Eve.
On the popular show, America's Next Top Model, three cycles were filmed in New York, and Times Square was shown in Cycle 3.
For the 2001 film Vanilla Sky, Times Square was shut down for three hours for a scene where Tom Cruise is alone in Times Square.
The title character in the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man does battle with the Green Goblin in Times Square and also saves the life of heroine Mary Jane.
Times Square is featured at length in the 2005 film King Kong – ‘Kong’ breaks free of restraints on a Broadway stage, then smashes through the building’s front on to Times Square where mayhem follows.
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.
In the 2005 video game True Crime: New York City, the headquarters of the Police Department of New York (slightly changed version of New York Police Department due to licensing reasons) are located in Times Square, more specifically on the corner of Broadway and 7th Avenue, at the site of the One Astor Plaza, home to Viacom.
The 2006 video game Driver: Parallel Lines features Times Square in both of its time era setting. One is of a 1978 version of Times Square, and the other is a 2006 version of Times Square.
The likeness of Times Square was used for the opening theme of the NFL Sunday Night Football on NBC Sports.
The Xbox video game Forza Motorsport features Times Square in two racing circits, New York Circuit and New York Circuit Short
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