Behold Manhattanhenge: New York City's Most Awe-Inspiring Phenomenon
Manhattanhenge: The Greatest Solar Show in New York City (Photo: AP)
There are several glorious sights that make you happy to be in New York City: the Empire State Building lit up in multiple colors, a dazzling street performer, an open pizza place when you’re starving at 3 in the morning.
But over the next two evenings, New York residents and visitors will be treated to one of the most glorious sights of all. Tonight at 8:24 p.m. and Saturday evening at 8:25 p.m. mark the twice-a-year solar phenomenon dubbed “Manhattanhenge”: a pair of consecutive sunsets that line up perfectly with Manhattan’s east-to-west street grid, bathing the skyscrapers on the north and south sides in an otherworldly orange glow (the year’s first pair of Manhattanhenge sunsets was on May 29th and 30th).
New Yorkers and tourists alike will stop in the streets to snap Manhattanhenge pics (Photo: Katie Killary/Flickr)
Like living in New York, this event can be both a gift (for social media addicts looking for a cool pic to post) and a curse (for anyone caught walking or driving westward in the blinding sunlight without sunglasses). Either way, it’s an awesome thing to behold.
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“A rare and beautiful sight,” famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson writes on the American Museum of Natural History’s website. Tyson, who came up with the Manhattanhenge moniker in 2002, notes that while other cities have westward-facing streets where you can see sunsets, those streets aren’t perfectly straight. In contrast, many of Manhattan’s major cross streets (14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, and 57th) are pretty much straight shots, providing a perfect sunset view. Writes Tyson: “Manhattanhenge may just be a unique urban phenomenon in the world, if not the universe.” And he would know.
(Photo: gigi_nyc/Flickr)
To get the best view, Tyson recommends getting as far east in Manhattan as possible, but make sure you can still see New Jersey to the west. The above-named cross streets are good vantage points — particularly 34th and 42nd streets, where you can see the setting sun’s light dance off the Empire State and Chrysler buildings.
34th Street is a good vantage point to see the Empire State Building get its Manhattanhenge spotlight (Photo: Eric/Flickr)
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So if you happen to be in New York, grab your cameras and your sunglasses and head east. It’s a show better than anything you’ll see on Broadway this weekend, as the World’s Greatest City takes a rare bow in an awesome, solar-powered spotlight.
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