Times Square

Times Square is a street junction rather than a site with a gate: the point where Broadway cuts diagonally across Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, widened into a chain of car-free plazas that a visitor walks through rather than enters. It was Long Acre Square until 1904, named after London's carriage district and occupied by William H. Vanderbilt's American Horse Exchange. The Times Square Alliance's own history records that Mayor George B.

Almost everything worth looking at is above eye level. The screens, which the Alliance calls spectaculars, are owned by individual outdoor media companies rather than by the square, and they carry advertising for all but three minutes of the day. Those three minutes are Midnight Moment: from 11.57pm to 12.00am, on more than ninety-two digital displays running from 41st Street to 49th, the billboards drop their advertising and run a single artist's work in synchrony.

Allow an hour. The Times Square Alliance publishes no suggested visit length, so sixty minutes is this guide's judgement rather than a figure read off the operator's site, and it is built from the distances the operator does publish. The Broadway plazas run from 42nd Street to 48th, roughly half a mile end to end; the Alliance's own self-guided history walking tour and the commercial Broadway Up Close tours both cover about half a mile and the latter take an hour and forty-five minutes with a guide talking the whole way. Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas.

Public streets and pedestrian plazas are accessible 24 hours daily; events and security can restrict sections. Dated closures, ceremonies, performances, weather or security notices from the operator take priority over ordinary hours. Arrive early enough to complete the public route before final admission. Follow staff directions on arrival.

Times Square public space is free; shows, attractions and tours charge separately. The base amount and currency follow the operator tariff; premium products and separate institutions remain excluded unless named. Weather, events, maintenance and security can change ordinary access.

Subway 1/2/3/7/N/Q/R/W/S to Times Square-42nd Street. Use the named entrance and station because security, separate exits and large complexes can change the practical route. Allow extra time for screening and the final walk. Follow staff directions on arrival.

Step-free entrances or public approaches, lifts where required, and accessible toilets serve principal visitor areas. Public streets and pedestrian plazas are accessible 24 hours daily; events and security can restrict sections. Times Square public space is free; shows, attractions and tours charge separately. Historic surfaces, crowds and security remain relevant.

The screens defeat automatic exposure. They are far brighter than anything around them, so a camera metering for the whole frame will render them as white rectangles and everything else as mud. Meter for the brightest sign, let the street go dark, and the result matches what the eye actually notices. The best twenty minutes of the day are the ones just after sunset, when the sky still holds colour and the displays are already at full output; once the sky is fully black the contrast becomes brutal again. Times Square public space is free; shows, attractions and tours charge separately.