42nd Street is an east-west main street in New York City, USA, with a total length of about 3 kilometers. Manhattan, where this street is located, is the most densely populated district among the five administrative districts of New York, and it is also the smallest administrative district, yet it occupies the economic and cultural center of the United States.
In fact, Manhattan is a long and narrow island. The streets on the island are neatly planned and named after “Avenue” and “Street”. Sun Avenue, Pike Avenue, etc., the streets are east-west, a total of 218.
These streets are arranged in numerical order from south to north, and the 42nd street is located in about 1/5 of the south side of the island. Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan into East and West, and 42nd Street is divided into East 42nd Street and West 42nd Street. A group of the most important buildings in New York are lined up on the street, which is dizzying from east to west. The United Nations Headquarters, Chrysler Building, Grand Central The railway station, Times Square, New Zealand Airport and Port Authority Passenger Terminal… Integrating politics, commerce, culture, transportation, and sightseeing, it has thousands of pets in one street, showing the world the eccentric New York.
East 42nd Street
Palace of Politics and Art
The most noteworthy things on East 42nd Street in Manhattan are the United Nations Building and Grand Central Station in New York. One of them is an international territory, and the other is the largest and busiest transportation building in the world.
The United Nations Building is the United Nations Headquarters Building. It is the seat of the United Nations Headquarters. It is located on the east side of Manhattan. The west side of the building is bounded by First Avenue and the south side is East 42nd Street. The land here is an international territory, so as long as it is a citizen of a member state with a passport, it can enter, even if the member state of the United Nations has no diplomatic relations with the United States.
In 1946, the General Assembly of the United Nations decided to locate the headquarters of the United Nations near New York, and established a special site selection committee. At first, the crowded Manhattan was not a candidate site. The Rockefeller family, the most “financial” family in the United States, also intended to provide land for their estate in Westchester County, New York State, but they also gave up because it was too far away from the administrative district. . Later, because the schist in Manhattan is good for the foundation of high-rise buildings, the committee finally determined it as the location of the headquarters, and John Davidson Rockefeller Jr. volunteered to donate 8.5 million US dollars to assist the United Nations in building the building. The entire United Nations Headquarters is divided into four buildings: the Secretariat, the Conference Hall, the General Assembly Hall and the Hammarskjöld Library. Among them, in order to facilitate the staff to use the convenient bus system on 42nd Street, the designers specially arranged the location of the Secretariat Building at The southern end of the site.
On the first floor of the UN building and in the square garden around the building, there are gifts from various member states on display. These gifts represent the expectations and blessings of member states to the United Nations. There is a sculpture of “casting a sword into a plow” donated by the former Soviet Union, which symbolizes turning weapons into creative tools for the benefit of all mankind; there is a peace bell donated by the Japan Federation in 1954, collected by children from 60 countries The most famous one is a sculpture donated by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1988 – Non-Violence (No Violence). This sculpture is usually called “knotted pistol”. A pistol with a twisted and knotted barrel symbolizes that the United Nations wants to solve problems peacefully and maintain world peace.
From the United Nations Headquarters to the west, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Park Avenue, is the famous Grand Central Railway Station.
Grand Central Railway Station was built in 1903 and covers an area of 49 acres. It is the largest station in the United States and the busiest transportation building in the world. Seen from the entrance, the marble Gothic columns on the front of the building are tall and magnificent. The statues representing wisdom and morality and the bald head of the American national bird stand on the top of the building, exuding a classical and noble atmosphere.
The most attractive thing about the station is the elevated waiting hall and the design of separate lanes for passengers and vehicles.
The main staircase in the waiting hall is built in the style of the Paris Opera House in France. The design of the vault comes from a “Zodiac Diagram” drawn by the French artist Heilu. There are more than 2,500 stars on the vault. The positions of the stars Marked by lights, once the power is turned on, it will be full of brilliance. The four-faced clock at the information desk in the middle of the hall is made of opal and is worth tens of millions. Because of its eye-catching location, it has always been the first choice for New Yorkers to date.
There is no usual waiting area in the waiting hall. Through the hall, passengers are distributed to various platforms on the first and second floors of the basement. Although there are people coming and going, it is empty and transparent, maintaining a consistent classical solemnity. After a hundred years of baptism, the Grand Central Station is still magnificent, with smooth blood, and is in efficient operation every day.
West 42nd Street
The fragrance of books spreads along the road of luxury and luxury
In 2007, the classic Broadway musical “42nd Street” entered China. This show, which has twice won the highest theater award in the United States – the Tony Award, shows the unique lifestyle of young people in New York in the powerful music and cheerful dance. , and West 42nd Street deservedly undertook the wave of literary and luxurious life in Manhattan, just like the epitome of New York social life, like the free and passionate “42nd Street”.
Different from the classic seriousness of East 42nd Street, West 42nd Street has a completely different style. The New York Public Library, Times Square, Broadway… This is the intersection of New York culture and art, and it is also the center of business and entertainment. Among them, the New York Public Library stands elegantly on Fifth Avenue, which is the middle of 42nd Street. Walking here, it seems that you have been pulled from the materialistic business world to the serious and solemn Ivy League University. The museum was built in 1911, and all funds were donated by private individuals. This is the main museum in Manhattan. There are many manuscripts and ancient rare books in the museum, such as Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence”, Eliot’s “The Wasteland”, Newton’s manuscripts and the earliest manuscript copies of the Bible.
There are two stone reclining lions in front of the library. During the Great Depression in the United States, the mayor of New York named the two stone lions in front of the gate “Patience” and “Strength” in order to encourage citizens to overcome the crisis. Now, New York citizens have always regarded these two male lions as a symbol of New Yorkers. Some rooms inside the building still maintain the pattern when the museum was opened, and the murals on the top floor are full of history and humanistic atmosphere. The most important reading room in the museum is one of the largest column-free rooms in the world today, with bookshelves, long windows, With large chandeliers, long reading tables, elegant and complete facilities, and rooms open to the public for free, it is no wonder that this place is affectionately called “Public Paradise” by New Yorkers. The movies “The Day After Tomorrow”, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, “Spiderman” and so on have all been filmed here, so even if you don’t know the name, you have definitely seen some scenes in the library.
Further to the west is the most dazzling section of 42nd Street – Times Square, known as the “crossroads of the world”, and it is better known as “Times Square”. The square is named after the New York Times built its headquarters here in 1904. It is a triangle formed by the intersection of 42nd Street, Seventh Avenue and Broadway Avenue. The fluorescent screens are hung on the outer walls of the buildings on both sides of the road. They are huge and shining, scrolling delicate and realistic idol portraits, colorful video promotions, huge product advertisements, unpredictable stock indexes, and news and current affairs broadcasts, day and night. It’s the crazy triangle of wealth, entertainment and art that represents the glamorous, frivolous American Dream.
As for “Broadway”, the synonym for musicals that we often hear, it is not a theater, but a theater district that gathers a large number of entertainment facilities such as theaters, cinemas, restaurants, etc., commonly known as “Broadway District”. Along Broadway Avenue, the theaters from West 41st Street to West 53rd Street in Manhattan belong to this area, so they are collectively referred to as Broadway theaters. The Broadway district is the activity center of American theater arts and an important tourist attraction in New York.
manhattan sun
The universe unleashes a 15-minute romance
In fact, the romance of the hanging sun in Manhattan is far beyond our imagination of the setting sun.
Since the streets of Manhattan are mostly laid out in a checkerboard pattern and the high-rise buildings are densely packed, the sun shines on all the east-west streets of Manhattan at sunset. The sun seems to be hanging between the high-rise buildings on both sides. “Manhattan Hanging Sun” spectacle. Such a spectacle only occurs twice a year, once in May and once in July. 42nd Street is one of the best places to watch the hanging sun.
Whenever a hanging sun appears, the busy 42nd Street seems to be pressed the pause button, everything freezes, only a round of red sun flows in the track between the tall buildings. It is watched by countless pairs of eyes, and only the raised arms and the mobile phone in the hands of the dense crowd can be seen. It was frozen by the crowded cameras on the flyover, patiently recorded by the palm-sized viewfinder frame and the gun barrel-like lens. No matter how or what attitude the people under the sun appreciate, during those fifteen minutes, there was no excessive surprise in their eyes, but a kind of almost pious shock, a kind of thought was extinguished, and the birth of reverence for nature.
There are many romances in this world, but Manhattan Hanging Sun is unparalleled in this world. It is like the sun breaking away from the orbit of time, planning an escape with a fixed ending together with 42nd Street. They want to use the sky as a canvas to freeze a dreamlike image comparable to Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. As long as people who have seen it, time will be stripped from them for fifteen minutes one by one, and then a moment of memory will be given, and it will be another life of another person.
“At least on the 42nd Street overpass, we had nothing but a hanging sun, even if it was only 15 minutes and 20 seconds.” Maybe this is the meaning of the existence of 42nd Street.
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