DK Travel : New York : Places of interest

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Battery Park City

Several prestigious architects were involved in this extension of Manhattan, a commercial and residential enclave built on a 92-acre landfill created with earth displaced by excavation for the World Trade Center. A 2-mile (3-km) esplanade offers grand Statue of Liberty views. Parts of the complex were damaged by the Trade Center collapse but a brighter future is forecast since the opening of the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the new Skyscraper Museum.
Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Synagogue

Artists can often be seen sketching this small, picturesque building. It was constructed in 1850 as the Norfolk Street Baptist Church, but as the neighborhood changed, the membership moved uptown, and in 1885 the structure was converted to a synagogue by America’s oldest Russian, Orthodox Jewish congregation. Gothic woodwork and the iron fence from the original church remain.
Bialystoker Synagogue

Built in 1826 as a Methodist Episcopal Church, the fieldstone building was acquired in 1905 to house a congregation from the Polish community of Bialystok. A recent two-year restoration has revealed an interior of glowing beauty, painted in bold colors, with Moorish motifs, biblical scenes, and the signs of the zodiac, which are found in some Jewish scriptures. As in all Orthodox synagogues, only men are allowed on the main floor; women are seated in the gallery upstairs.
Bleecker Street

The present line-up of ordinary shops and restaurants belies the history of this street. James Fenimore Cooper lived at No. 145 in 1833, Theodore Dreiser stayed at No. 160 when he came to New York in 1895, and James Agee lived at No. 172 from 1941 to 1951. The café at No. 189, the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal, was the San Remo bar, the favorite gathering place for William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Jack Kerouac, leading lights of the beat generation.
Bloody Angle

The name for this sharp curve on Doyers Street was coined by a newspaper because this was the site of so many gangland ambushes during the 1920s. It was a period when the Hip Sing and On Leong tongs , groups similar to criminal gangs, were fighting for control of the opium trade and gambling rackets in Chinatown. The tong wars continued off and on until at least the 1940s, and their rivalries continue in the present-day youth gangs.
Bowne & Company

Recreation of a 19th-century print shop with working printing presses.
Bridgemarket

Britain’s Sir Terence Conran was a major player in the development of this cathedral- like space beneath the 59th Street bridge. The vaults are among the most dramatic works by Rafael Guastavino, a Spanish architect noted for his use of Catalan-style tiling. Beneath the grand ceilings are Guastavino’s restaurant and a Food Emporium market. The complex, which is responsible for the rapid revitalization of the neighborhood, also includes the Conran Shop for high-end home decor, and a public plaza.
Bronx Zoo

Well past its 100th birthday, this sprawling zoo on 265 acres gets better all the time. The newest exhibits are a Butterfly Garden and Tiger Mountain, while the 6.5-acre Congo Gorilla Forest, an African rainforest habitat, brings visitors nose to nose with the inhabitants. The unusual World of Darkness shows nocturnal animals like bats in action.
Bronx Zoo

America’s largest city zoo offers authentic environments for exhibits such as the Himalayan Highlands, African Plains, Jungle World, the Congo Gorilla Forest and the spectacular new Tiger Mountain. All enclosures are easily reached via shuttle trains and elevated rides.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden

A small but magnificent oasis, this 52-acre garden designed by the Olmsted brothers in 1910 is home to more than 12,000 plantings. It is best known for the Cranford Rose Gardens where thousands of roses cascade down arches and climb lattices, and the authentic Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, planted in 1915. It is also known for its Cherry Esplanade and Cherry Walk, one of the foremost cherry-blossom sites outside Japan. The Steinhardt Conservatory houses tropical and desert plants and one of America’s largest bonsai collections.