New York City, U.S.A. (by EMArg)

Times Square







One of the most glorious experiences in the US cities you may have is to get on foot to Times Square. It’s awesome to hear the noise of this particular place just a few blocks away. It sounds like the waves of the ocean on the coast, with the huge vibe of thousands and thousands of people, the cars and buses, and the music of the ads of the buildings. Though the city actually sleeps at night, Times Square is always moving. Chaotic and beautiful. What it’s known today as Times Square is the evolution of the intersection between the 7th Avenue and Broadway, an avenue who was opened in order to break the urban grid of Manhattan. Though the architecture in this area changed through all of the 20th Century, the core characteristic of Times Square, the ads in the buildings, remained intact. They actually play a big part on the scenery, shining in a very clear way from the rest of the city. At the same time, Broadway shines for its theatre industry, with some of the most relevant and coveted venues in the world.

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In HD:

Wall Street & Lower Manhattan







The second big center of New York after the Midwotn lies at the south of the island, in the Lower Manhattan. The classic grid that conforms most of the city suddenly change, with a street-layout that seems like those in of the old european cities. It is the oldest part of the city, once called New Amsterdam when the dutch bought the land, and then conquered a few years later by the english. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the first famous skycrapers of NYC came out within its streets, some of them placed in entire blocks. Because the streets are so small and the buildings so high and close to each other, there’s only a few hours of direct sunlight every day. Among this mix of art deco and neogothic skyscrapers, there’s the old buildings of 3 stories-high, built there from 100 to 200 years ago. Going trough Broadway, a few miles away from Times Square, there’s the Trinity Church where the Wall Street begins, known for the stockbrokers mystic and the image of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), who paradoxically is placed in another street. Its entrance was closed to the general public (even in a small sector of the street) since the events of the Occupy Wall St. movement. The most important and impressive place of the Lower Manhattan is, however, the World Trade Center, nowadays a reborn place with new constructions taking place: new skyscrapers (some of them almost finished), a big park, 2 fountains of the same size of the Twin Towers, and the entrance of the new transport node designed by Calatrava.

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In HD:

Upeer East Side & Park Avenue







The Upper East Side is one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of New York. The agglomeration of skyscrapers who starts at the Midtown is spread then to the Upper East Side and their height goes down progressively when it gets to Harlem in the north, where the Central Park ends. Inside this neighborhoods lies the Fifth Avenue and other important arteries of New York. Particularly on this neighborhood, there’s a considerable amount of buildings with french architecture, somehow unusual in the US and the city. It has a lot of buildings with an immense patrimonial heritage that, it seems, had their golden age in the beginning of the 20th century. There’s also new buildings being constructed at the time. Some of them use the advantages of the New York system, which consists in buying the airspace of the surroundings buildings in order to increase the height and at the same time put windows on all of the facades. Within this jungle of residential skyscrapers is the Park Avenue, with its boulevard connecting the south and the north of Manhattan. Below the avenue is the underground train who goes to the ground in the north of the city. The train was putted underground to allow the use of cars but also, as it’s been said, to sell the surrounding lands, which was a huge business for those involved. In the middle of Park Avenue is the Grand Central Terminal, one of the epic US train stations, used as a transport node for the train and the subway. It is as incredible as the old european stations and also somehow futuristic for its time, with the bridges connecting it to the streets. It’s famously flanked by skyscrapers such as the Chrysler Building and the MetLife, with its unique International Style design, who once had the iconic PanAm logo on the last floors.

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In HD:

beautiful indeed....and I totally agree with your comments about Times square. on my 4 days of staying their, I'd always ended up in the square, watching people and the lights before heading back to my hotel and I'd witnessed about 4 incidents where cops were fast in getting people doing petty crimes, cops coming from all directions and getting their subject in the midst of the thick crowd...aahh, there must be lots of cctv's around...safe place indeed.

Grand Central Terminal







The Grand Central Terminal is one of the various epic terminals of New York City. It’s placed at the core of the Midtown Manhattan and it connects several Metro lines with the long-distance passenger rail travel. the GCT is famous for its imposing physical location in the middle of the Park Avenue and the Metlife Building on the back. It’s also known for the streets who get inside the terminal itself in what it was a futurist design of the beginning of the 20th Century and also the scenario of many Hollywood movies.

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In HD:

NYC at Night from the Empire State Building






Following next: panoramic views and skylines of New York City from the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building

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In HD: