New York City Highlights

This Tour Comes From...

An image of the book: Crossing America: National Geographic's Guide to the Interstate

Crossing America: National Geographic's Guide to the Interstates

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Start a tour at Manhattan’s southern tip, where the Dutch founded their little town of New Amsterdam nearly 400 years ago. The Statue of Liberty (+1 212 363 3200) has been the symbol of New York and of America’s promise for over 100 years. Now handsomely restored, the statue still offers a “climb to the crown” along a narrow interior staircase. Nearby, Ellis Island and its Immigration Museum (+1 212 363 3200) represent an even more ambitious restoration effort. The island’s main building, where 12 million immigrants arrived and were processed from 1892 to 1954, now tells their fascinating story. Both the statue and the island are accessible only by ferry (+1 212 269 5755. Fee for ferry, none for adm.) from Manhattan’s Battery Park or from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. CONTINUED

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The Brooklyn Bridge spans the East River, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Photograph © Joseph Sohm/Corbis

The Museum of the American Indian, located in the 1907 Custom House at the foot of Bowling Green (1 Bowling Green. +1 212 825 6700), comprises one of the world's largest collections of artifacts relating to the original inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere. Very little remains of colonial New York, although Fraunces Tavern (54 Pearl St. +1 212 425 1778. Closed Sun.; Adm. fee) has fortunately survived. The restored 1719 tavern, site of Washington's 1783 farewell address to his officers, now holds a museum. Several blocks away is the South Street Seaport Museum (South St. +1 212 SEA PORT. Adm. fee. Visitor Center, 12 Fulton St. +1 212 732 8257), which includes a restored stretch of early 19th-century waterfront with docked ships, as well as a modern “festival marketplace.” Head to midtown for an ascent to the top of New York's most famous address, the Empire State Building (Fifth Ave. and 34th St. +1 212 736 3100). The graceful 1931 limestone masterpiece has observatories on the 86th and 102nd floors. On the premises is a Guinness World of Records (+1 212 947 2335. Adm. fee)—a sure hit with kids. For over 60 years the Museum of Modern Art (11 W. 53rd St. +1 212 708 9480. Closed Wed.; Adm. fee) has been New York's favorite repository of 20th-century painting, sculpture, photography, and design.

Consecrated in 1846, the neo-Gothic Trinity Church is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Photograph © Gail Mooney/Corbis

Take a tour of Carnegie Hall (57th St. and Seventh Ave. +1 212 247 7800. Tours weekdays except Wed.; Adm. fee), New York�s most beloved venue for musical performances since 1891. But for sheer numbers of performances and stages, the place to go is Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (Broadway at 65th St. +1 212 875 5000; tour info +1 212 875 5351. Adm. fee). Try to save the better part of a day for the American Museum of Natural History (Central Park W. at W. 79th St. +1 212 769 5100. Adm. fee), a superb collection of virtually everything known about human beings and their world, with the giant-screen Naturemax Theater and the Hayden Planetarium. The Children�s Museum of Manhattan (212 W. 83rd St. +1 212 721 1234. Closed Tues.; Adm. fee) has five stories of hands-on amusement.

The largest green space in Manhattan, Central Park has lakes, playing fields, an open-air theater, an ice-skating rink, and more.

Photograph © Gail Mooney/Corbis

Across Manhattan on the East River rise the sleek buildings of the United Nations Headquarters (First Ave. and 46th St. +1 212 963 7713. Guided tours only; Adm. fee). On the east side of Central Park, a grand parade of art museums begins with the Frick Collection (Fifth Ave. at E. 70th St. +1 212 288 0700. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee). Here, works by European masters fill steel magnate Henry Clay Frick�s 1914 Louis XVI mansion. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fifth Ave. at E. 82nd St. +1 212 535 7710. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee), with over two million works, vies only with the Louvre for the title of world�s greatest art museum. Farther up Fifth Avenue, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1071 Fifth Ave. at E. 88th St. +1 212 423 3500. Closed Thurs.; Adm. fee), Frank Lloyd Wright�s striking spiral modern art temple, has been restored.
Harlem is the capital of African America, and one of the best ways to sample its variety is to take a tour with Harlem Spirituals, Inc. (1697 Broadway, Suite 203. +1 212 757 0425. Tours are conducted daily, but office is closed on Sun.; Tour fee). Tours include such spots as the Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club.