Columbia Scholastic Press Association

It’s always been a city of superlatives: largest, tallest, trendiest, best.

Rest assured that the city has plenty to see and do. In fact, there’s more than you’ll ever be able to experience in one visit.

New York continues to offer the finest selection of entertainment, museums and restaurants in the world.

As for landmarks, it probably still has more world-famous icons than any other city — the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Flatiron Building and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Going to the Theater

TKTS is New York’s best-known discount-ticket source. Operated by the Theatre Development Fund, the two TKTS booths sell day-ofperformance tickets for Broadway and off-Broadway plays at 25%-50% off the usual price (plus a $4 service fee). The names of shows for which tickets are available are posted on electronic boards. You can pay with cash or traveler’s checks; credit cards are not accepted.

For evening performances Monday-Saturday, the Duffy Square (West 48th Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue) booth is open from 3pm to 8pm; for Wednesday and Saturday matinee performances, from 10am to 2pm; for Sunday matinee and evening performances, from 11am to 7:30pm. The ticket lines at Duffy Square can be long, especially on weekends, but the wait is generally pleasant (if the weather cooperates), as the bright lights and babble of Times Square surround you. www.tdf.org

Close to Columbia

Everything about The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is colossal, from its cavernous 601-ft-long nave, which can hold some 5,000 worshipers, to its 162-ft-tall domed crossing, which could comfortably contain the Statue of Liberty.

Even though this divine behemoth is unfinished, it is already the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. The Great Rose Window in the western facade, made from more than 10,000 pieces of colored glass, is the largest stained-glass window in the United States. www.stjohndivine.org.

Our Life’s History

With 42 exhibition halls and more than 32 million artifacts and specimens, the American Museum of Natural History is the world’s largest and most important museum of its kind. Dinosaur-mania begins in the massive Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda, where a 50-ft-tall skeleton of a barosaurus rears on its hind legs, and continues in three spectacular dinosaur halls on the fourth floor.

Other impressive exhibitions include the Hall of Fossil Mammals, the Hall of Biodiversity, the Hall of Human Biology and Evolution, and the Hall of Ocean Life (which reopened in the summer of 2003 after extensive renovation).

The spectacular Hayden Planetarium is enclosed in a 90-ft aluminum-clad sphere that appears to float inside an enormous glass cube, which in turn is home to the Rose Center for Earth and Space.

In the Sky Theater, the “Passport to the Universe” show incorporates up-to-the-minute scientific knowledge about the universe in computerized projections generated from a database of more than 2 billion stars. www.amnh.org

Multi-venue Discounts

CityPass is a simple way to vacation in America’s most popular city destinations. CityPass is a ticket booklet containing an actual admission ticket to the top attractions in each city. With CityPass, you pay one substantially reduced price and avoid main entrance ticket lines at most attractions.

CityPass is simple. The New York CityPass gets you into six famous New York City attractions. You have nine days to visit each attraction (once) beginning the day you first use your CityPass. You can purchase CityPass at any of the New York City attractions, or you can buy online at www.citypass.com.

Tickets include helpful information such as complete hours of operation, on-property dining choices, public transportation and a special “insider’s tip” on the best time to visit each attraction.

New York City attractions include: the American Museum of Natural History; the Guggenheim Museum; the Museum of Modern Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters; the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises; and the Empire State Building Observatory & NY SkyRide

Pricing: Adults - $79.00
Youth (ages 6-17) - $59.00. For more information, visit the CityPass Web site.

Need more help in sightseeing adventures in New York City, Here are some other links on the Internet.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/nyc/
http://www.newyork.com/
http://www.playbill.com