Charging Bull

    Charging Bull, which is sometimes referred to as the Wall Street Bull or the Bowling Green Bull, is a 3,200-kilogram (7,100 lb) bronze sculpture by Arturo Di Modica that stands in Bowling Green Park near Wall Street in Manhattan. Standing 11 feet (3.4 m) tall and measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) long,the oversize sculpture depicts a bull, the symbol of aggressive financial optimism and prosperity, leaning back on its haunches and with its head lowered as if ready to charge.  

     The sculpture is both a popular tourist destination which draws thousands of people a day, as well as "one of the most iconic images of New York" and a "Wall Street icon" symbolizing "Wall Street" and the Financial District.

       Di Modica spent some $360,000 to create, cast, and install the sculpture following the 1987 stock market crash as a symbol of the "strength and power of the American people". The sculpture was the artist's idea, not the city's. In an act of "guerrilla art",he trucked it to Lower Manhattan and on December 15, 1989, installed it beneath a 60-foot Christmas tree in the middle of Broad Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange as a Christmas gift to the people of New York. That day, crowds came to look at the bull, with hundreds stopping to admire and analyze the gift as Di Modica handed out copies of a flier about his artwork.

       The police seized the sculpture and placed it into an impound lot. The ensuing public outcry led the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to install it two blocks south of the Exchange in the plaza at Bowling Green with a ceremony on December 21,

1989. It faces up Broadway.

Grand Central Terminal

   

 Grand Central Terminal (GCT) is a commuter railroad terminal at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States.Built by and named for the New York Central Railroad in the heyday of American long-distance passenger rail travel, it is the largest such facility in the world by number of platforms with 44 serving 67 tracks along them. They are on two levels, both below ground, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower, though the total number of tracks along platforms  and in rail yards exceeds 100. The terminal covers an area of  48 acres (19 ha).

      

     The terminal serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess  counties in New York State, and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. Until 1991 the terminal served Amtrak, which moved to nearby Pennsylvania Station upon completion of the Empire Connection.

   

     Although the terminal has been properly called “Grand Central Terminal” since 1913, many people continue to refer to it wrongly as “Grand Central Station,” the name of the previous rail station on the same site, and of the U.S. Post Office station next door, which is not part of the terminal. It is also sometimes used to refer to the Grand Central– 42nd Street subway station, which serves the terminal. It has been described as "the world's loveliest station". According to the travel magazine Travel + Leisure in its October 2011 survey, Grand Central Terminal is "the world's number six most visited tourist attraction", bringing in approximately 21,600,000 visitors annually.The enduring appeal of the station is thought to be related to its monumental spaces and meticulously crafted detail.

Roosevelt Island

          Roosevelt Island is a narrow island in New York City's East River. It lies between the island of Manhattan to its west and the borough of Queens to its east, and is part of  the borough of Manhattan. Running from Manhattan's East 46th to East 85th Streets, it is about 2 miles (3.2 km) long, with a maximum width of 800 feet (240 m), and a total area of 147 acres (0.59 km2). Together with Mill Rock, Roosevelt Island constitutes Manhattan's Census Tract 238, which has a land area of 0.279 sq mi (0.72 km2).and had a population of 9,520 in 2000 according to the US Census.The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation estimated its population was about 12,000 in 2007. The island was called Minnehanonck by the Lenape and Varkens Eylandt (Hog Island) by New Netherlanders, and during the colonial era and later as Blackwell's Island. It was known as Welfare Island from 1921 to 1973.

          Roosevelt Island is owned by the city, but was leased to the state of New York's Urban Development Corporation for 99 years in 1969. Most of the residential buildings on Roosevelt Island are rental buildings. There is also a cooperative (Rivercross) and a condominium building (Riverwalk). One rental building (Eastwood) has left New York State's Mitchell-Lama Housing Program, though current residents are still protected. Three other buildings are now working toward privatization, including the cooperative.

Governors Island

          Governors Island is a 172-acre (70 ha) island in Upper New York Bay, approximately one-half mile (1 km) from the southern tip of Manhattan Island and separated from Brooklyn by Buttermilk Channel. It is legally part of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Physically, the island changed greatly during the early 20th century. Using material excavated from the Lexington Avenue subway, the Army Corps of Engineers supervised the deposit of 4,787,000 cubic yards of fill on the south side of Governors Island, adding 103 acres (42 ha) of flat, treeless land by 1912 and bringing the total acreage of the island to 172.

          The Native Americans of the Manhattan region referred to the island as "Paggank", meaning 'nut island', doubtless after the island's plentiful hickory, oak, and chestnut trees the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block called it "Noten Eylant", a translation, and this was borrowed into English as "Nutten Island". The island's current name, made official in 1784, stems from British colonial times when the colonial assembly reserved the island for the exclusive use of New York's royal governors.

         On May 24, 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg broke ground on the new park and public spaces designed by the landscape design firm West 8, along with announcing the opening of the rehabilitated Castle Williams.

         The national historic landmark district, approximately 92 acres (37 ha) of the northern half of the island, is open to the public for several months in the summer and early fall. The circumferential road around the island is also open to the public. The island is accessed by free ferries from Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

        The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir (sometimes abbreviated by locals as JKO) – originally and sometimes still known as the Central Park Reservoir – is a decommissioned reservoir in Central Park in the borough of Manhattan.

The Reservoir covers 106 acres (43 ha) and holds over 1,000,000,000 US gallons (3,800,000 m3) of water.Though no longer used to distribute New York City's water supply, it provides water for the Pooland the Harlem Meer. It is a popular place of  interest; there is a 1.58-mile (2.54 km)jogging track around it and it is also encircled by the park's bridle trail.

The Reservoir was built between 1858 and 1862, to the design for Central Park of  Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux,who designed its two pumphouses of Manhattan schist with granite facings. It was never a collecting reservoir. It was used to receive water from the Croton Aqueduct and distribute it to Manhattan.

After 131 years of service, it was decommissioned in 1993, after it was deemed obsolete because of a new main under 79th Street that connected with the Third Water Tunnel and because of growing concerns that it could become contaminated.It was renamed in honor of  Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1994 to commemorate her contributions to the city, because she enjoyed jogging in the area,which lay beneath the windows of her Fifth Avenue apartment.

Coney Island

     Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York City.

Coney Island is the westernmost part of the barrier islands of Long Island, about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide. Formerly it was an island, separated from the main part of Brooklyn by Coney Island Creek, which was partially tidal mudflats, but it has since been developed into a peninsula. There were plans early in the 20th centuryto dredge and straighten the creek as a ship canal, but they were abandoned, and the center of the creek was filled in for construction of the Belt Parkway before World War II.

The western and eastern ends are now peninsulas.

     Coney Island is well known as the site of amusement parks and a seaside resort. The attractions reached their peak during the first half of the 20th century, declining in popularity after World War II and years of neglect. In recent years, the area has seen the opening of MCU Park and has become home to the minor league baseball team the Brooklyn Cyclones.

     The residential neighborhood of the same name is a community of 60,000 people in thewestern part of the peninsula, with Sea Gate to its west, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, and Gravesend to the north.

Times Square

       Times Square is a major commercial intersection in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. Times Square – iconified as "The Crossroads of the World", "The Center of the Universe", and the "The Great White Way"– is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway theater district,one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections,and a major center of the world's entertainment industry.Formerly Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building – now called One Times Square – site of the annual ball drop on New Year's Eve.

       Times Square 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 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.

Ellis Island

    Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1924. The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990. A 1998 United States Supreme Court decision found most of the island to be part of New Jersey. The south side of the island, home to the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is closed to the general public and the object of restoration efforts spearheaded by Save Ellis Island. The island has been closed to the public since Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. 

   Ellis Island is located in Jersey City, New Jersey and is situated in the Upper New York Bay east of Liberty State Park and north of Liberty Island.The island has a land area of 27.5 acres (11.1 ha), most of which was created through land reclamation.The original portion of the island is 3.3 acres (1.3 ha) and is an exclave of New York City, while reclaimed areas are part of Jersey City. The entire island has been owned and administered by the U.S. federal government since 1808. It is currently operated by the National Park Service.

Statue of Liberty

     The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad. Sculptor Frederic Bartholdi was inspired by the sheer scale of the Suez Canal and a massive lighthouse that drew boats inward. Bartholdi designed the statue to resemble the Roman goddess of Liberty, in majestic, flowing robes. The statue's stern face was modeled after Bartholdi's mother who he was close with.

     The statue is situated in Upper New York Bay on Liberty Island, south of Ellis Island. Both islands were ceded by New York to the federal government in 1800. As agreed in an 1834 compact between New York and New Jersey that set the state border at the bay's midpoint, the original islands remain New York territory despite their location on the New Jersey side of the state line.

Central Park

Central Park is a public park at the center of Manhattan in New York City. The park initially opened in 1857. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan. Construction began the same year, continued during the American Civil War, and was completed in 1873. Central Park is one of the world's largest urban public parks. Central Park is bordered on the north by West 110th Street, on the south by West 59th Street, on the west by Eighth Avenue. Along the park's borders, these streets are known as Central Park North, Central Park South, and Central Park West respectively. Only Fifth Avenue along the park's eastern border retains its name. It was opened on 770 acres (3.1 km2) of city-owned land and was expanded to 843 acres (3.41 km2; 1.317 sq mi). It is 2.5 miles (4 km) long between 59th Street (Central Park South) and 110th Street (Central Park North), and is 0.5 miles (0.8 km) wide between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. Central Park receives approximately thirty-five million visitors annually, is the most visited urban park in the United States.