Times Square
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Union Square is a square. Madison Square is a square too. Even Herald Square is a square. But Times Square is not a square.
In fact, it is nothing but a glorified intersection.
In this case, “square,” refers not to the four-sided polygon, but the dictionary definition of “an open area or plaza in a city or town, formed by the meeting or intersecting of two or more streets.”
Times Square functions as a town square, but is not geometrically a square; it is closer in shape to a bowtie, with two triangles emanating roughly north and south from 45th Street, where Seventh Avenue intersects Broadway.
The area is bounded by West 42nd street, West 47th street, 7th Avenue, and Broadway. Broadway runs diagonally, crossing through the horizontal and vertical street grid of Manhattan
Times Square is a center of New York City entertainment and tourism.
Thousands of people, day and night, flock to its theatres, hotels, restaurants and shops, all lit from above by constantly flashing, larger-than-life neon signage.
One of the busiest places in the world?!
Times Square is brightly lit by numerous digital billboards and advertisements as well as businesses offering 24/7 service.
One of the world's busiest pedestrian areas, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District and a major center of the world's entertainment industry.
Times Square is one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors annually.
Approximately 330,000 people pass through Times Square daily, many of them tourists, while over 460,000 pedestrians walk through Times Square on its busiest days. The Times Square–42nd Street and 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal stations have consistently ranked as the busiest in the New York City Subway system, transporting more than 200,000 passengers daily.
More
Times Square is the most visited place globally with 360,000 pedestrian visitors a day, amounting to over 131 million a year. As of 2013, it had a greater attendance than each of the Disney theme parks worldwide.
Even excluding residents from the visitor count, Times Square is the world's second most visited tourist attraction, behind the Las Vegas Strip.
The high level of pedestrian traffic has resulted in $4.8 billion in annual retail, entertainment, and hotel sales, with 22 cents out of every dollar spent by visitors in New York City being spent within Times Square.
In Our Story...
The subway station under Times Square is the setting for most of our story. Tucker Mouse and Harry take Chester up out of the drain pipe network to see the busyness and bustle of Times Square.
As a country Cricket he was "a little leery of venturing out into New York City." (p. 32) "At last Chester saw the light above them. One more step brought him out onto the sidewalk. And there he gasped, holding his breath and crouching against the cement."(p. 32)
The very first time Chester sees Times Square, when Harry and Tucker take him outside the subway station, Selden describes Times Square with vivid imagery that accurately relays the awe and surprise Chester is feeling as he looks at it. Lines like "They were standing on the corner of the Times building, which is at the south end of Times Square. Above the cricket, towers that seemed like mountains of light rose up into the night sky" contrast New York City with the home Chester knew back in Connecticut (p. 32)
Even this late the neon signs were still blazing. Reds, blues, greens and yellows flashed down on him. And the air was full of the roar of traffic and the hum of human beings.
It was as if Times Square were a kind of shell, with colors and noises breaking in great waves inside it. " (p. 32 - 33)
Historically
By 1872,the intersection lay at the heart of the city’s carriage-making district, and was called Longacre Square, after Long Acre Street in the carriage-making district of London.
In 1904, New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs moved the newspaper's operations to a new skyscraper on 42nd Street at Longacre Square, on the site of the former Pabst Hotel. Ochs persuaded Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. to construct a subway station there, and the area was renamed "Times Square."
Just three weeks later, the first electrified advertisement appeared on the side of a bank at the corner of 46th Street and Broadway.
The Times headquarters marked the introduction of an invention in 1910 that would define Times Square’s identity to this day: the electronic news ticker.
People would gather by the thousands on the sidewalks and the small medians in front of the Times Building to get news and play-by-play accounts of sporting events. The electronic billboards soon followed in 1917.
Interesting that people historically got their news at Times Square and that in Our Story the Bellini's tried to make their living giving News in the same location.
"All late papers!! Shouted Mario as (people) hurried by. "Magazines!!" (p. 4) "I'll take a Sunday Times.." Paul said, and pcked up the newspaper." (p. 6)
In 1928 when the first electronic sign was placed on the building. Aptly named the “zipper,” it was a technological marvel, flashing all the important news of the day. It joined the other bright lights of Times Square.
New Years Eve
Ochs hosted a spectacular show of fireworks from the Times Tower at midnight to bring in the New Year of 1905.
200,000 spectators enjoyed the show, overshadowing the previous New Year’s tradition of listening to the ringing bells of Trinity Church. But Ochs was in a pickle. The city wasn’t too happy with the ashes coming down from the fireworks and banned it. He needed a show-stopping replacement.
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 that night, hundreds of thousands of people congregate to watch the Waterford Crystal ball being lowered on a pole atop the building, marking the start of the new year.
It replaced a lavish fireworks display from the top of the building that was held from 1904 to 1906 but stopped by city officials because of the danger of fire. Beginning in 1908, and for more than eighty years thereafter.
Times Square is still the site of the annual New Year's Eve ball drop. About one million revelers crowd Times Square for the New Year's Eve celebrations, more than twice the usual number of visitors the area usually receives daily.
However, for the millennium celebration on December 31, 1999, published reports stated approximately two million people overflowed Times Square, flowing from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue and back on Broadway and Seventh Avenue to 59th Street, making it the largest gathering in Times Square since August 1945 during celebrations marking the end of World War II.
End of WW II
Times Square became a place of celebration, not just on New Year’s Eve, but for every big occasion.
The bright lights of New York City, and Times Square were shut down as part of the blackout during World War II. Even the ball drop was on hold for 1942 and 1943. Instead, a moment of silence was observed at midnight in Times Square, accompanied by the sound of chimes played from sound trucks.
The end of the war, however, brought a boisterous celebration, drawing, at that time, the largest crowd in Times Square history.
The victory itself was announced by a headline on the "zipper" news ticker at One Times Square, which read "OFFICIAL ***TRUMAN ANNOUNCES JAPANESE SURRENDER ***
Broadway
Broadway is the theater district in New York, New York. It is named for the main street around which the theaters are clustered. The city's theater district hosts the premier commercial stage entertainment in the United States. The first theaters in the area were built in the 1700s.
Broadway theatre, or Broadway, is a theatre genre that consists of the theatrical performances presented in 41 professional theaters, each with 500 or more seats,
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