5/5 SK ABDUR R. 3 years ago on Google
Times
Square
is
a
major
commercial
intersection,
tourist
destination,
entertainment
center,
and
neighborhood
in
the
Midtown
Manhattan
section
of
New
York
City,
at
the
junction
of
Broadway
and
Seventh
Avenue.
Brightly
lit
by
numerous
billboards
and
advertisements,
it
stretches
from
West
42nd
to
West
47th
Streets,
and
is
sometimes
referred
to
as
"the
Crossroads
of
the
World",
"the
Center
of
the
Universe",
"the
heart
of
the
Great
White
Way",
and
"the
heart
of
the
world".
One
of
the
world's
busiest
pedestrian
areas,
it
is
also
the
hub
of
the
Broadway
Theater
District
and
a
major
center
of
the
world's
entertainment
industry.
Times
Square
is
one
of
the
world's
most
visited
tourist
attractions,
drawing
an
estimated
50
million
visitors
annually.
Approximately
330,000
people
pass
through
Times
Square
daily,
many
of
them
tourists,
while
over
460,000
pedestrians
walk
through
Times
Square
on
its
busiest
days.
Formerly
known
as
Longacre
Square,
Times
Square
was
renamed
in
1904
after
The
New
York
Times
moved
its
headquarters
to
the
then
newly
erected
Times
Building,
now
One
Times
Square.
It
is
the
site
of
the
annual
New
Year's
Eve
ball
drop,
which
began
on
December
31,
1907
and
continues
to
attract
over
a
million
visitors
to
Times
Square
every
year.
Times
Square
functions
as
a
town
square,
but
is
not
geometrically
a
square;
it
is
closer
in
shape
to
a
bowtie,
with
two
triangles
emanating
roughly
north
and
south
from
45th
Street,
where
Seventh
Avenue
intersects
Broadway.
Broadway
runs
diagonally,
crossing
through
the
horizontal
and
vertical
street
grid
of
Manhattan
laid
down
by
the
Commissioners'
Plan
of
1811,
and
that
intersection
creates
the
"bowtie"
shape
of
Times
Square.
The
southern
triangle
of
Times
Square
has
no
specific
name,
but
the
northern
triangle
is
officially
Duffy
Square.
It
was
dedicated
in
1937
to
World
War
I
chaplain
Father
Francis
P.
Duffy
of
New
York
City's
U.S.
69th
Infantry
Regiment
and
is
the
site
of
a
memorial
to
him.
There
is
also
a
statue
of
composer
and
entertainer
George
M.
Cohan,
and
the
TKTS
ticket
booth
for
Broadway
theaters.
When
Manhattan
Island
was
first
settled
by
the
Dutch,
three
small
streams
united
near
what
is
now
10th
Avenue
and
40th
Street.
These
three
streams
formed
the
"Great
Kill"
(Dutch:
Grote
Kil).
From
there
the
Great
Kill
wound
through
the
low-lying
Reed
Valley,
known
for
fish
and
waterfowl
and
emptied
into
a
deep
bay
in
the
Hudson
River
at
the
present
42nd
Street.
The
name
was
retained
in
a
tiny
hamlet,
Great
Kill,
that
became
a
center
for
carriage
making,
as
the
upland
to
the
south
and
east
became
known
as
Longacre.
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