Times Square New York – Crossroads of the World

The historic intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street in New York City is considered by many people to be the crossroads of the world. Times Square in New York City does represent a melting pot of cultural and history, virtue and vice. From the four corners of the globe, people have come to New York City to begin live anew, hide from a past life or simply to visit. Times Square has come to represent the culmination of all things make of one of the world’s great cities.

There are several explanations for how the term crossroads of the world evolved. The generally accepted explanation has origins in the first roadway to span the United States from coast to coast. The famous Lincoln Highway took travelers from San Francisco to New York and promoters of the highway are said to have chosen Times Square and the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street in particular to be the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway.

Even without the historic nature of the Lincoln Highway, the area is still thought of, as is all of New York, as the place where millions of people from all over the world eventually come. The bright lights and glitz has no doubt been a magnet for immigrants arriving from Europe.

The famous and the obscure have come to Times Square since the 18th Century. Once referred to as Longacre, the area has been home to an eclectic collection of shopkeepers, personalities. It has long been rumored that then-general George Washington stayed in Longacre during the time of the Revolutionary War. As New York City grew, the area around Broadway and 42nd Street became home to various businesses. Far from the area of Lower Manhattan that was considered downtown New York City, Longacre also became known as Midtown.

As more and more people migrated to the area in the late 1800s, the area took an interesting demographic that would establish a reputation for Times Square that endured for almost 100 years. The quaint brownstone row houses that began to spring up drew people wishing to escape the hustle and bustle of downtown. As the population grew, so did the presence of scamsters and hustlers looking to take advantage of an increasingly well-to-do area of the city.

By the time early 1900s, the Old Gray Lady, the New York Times newspaper had moved into the Longacre district. It was not long before efforts began to rename the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street Times Square. The name stuck as the area grew to include theaters, mostly along Broadway, eventually becoming home to the arts and even the vaudeville comedy circuit. Broadway, the Great White Way, became the Hollywood of the East and nerve center of American theater, a distinction that lives on today.

Towards the latter half of the Twentieth Century, Times Square, like New York’s Central Park slowly began to deteriorate. Times Square became better known for adult movie houses and high rates of street crime than for its historical significance and its proximity to the Broadway theater district. It would take well over a decade for community leaders and city officials to successfully clean up the Times Square area. Like the residents of Longacre who gathered at the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street to celebrate the creation of Times Square, millions gather every year to ring the New Year.