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Times
Square History: Times Square is
the name given to a principal intersection
at the junction of Broadway and
Seventh Avenue and stretching from
West 42nd to West 47th Streets in
the New York City borough of Manhattan.
Like Red Square in Moscow, Champs-Elysées
in Paris, Trafalgar Square in London,
or Tiananmen Square in Beijing,
Times Square has achieved the status
of an iconic world landmark and
has become a symbol of New York.
Times Square is principallydefined
by its lightedand animated advertisements. |
The
early 1900s The New
York Times
publisher Adolph S. Ochs moved the paper's
operations to a new tower, now called
One Times Square, on 42nd Street in the
middle of the area known as Longacre Square.
Ochs persuaded Mayor George B. McClellan,
Jr. to build a subway station there and
rename it Times Square. On April 8, 1904,
officiated by Mayor McClellan, it was
renamed. Just three weeks later, the first
advertisement appeared on the side of
a bank at the corner of 46th Street and
Broadway.
The
Times moved out of the tower in 1913,
although it remains in the neighborhood.
Later known as the Allied Chemical Building
and now known as One Times Square, the
tower 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 since.
On this night hundreds of thousands
of people congregate to watch the Waterford
crystal ball being lowered on a pole
atop the building (though not to the
street, as is a common misconception),
marking the new year. It replaced a
lavish fireworks display from the top
of the building that was held from 1904
to 1906, but was outlawed by city officials.
During World War II, a minute of silence,
followed by a recording of church bells
pealing, replaced the ball drop because
of wartime blackout restrictions.
On
average, approximately 750,000 revelers
crowd Times Square for the New Year's
Eve celebrations. However, for the millennium
celebration on December 31, 1999, published
reports stated approximately 2 million
people overflowed Times Square, flowing
from 6th Avenue to 8th Avenue and all
the way back on Broadway and Seventh
Avenues to 59th Street, making it the
largest gathering in Times Square since
August 1945 during celebrations marking
the end of World War II.
Times
Square quickly grew as a cultural hub
full of theaters, music halls, and upscale
hotels. "Times Square quickly became
New York's agora, a place to gather
both to await great tidings and to celebrate
them, whether a World Series or a presidential
election," writes James Traub in
The Devil's Playground: A Century of
Pleasure and Profit in Times Square.
Names such as Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire,
and Charlie Chaplin were closely associated
with Times Square in the 1910s and 1920s.
The
theaters of Broadway and the huge number
of animated neon and television-style
signage have long made it one of New
York's iconic images, and a symbol of
the intensely urban aspects of Manhattan.
Times Square is the only neighborhood
with a zoning ordinance requiring tenants
to display bright signs. The density
of illuminated signs in Times Square
now rivals Las Vegas. Officially, signs
in Times Square are called "spectaculars."
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