midtown manhattan | setiawanphoto

The Grand Central Terminal is a train station in New York City in the Midtown Manhattan area. It is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms (there are 44 of them on two levels). The Grand Central Terminal serves commuters traveling to and from New York metro area including to some locations in New York State and Connecticut.

I’ve taken trains to go to New York City many times, but the Amtrak train connecting the Northeast Corridor actually goes to Penn Station in Manhattan instead of the Grand Central Terminal. My experience visiting the Grand Central Terminal was several years back when visiting my brother who lived in the Upper East Side of Manhattan but worked in the northern suburb outside New York City. We wanted to meet up after he got out from work, so the most convenient place was at the Grand Central Terminal where he got off from the commuter train and we could continue on from there. Visiting the Grand Central Terminal building itself is quite an experience. The architecture was quite nice, and there are store and restaurants inside, including a gourmet food store and the newly open Apple Store.

The photo below was taken inside the Main Concourse of the Grand Central Terminal while I was waiting for my brother.

The Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings in Midtown Manhattan part of New York City, located between 48th and 51st Streets and between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. The buildings are among the best examples of the Art Deco and International architecture styles in New York City. They were built in the 1930s around the time of the Great Depression, so at the time it was a source of employment for a lot of people in New York. Today these buildings are home to offices and the center building, the GE Building (30 Rockefeller) is the headquarters of NBC, one on the main television broadcasting companies in the United States. It’s a major tourist destination in New York City with the NBC’s Today Show broadcasted every morning from there, and occasionally the anchors would go out and interview crowds of visitors watching as the show being shot live. During the Christmas time, there is a nice Christmas display outside the the RCA Building, and there is also an ice skating rink open to the public. And nearby within there is also the famous Radio City Music Hall, a performance hall that at the time it was open in 1932 was billed as the largest and most opulent theater in the world. Since then it has hosted many big events like the Grammy Awards and the Tony Awards.

I’ve visited the Rockefeller Center like many tourists coming to the New York City. The buildings were definitely impressive; you really get the sense that you’re in New York City among the skyscrapers when you stand in front of the GE Building and look up to see the 70-story building standing tall in front of you. The Rockefeller Plaza Christmas Tree and the ice skating rink area are also interesting to visit, though you might have to wait in line for a while during the holiday season to even just see the Christmas Tree. During a visit one afternoon, as I sat near the ice skating rink resting and people watching, I saw people’s attention drawn to the center of the ice skating rink. It turned out that there was a television show shooting at the ice skating rink. I think it was a scene from a TV show called Monk.

The photo below was taken at night on the Fifth Avenue part of the complex. It is a large sculpture depicting Atlas carry the world on his shoulders. At night, it was lighted quite nicely, and you can see the tall GE Building in the background.