If your spring-summer vacation plans bring you to New York City any time between today and July 13, you can add one more tourist experience to your list of Big Apple must-sees.
And it’s totally free!
The breathtaking natural phenomenon known as “Manhattanhenge” begins tonight at 8:13 pm. This is when the rising and setting sun aligns perfectly with the city’s east-west numbered streets, filling those narrow and otherwise shadowy high-rise valleys with a dreamlike golden glow.
Since few New Yorkers or tourists are up and about at sunrise, the Manhattanhenge sunsets are the big draw. And the best sunset viewing spots, according to the American Museum of Natural History, are these main east-west thoroughfares:
14th Street
23rd Street
34th Street
42nd Street
57th Street
Find a spot as far east as possible that still has views of New Jersey across the Hudson River.
The sunset can also be viewed from these locations:
Tudor City Overpass, Manhattan
Hunter's Point South Park in Long Island City, Queens
The position of the sun constantly changes slightly each day during the six-weeks of Manhattanhenge, and the two best days of the run are tomorrow, Tuesday, May 30 at 8:12 pm and Tuesday, July 11 at 8:20 pm. That is when the entire glowing orb of the sun can be seen sinking perfectly into the Hudson River at the west ends of the city’s east-west streets.
LiveScience.com’s Mindy Weisberger explains it all in this video from 2022:
Photo: Courtesy MysteryPlanet.com.ar/Flickr
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