Instant Cities: New York

New York › Places and landmarks

Bryant Park

The green lawn behind the Public Library, with its plane trees, its green chairs and in winter its ice rink.

See it in 3D Watch the tour

Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bryant Park lies behind the Public Library, between 40th and 42nd Street. It is named after William Cullen Bryant, a poet and newspaper editor, and in 1853 New York’s Crystal Palace stood here for the world’s fair, until it burnt down in 1858.

By the 1970s the park was known for drug dealers, but it was rebuilt and reopened in 1992. Now office workers eat their lunch on its lawn and its movable green chairs, films are shown on summer evenings, and in winter the lawn becomes an ice rink among the stalls of a Christmas market. Visit it in 3D ›

More in New York

Empire State BuildingThe Art Deco tower on Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, the tallest building in the world from 1931 to 1970. Times SquareThe crossing of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, under walls of lit screens, at the heart of the Theater District. Chrysler BuildingThe Art Deco tower on 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, with a crown of steel arches and a needle on top. Grand Central TerminalThe great railway station on 42nd Street, with its hall under a ceiling of stars and its clock of opal. New York Public LibraryThe marble library on Fifth Avenue, guarded by the two stone lions Patience and Fortitude. Rockefeller CenterThe Art Deco towers between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, with the golden Prometheus, the skating rink and the Christmas tree. St. Patrick’s CathedralThe Gothic cathedral of white marble on Fifth Avenue, facing Rockefeller Center. Macy’s Herald SquareOne of the largest department stores in the world, on 34th Street, where the Thanksgiving Day Parade ends. Statue of LibertyThe copper statue in the harbour, a gift from France, that greeted the ships of the immigrants. Central ParkThe great park in the middle of Manhattan, four kilometres long, just north of the game’s map. Yellow cabsThe yellow taxis of New York, which you hail from the kerb with a raised hand. New York pizzaThe big, thin pizza sold by the slice, to be folded in half and eaten on the street.