Tuesday, August 7, 2007

COLUMBUS CIRCLE

When I visited the new Time Warner Center, I captured this image of COLUMBUS CIRCLE from inside the building looking east down Central Park South. Central Park is on the left. I was unable to position myself in the center because of a makeshift structure on the third floor where I took the picture, which explains why the grid on the glass wall is slanted.
From Wikipedia:
COLUMBUS CIRCLE, named for Christopher Columbus, is a major landmark and point of attraction in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Completed in 1905 and renovated a century later, it is the site of the first traffic circle in the United States. It is located at the intersection of Broadway, Central Park West, Central Park South (59th Street), and Eighth Avenue, at the southwest corner of Central Park, with coordinates 40°46′05″N, 73°58′55″WCoordinates: 40°46′05″N, 73°58′55″W. The traffic circle was designed by William P. Eno, a businessman who pioneered many early innovations in road safety and traffic control, as part of Frederick Law Olmsted's vision for the park, which included a circle at Explorers Gate, its most important Eighth Avenue entrance. Now, as then, Columbus Circle is a major transportation hub. The M5, M7, M10, M20, and M104 buses all stop at Columbus Circle. The circle is a major hub for the subway, connecting the A, C, B, D, and 1 New York City Subway lines at 59th Street-Columbus Circle. The monument at the center, created by Italian sculptor Gaetano Russo, is the point at which distances to and from New York City are officially measured. It was erected as part of New York's 1892 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage to the Americas. Constructed with funds raised by Il Progresso, an Italian-language newspaper, the monument consists of a marble statue of Columbus atop a 70-foot granite column decorated with bronze reliefs representing Columbus' ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Its pedestal features an angel holding a globe.

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