I am a huge fan of tours. Museum tours a must. I also really like recommend doing bus tours. It is such a great way to get around the city and learn all about it at the same time.
Bus Tour Pro Tip for New York City:
Get the pass for 2 days
Do the uptown tour one day
Do the downtown tour one day
Go early in the morning and do the whole route and then ride again to get to your destination.
We attempted to do both the uptown and downtown routes in one day. When we were finished with the uptown tour it was the afternoon and the bus was full and we had to wait multiple stops to get seats on top. It is better to split it into two days.
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We sat on the top and I took lots of pictures. I don't remember all that the recording said so I will be looking up info on the places they highlighted. Writing the posts later and learning about the places I have visited has become part of the joy of blogging for me. Knowing that I would want to blog about this tour I took pictures with my cell phone and texted the picture and name of the buildings to myself.
Here is a map. We took the blue route.
Let's start the tour. There are 13 places of interest.
Hurst Tower
The Hurst tower is 597 ft (182m) high. There is an original building, which you can barely see in my picture, that was completed in 1928 and then the part that has the triangles (known as diagrids) was completed in 2006. It is the home of Hearst Magazine. 1
The Majestic
The Majestic are apartment buildings on the upper west side, next to Central Park. They were built in 1930-1931 in the Art Deco Style. It is 29 stories and has 283 apartments. In the 1930s there were some notable gagsters that lived in the building. 2
According to Zillow you can buy a 4 bedroom 4 bath for $3.8 million dollars.
As you can tell we were right on the road looking up at the buildings. Here is a view of the buildings looking down Central Park West.
The Dakota
Another notable apartment building on Central Park West is the Dakota. It was built from 1880-1884. There are many famous people that have lived in the Dakota during its 137 years. Leonard Bernstein, a famous composer of Musicals like West Side Story, athletic greats such as John Madden and Joe Namath, actors like Judy Garland and Rosie O'Donnell and the most famous people to live in the Dakota were John Lennon and Yoko Ono. John was murdered at the Dakota in 1980. 3
American Museum of Natural History
It is also on the upper west side and across from Central Park. It has about 5 million visitors a year. It is a huge museum with 2 million square feet (190,000m2) It has information about animals, cultures, earth and space. 4
I still haven't been. Maybe next time I go to New York I will go to the Natural History Museum. I have heard really great things about it.
New York Cancer Hospital
This is such a beautiful building (late gothic revival, French Chateau). It was built 1884-1886. In 1884 former President Grant developed and died from throat cancer. This was the first hospital in the United States devoted to caring for cancer patients. 5
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
This beautiful cathedral is an episcopal church. Construction started in 1892. It is not complete and is still the world's 6th largest church by area 121,000 sq ft (11,200m2). It is 601 ft (183 m) long and the roof is 177 ft (54m) high. 6 This is a place I really want to go back to and see up close and go inside.
Columbia University
This is not a very good picture. I have great memories of Columbia. The first time I went to New York City I got off the subway and followed directions to stay at an acquaintance's house. As we walked through Columbia I stopped in my tracks. It is a beautiful university. Ever since then I have been a fan of it.
It was established in 1754 (267 years ago) and is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the 5th oldest in the United States. IT was moved to it's current location in Morningside Heights in 1896. 7
Here is the map again. You can see Morningside Heights and Harlem.
Harlem
Harlem was original a Dutch village and was named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1660. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem was the focus of the "Harlem Renaissance" which is an outpouring of artistic work without precedent in the American Black community. Many R&B, soul, hip hop and jazz artists are from Harlem. Another interesting fact is that there are over 400 churches in Harlem. 8
The Apollo theater and the Islam Mosque were points of interest on the tour and speak to the artistic and religious life of Harlem.
Guggenheim Museum
I went to the Guggenheim for the first time on this trip. See this post Art Talk: The Guggenheim for more pictures and information.
MET or The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Not too far from the Guggenheim on 5th Avenue is the MET. It is the largest museum in the United States and one of the largest in the world. It's collection is over 2 million works of art and it 2.2 million square feet. That is astounding! It was built in 1874 in the Beaux-Arts style. As I said earlier in the post. It is one of my favorite places! 9
Here are other posts I have done of the MET
2018 Art Talk: Highlight tour of the MET
2019 Art Talk: MET Highlight tour
2019 Art Talk: Japan at the MET
2021 Coming...
Frick Museum
I have been to the Frick Museum a couple of times. That is saying a lot with my fascination with the MET. The Frick is also on 5th Avenue (in walking distance to the MET). The Frick is one of my favorite types of museums, a personal collection in the person's home. Henry Clay Frick gave his art collection and his home on the upper east side to become the museum. I like "Old Master" (anyone painter that worked in Europe before 1800) paintings and Frick's collection is very similar to Andrew Mellon who's collection became the National of Gallery in DC. 10
Temple Emanue-El
The Temple Emanue-El is the first reform Jewish in New York City and is one of the largest synagogues in the world. It was founded in 1845 by 33 German Jews. The congregation is not about 2,000 families. 11
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel is a very high end luxury hotel and apartment building. It opened in 1907. There are 21 floors with 282 hotel rooms and 181 condos. While we were on the bus I looked up the cost of a room. Rooms range from $1000 to $30,000 a night. Crazy! It is French Renaissance- inspired architecture and is very beautiful and distinct. 12
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall was built by Andrew Carnegie in 1891. It is a concert venue for both classical and popular music and has 3,671 seats. It is a modified Italian Renaissance style. 13
I didn't get the best picture of it. Since I am not such a music fan I haven't been here or have plans to go. Maybe someday I will go to New York and go to Carnegie Hall.
There you are... a bus tour of New York City. It was awesome and when I go back I want to do the downtown route. I would do the uptown route again too.
Personal 30 Day Challenge- Day 17
