Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is a geographic area of Manhattan, New York City. It is home to some of the city's most iconic buildings, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the United Nations Headquarters. It contains world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square.
Geographically, Midtown is commonly defined as the area south of 59th Street, east of the Hudson River, west of the East River, and though its southern border is less clear, most consider it to be somewhere between 14th Street and 30th Street. Overall, Manhattan can be divided into three geographic regions: "Uptown", Midtown, and "Downtown".
As New York's largest central business district, Midtown Manhattan is the busiest single commercial district in the United States, and among the most intensely used pieces of real estate in the world. The majority of New York City's skyscrapers, including its tallest hotels and apartment towers, lie within Midtown. The area hosts commuters and residents working in its offices, hotels, and retail establishments; many tourists, visiting residents, and students populate the district. Some areas, such as Times Square and Fifth Avenue, have large clusters of retail stores. Sixth Avenue in Midtown holds the headquarters of three of the four major television networks. It is a growing center of finance, second in importance within the United States only to Downtown Manhattan's Financial District. Times Square is the center of Broadway theatre.
Times Square is a major commercial intersection and a neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the junction of Broadway (now converted into a pedestrian plaza) and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. Times Square – iconified as "The Crossroads of the World", "The Center of the Universe", and the "The Great White Way" – is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, and a major center of the world's entertainment industry. According to Travel + Leisure magazine's October 2011 survey, Times Square is the world's most visited tourist attraction, hosting over 39 million visitors annually. Approximately 300,000 people pass through Times Square daily.
Formerly Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building – now called One Times Square – site of the annual ball drop on New Year's Eve.