Times Square is one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, tourist destinations, and entertainment hubs. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Together with adjacent Duffy Square, Times Square is a bowtie-shaped plaza five blocks long between 42nd and 47th Streets. As an epicenter of the world's entertainment industry and as the physical hub of the Theater District, where most Broadway theaters are located, Times Square is constantly illuminated by numerous digital billboards and advertisements as well as businesses offering 24/7 service.
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. The and stations have consistently ranked as the busiest in the New York City Subway system, transporting more than 200,000 passengers daily. The Times Square neighborhood takes its name after the intersection.
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., NYC Tourist. Accessed February 26, 2017. "Times Square is a major commercial intersection in central Manhattan at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. It acquired its name in 1904 when Albert Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, moved the newspaper's headquarters to a new skyscraper on what was then known as Longacre 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,Dunlap, David W. "1907-8 The Times Drops the Ball" , The New York Times, January 1, 2015. Accessed November 1, 2016. "After two more years of pyrotechnics, The Times found a less flammable way to signal the moment of midnight: an iron-and-wood ball, five feet in diameter, on which 100 25-watt bulbs were mounted. It was to be lowered down a flagstaff at midnight on Dec. 31, 1907." in addition to a worldwide audience of one billion or more on various digital media platforms.
Times Square, specifically the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street, is the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States for motorized vehicles.Chan, Sewell. "A Lincoln Highway Marker in Times Square" , The New York Times, February 12, 2009. Accessed January 9, 2022. "Nevertheless, Times Square is indeed the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the nation's first coast-to-coast road, which was formed in 1913, its 3,389 miles stretching from New York City to San Francisco." Times Square is sometimes referred to as "the Crossroads of the World", "the Center of the Universe", and "the heart of the Great White Way". "The phrase 'Great White Way' is supposed to have been coined in 1901 by O. J. Gude, an advertising man, who is said also to have been the first to see the tremendous possibilities of electric display."Tell, Darcy. Times Square spectacular: lighting up Broadway New York: HarperCollins, 2007Allen, Irving Lewis. The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech . New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Quote: "By 1910, the blocks of Broadway just above 42nd Street were at the very heart of the Great White Way. The glow of Times Square symbolized the center of New York, if not of the world."
Geography 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,"Times Square is not a square," Urban Magazine (May 9, 2011). where Seventh Avenue intersects Broadway. Broadway similarly intersects other north–south avenues at Union Square, Madison Square, Herald Square, and Verdi Square, none of which are squares. The area is bounded by West 42nd Street, West 47th Street, 7th Avenue, and 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.Rybczynski, Witold. City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World New York: Scribner, 1995. p.27. . Quote: "...despite its name [Times Square] is really a street intersection, not a square."Dunlap, David W. "COMMERCIAL PROPERTY: Times Square Novelty; North of Duffy Sq., a Butler-on-Every-Floor Hotel" , The New York Times, June 10, 1990. Accessed February 26, 2017. "With its hot nightclubs, dazzling signs and sprawling showrooms, the block at the northern end of the 'bowtie' formed by Broadway and Seventh Avenue was always an important part of old Times Square."
Times Square is the official name of the southern triangle, below 45th Street."Times Square" New York City Geographic Information Service map The northern triangle is officially known as Duffy SquareFather Duffy Square , New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed January 10, 2017. "Dominated in 1909 by a temporary eight-ton, fifty-foot statue by Leo Lentelli entitled Purity (Defeat of Slander), today this square—so central to the theater district—is defined by statues of George M. Cohan and Father Duffy, as well as a large public viewing grandstand along the north side." and was dedicated in June 1939 to honor World War I chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy of the 69th New York Infantry Regiment."Duffy Sq. Signs To Be Put Up Today; Area Surrounding Statue of Chaplain of Old 69th to Be Separate From Times Sq.", The New York Times, June 13, 1939. Accessed January 2, 2024. "A new honor will be accorded today to the Rev. Francis P. Duffy, famed chaplain of the 'fighting Sixty-ninth,' when that section of Times Square immediately surrounding his statue between Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Streets will be designated as Duffy Square by a change of street signs... The change to Duffy Square was authorized March 29, when Mayor La Guardia signed the local law passed by the City Council." A statue by Charles Keck was dedicated in May 1937 as a memorial to Duffy.Father Duffy Square, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed January 2, 2024. "At the apex of the triangle defining the north end of Times Square, the massive statue of Father Francis Patrick Duffy (1871–1932) by Charles Keck (1875–1951) has stood sentinel since it was unveiled May 2, 1937." There is also a statue of composer and entertainer George M. Cohan,Father Duffy Square: George M. Cohan, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed January 2, 2024. "This bronze statue depicts the American composer, playwright, actor, and producer George M. Cohan (1878–1942). The statue was designed by Georg John Lober (1892–1961) and dedicated in 1959."Harris, Stephen L. Duffy's War: Fr. Francis Duffy, Wild Bill Donovan, and the Irish Fighting 69th in World War I, Potomac Books, 2006 and the TKTS discount ticket booth for same-day Broadway and off-Broadway theaters that has been at the site since June 1973.TKTS Times Square , TimesSquareNYC.org. Accessed January 2, 2024. "Buy discounted tickets "under the red steps" in Father Duffy Square at Broadway and 47th St. TDF is a not-for-profit organization that has been dedicated to bringing the power of the performing arts to everyone since 1968.""TKTS® Turns 50 in Times Square", Theatre Development Fund, press release dated June 8, 2023. Accessed January 2, 2024. "'TDF approached me and my business partner John Schiff to design a temporary structure around a trailer for $5,000,' said Bob Mayers, partner at Mayers & Schiff, the architectural firm hired to design the original half-price ticket booth in Duffy Square in 1973.... Operated by TDF, a not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts, TKTS Times Square opened for business on June 25, 1973, and quickly became a mecca for theatregoers from all over the world."
History
Early history When Manhattan Island was first settled by the Dutch colonists, three small streams united near what is now the intersection of 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,Gerard T. Koeppel, Water for Gotham: A History, 2001:10. and emptied into a deep bay in the Hudson River at the present 42nd Street.Sanderson, Eric W. Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, 2009: Appendix A p 253; refs. G.E. Hill and G.E. Waring Jr, "Old wells and water-courses on the isle of Manhattan", in Historic New York, M.W. Goodwin, A.C. Royce, and R. Putnam, 1897; and others. 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.Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, 1999, p.721.
Before and after the American Revolution, the area belonged to John Morin Scott, a general of the New York militia, in which he served under George Washington. Scott's manor house was at what is currently 43rd Street, surrounded by countryside used for farming and breeding horses. In the first half of the 19th century, it became one of the prized possessions of John Jacob Astor, who made a second fortune selling off lots to hotels and other real estate concerns as the city rapidly spread uptown.
By 1872, the area had become the center of New York's horse carriage industry. The locality had not previously been given a name, and city authorities called it Longacre Square after Long Acre in London, where the horse and carriage trade was centered in that city.Kelly, Frank Bergen. Historical Guide to the City of New York New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1909 William Henry Vanderbilt owned and ran the American Horse Exchange there. In 1910, it became the Winter Garden Theatre.
As more profitable commerce and industrialization of Lower Manhattan pushed homes, theaters, and prostitution northward from the Tenderloin District, Longacre Square became nicknamed the Thieves Lair for its increasingly prominent reputation as a low entertainment district. The first theater on the square, the Olympia, was built by cigar manufacturer and impresario Oscar Hammerstein I.Dunning, Jennifer. "A Walking Tour of the Past and Present on Broadway" , The New York Times, July 13, 1979. Accessed November 1, 2016. "The old stock and repertory company system made way for the Broadway hit and greater profits for the theater manager and owner, which, in turn, led to the rise of such theatrical entrepreneurs as Oscar Hammerstein, who struck out into the wilds of 44th and 45th Streets in 1895 to build his huge Olympia Theater in the 'Thieves Lair' area of Broadway." According to Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, "By the early 1890s this once sparsely settled stretch of Broadway was ablaze with electric light and thronged by crowds of middle- and upper-class theatre, restaurant and cafe patrons."Burrows and Wallace 1999:1149.
1900s–1930s