We headed back out on the subway to see some of the tall buildings of New York. There are a few!
The Empire State Building is probably the most famous. We headed there first to try to avoid long line-ups.
The Empire State is the ‘nickname’ of New York State. The Empire State Building was completed in 1921. At 102 stories, it was the tallest building in the world for 40 years.
Eric with the construction crew.
Fun King Kong display. ‘Oh no, it’s got Kris’!
The Flat Iron building seen from the top of the Empire State.
The building on the left looked quite weird lit up at night.
Peekaboo view of Central Park.
The views were pretty impressive, we must say.
Just down the block is the original Macy’s.
We passed the Kneeling Fireman Statue. One of the many monuments to first responders around NYC.
Another famous building is the Chrysler Building. It is an art deco skyscraper completed in 1930 and was Chrysler Corp’s headquarters until the mid 1950’s. It held the title of tallest building in the world for 11 months until the Empire State Building was completed in 1931. Gargoyles on the 31st floor and ‘eagles’ on the 61st were designed to signify flight and to exemplify the machine age of the 1920’s. It is a really beautiful building.
A short walk away is Grand Central Station. The façade outside is called ‘Transportation’ and depicts Mercury flanked by Hercules and Minerva.
Inside is a map of the zodiac on the ceiling (the depiction is actually backward!)
and the four-sided gold clock said to be worth $10 – $20 million.
750,000 people pass through the station every day! It was pretty crazy and hectic, so we can believe that statistic.
We headed down to see the UN Building. Apparently the 193 flags are not usually flown on the weekend. Oh well, still a cool thing to see.
Then we continued to Rockefeller Center.
There is some amazing art built into and around the buildings.
There is also a Lego store. Their re-creation of statuary from Rockefeller Center did not disappoint.
At this point we headed back to the brownstone for a rest. At dusk we headed to Broadway for dinner at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. It’s a place where the wait staff entertain as well. Well worth the line!
A boy in his element!
She had a killer voice!
Rachel our server who was also Celiac. Karma much?
Since it was now dark we headed over to the Top of the Rock Observation Tower. Lots of cool views of Manhattan at night.
A very cool view for sure but it was time to head to bed.