Museum in New York
April 27, 2009 - Posted in arts, museum, travel
The City That Never Sleeps. The Big Apple. Gotham. New York City has many names and many faces. With 8.2 million people in 322 square miles, the metropolis is dense and frenetic. Manhattan, the New York City borough of primary importance, can overwhelm and intimidate. Skyscrapers stab the clouds like giant steel stalagmites. Yellow cabs dart in and out of traffic like honeybees. People swarm sidewalks and march in unison like ants. Poor visitors get lost in the Manhattan street grid. New York is larger than life. Of this there is no quarrel. As a result, you should start small and parcel the city. Narrow your focus and slice and dice The Big Apple into segments. Think neighborhoods. Think monuments. Think museums. On that note, Manhattan has some of the best on the planet. A world capital of culture, no New York experience would be complete without a visit to one or several monumental museums. So without further ado, here are New York City’s Must-See Museums.
American Museum of Natural History
With one of the most impressive and familiar architectural façades in New York City, the American Museum of Natural History is a major draw with locals and tourists alike. The museum houses over 32 million specimens, a colossal collection of which only a fraction is available to the public. With 46 permanent exhibition halls, the museum is a prodigious site to navigate. Popular features include the Fossil Halls, home to two dinosaur exhibits and the world’s foremost collection of vertebrate fossils, and Bird and Mammal Halls. The 11,000 square foot Hall of Biodiversity epitomizes the museum’s mission to spread environmental awareness and appreciation of our Earth’s natural treasures. The most recent structural masterpiece on the Manhattan map is the inspirational Rose Center for Earth and Space. The massive 333,500 square foot planetarium complex is a center for research and education that redefines the museum experience altogether. All in all, reason alone to include the American Museum of Natural History on your New York City itinerary.
