Times Square in New York City is often called "The Crossroads of the World." Located in the Theater District of Manhattan where Broadway and Seventh Avenue converge, Times Square acquired its name when The New York Times took up residency in the Times Building in 1904. Due to its popularity with tourists and being the home location of some of the largest companies in the world, the Times Square subway station is the busiest in New York City with over 58 million passengers annually. Visitors can catch a glimpse not only of spectacular architecture but spectacular stars as well. Times Square is the home of ABC’s Times Square Studios and MTV’s New York Studios. Dick Clark has also made Times Square his home every New Year’s Eve since 1972. Sometimes seedy and sometimes glamorous, over the years Times Square has transformed itself again and again becoming one of the most iconic locations in the United States.
The colonial history of Times Square began when General John Scott built his large farm and horse ranch near present day 43rd Street. The area became the carriage making center of New York and was called Longacre, named after the similarly named carriage making district in London. Over the years Longacre was owned by some of the richest men in the world. William Vanderbilt had his American Horse Exchange there. John Jacob Astor also purchased large tracts of land hoping the location would one day be a commercial center of the city. Over the years Vanderbilt and Astor sold off parcels of land to real estate developers and speculators who saw the area as a potentially rapid growing hub of "Uptown" New York. Olympia, the first theater in the newly named "Long Acre Square," opened in 1895.
The New York Times arrived at 42nd Street in 1904 and at publisher Adolph Ochs urging Mayor George McClellan had the area renamed "Times Square." It is from this building, now called One Times Square, that the ball drops every New Year’s Eve. Just three weeks after the arrival of The Times the first electric sign appeared on the side of a bank on the corner of 46th Street and Broadway. The history of Times Square in the early 20th century was marked by glamour and crime. Charlie Chaplin and Irving Berlin owned Broadway while criminals and crooked politicians owned the gambling houses of the surrounding streets. The rampant crime of the 1920s soon gave way to the vice of the later decades and the luster of Times Square was dimmed.
Starting in the mid 1980s successive mayors of New York City began a revitalization program for Midtown Manhattan. The state of New York took over a half dozen struggling theaters, demolishing some and reinventing others as the home for world-famous Broadway shows. Non-profit organizations were formed to clean up the streets and the city added hundreds of new police officers to patrol the tourist locations. Today Times Square is once again a gleaming gem in the crown of New York. Whether one is new to the city or a lifelong resident, Times Square is a destination within a destination. Museums and art galleries, restaurants and retail centers and countless playhouses of all sizes line the streets of the Theater District and the hustle and bustle of New York City once again converges at "The Crossroads of the World."
