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Although the bronze statue of George Washington on the steps marks the site where the nation’s first president took his oath of office, the original building was replaced by this handsome, columned Greek Revival structure in 1842. It served as the U.S. Custom House and a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank before becoming a museum in 1955, with exhibits of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. An introductory video and talks detail the historic events that occurred here.

Although gold is no longer transferred in payments between nations, much of the world’s gold reserve remains stored in the five-story vault below this building. All bank notes from this branch have the letter B in the Federal Reserve seal.

Though dwarfed by countless taller structures today, this unusual building – its shape conforming to a triangular plot of land – remains striking, a symbol of the beginning of the skyscraper era. Its slim, rounded façade is as proud as a ship’s prow sailing up the avenue. Completed in 1902, it anchored the north end of the prestigious Ladies’ Mile shopping district, located between Union and Madison squares. The designer, famous Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, included detailed Italian Renaissance decoration on the building from top to bottom, much of it in terra-cotta.

Here, at the heart of the city’s wholesale flower district, you can hardly see the sidewalk for the masses of greenery, shrubs, and flowers. Manhattan’s largest concentration of shops selling houseplants, trees, blooming plants, and all manner of flowers, fresh, dried, and artificial can be found here; if you can’t find what you want, it probably doesn’t exist. The district extends along 6th Avenue roughly from 25th to 30th streets.

The site of two World Fairs, this is now a spacious park with picnic areas, fields for cricket and soccer, paths for bikers and skaters, boating lakes, and many other attractions. The New York Mets’ Shea Stadium, the U.S. Tennis Center, the New York Hall of Science, and the Queens Museum of Art are also here. The Unisphere, the symbol of the 1964 World Fair, still stands.

America’s oldest Episcopal seminary was founded in 1819. This campus was built around two quadrangles in the 1830s, on a site donated by Clement Moore, who taught at the seminary. The main building, added in 1960, includes a library with the largest collection of Latin Bibles in the world. There are lovely inner gardens (9th Avenue entrance).

The balconied, wooden, country home built by merchant Archibald Gracie in 1799 was the original home of the Museum of the City of New York and became the official residence of Mayor under Fiorello LaGuardia in 1942. It is located at the northern end of a park laid out in 1891, with a wide promenade that stretches along the East River. The park was named for a prominent statesman and newspaper editor who lived in the neighborhood.

Samuel Ruggles laid out this neighborhood around a private park in the 1830s. It remains the city’s only private park and a desirable place to live. Stanford White remodeled No. 16 in 1888 for Edwin Booth, who founded the Players Club here. His statue stands in the park.

One of the world’s great rail terminals, the outstanding Beaux Arts building is New York’s most visited, with 500,000 people passing through it daily. Since restoration work was completed, its admirers are no longer limited to travelers. Grand Central has become an attraction in its own right, with 15 restaurants, over 40 shops, the New York City Transit Museum and a gourmet food market.

Flea market junkies throng this school yard every Sunday, hoping for finds from among the piles of vintage clothing, crafts, books, jewelry, prints and all manner of memorabilia. Less glamorous, new merchandise, from socks to T-shirts, is also sold here. On a good day as many as 300 booths crowd the premises. A weekly green market shares the same space.