Frequently Asked Questions

There are many different explanations for this. The Big Apple was a famous racehorse term, a famous dance, etc., but the original explanation is from vaudeville. Many vaudeville performers were originally small-town kids or from farms, so their colorful slang was full of fruits & veggies.  We’ve all heard these expressions: Top banana, sour grapes, a lemon, lettuce for cash, a tomato (beautiful woman), and more. As they travelled the country, almost every town had a theatre, so they referred to every town as an “apple”. New York was the  BIG APPLE because it had the most theatres and nightclubs to play. When you played New York, you played the BIG APPLE.

Central Park is the only city park in the United States that is a National Landmark because it inspired other cities to build parks. Central Park was completely constructed…millions of tons of topsoil were brought in, and thousands of trees and lakes were planted, etc. Fredric Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won the contest to landscape Central Park, and it made them famous. Their design was “Contest Entry #38.”

Central Park is considered a “landscape painting” come to life and the stone wall is considered the “picture frame.”

Times Square was originally called Longacre Square, an area full of stables and blacksmiths. When the New York Times built the Tower at 42nd Street in 1904, the city renamed the area “Times Square” after the newspaper. The Times is no longer in that building where the ball drops. It’s now located 2 blocks away.

Currently, there are 42 Broadway theaters, and only 4 sit on Broadway. Most are on the side streets off Times Square. A Broadway theatre has 500 seats or more. Off-Broadway Theaters have between 100-499 seats; Off-Off Broadway Theatrer are tiny…less than 100 seats.

Jim suggests you take the ferries from Battery Park in New York or Liberty State Park from New Jersey. Get your tickets at www.statuecruises.com ; The security lines can be long.

If you just want to get fabulous pictures, take a lunch or dinner cruise or a Circle Line tour boat. If you must stand on Liberty Island and Ellis Island then take the ferry.

The French people ran out of money. The statue was finished and standing in Paris. There was no money to take it apart, pack it into crates and ship it over here and put it back together on Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island). New York World newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer got involved and began a fund-raising campaign to bring the Statue over.

The statue was designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The interior skeleton was designed by Gustave Eiffel (Eiffel Tower fame) and the pedestal was designed by New York architect Richard Morris Hunt, favorite designer of the Vanderbilt mansions, the Metropolitan Museum, etc.

Rockefeller Center is a group of 19 skyscrapers on 22 acres built starting in the 1930s by John D. Rockefeller Jr., which provided many jobs during the Great Depression.

Many big companies make their offices there including NBC television. The first building to open was Radio City Music Hall on Dec. 27, 1932. Today the annual Radio City Christmas Show is a popular favorite starring the Rockettes dancers. On top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza is the observation deck Top of the Rock. Downstairs is the TODAY Show.

Originally, Manhattan Island was covered with farms and small towns such as Greenwich Village and Harlem. They’re now charming neighborhoods full of history we tour. Washington Square is located here and is full of history as well as being the campus of NYU.

Originally, Madison Square Garden got the name because the first building was erected across town on Madison Square Park. Today it’s located near Macy’s on the West side of Manhattan by Penn Station and near the Empire State Building. It is a 24,000 seat sports arena.