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1. Twice a year around May 28 and July 12,thesunset aligns with the east-west streets of the main street gridofManhattan, filling the horizon with an unrivaled cityscape.Thisevent has become known as Manhattanhenge–as coined by NYCnativeNeil deGrasse Tyson.

2. The subway musicians are known as buskers and they havetoaudition in order to play here. That’s because the subway stopatTime Square can see 173,000 pass through, which is 10 timestheaudience of a sold out show at Madison Square Garden.

3. Buskers have been auditioning to fight for a two-weekpermitthat allows them to play at prime locations throughout thesubwaysince 1985. Some of them have gone on to play CarnegieHall.

4. Times Square uses 161 megawatts of electricity everyyear.

5. That’s enough energy to power approximately 161,000 averageUShomes and twice the electricity required to power all of thecasinosin Las Vegas.

6. To compare the difference of life here beforethe“Disneyfication” of the city, just look at the facts. 1992saw2,154 murders occur, while 2012 cut that number down to 414.

7. Times Square is named after the New York Times building.

8. It take approximately 75,000 trees to print a Sundayeditionof The New York Times newspaper.

9. The largest printing of the New York Times was aSundayedition that was delivered on September 14, 1987. With 1,612pages,the paper weighed a whopping 12 pounds. That’s twice the sizeofthe average weight of a newborn baby.

10. When you think of large, sparkly lights in Manhattan,youprobably think of the famous New Year’s Eve ball, but youshouldprobably think of the star at the top of the belovedChristmas treeat 30 Rock. This 550 pound Swarovski star is madefrom 25,000crystals, 720 LED bulbs, 44circuit boards, and about3,000 feet ofwire and is worth an estimated $1.5 million.

11. The first Christmas Tree went up in Rockefeller Centerin1933 during the Great Depression. The workmen were so gratefultohave the job, they decorated the tree with strings ofcranberries,garland made of paper, and tin cans. On Christmas Eve,they linedup under the tree and received the greatest gift ofall:paychecks.

12. How does Rockefeller Center manage to find theperfectseven-story spruce tree each holiday season? They conductaerialsearches by helicopter, of course, and have it shipped to thecityduring the night when the streets aren’t as gridlocked.

13. After the Rockefeller tree is taken down for the year,itcontinues to get put to good use. In 2005, Habitat forHumanityused the wood to make doorframes for houses for the needyand in2012, the paper went towards publishing a book calledTheCarpenter’s Gift.

14. It costs $1 million to be licensed to operate a cab here.No,that is not a typo.

15. When Philippe Petit walked 61 meters between the TwinTowersof the World Trade Center on a tightrope nearly 1,300 feetabovethe street in 1975, he not only broke records, but he brokelaws aswell. It has since been called the “artistic crime ofthecentury.”

16. Philippe Petit planned his tightrope stunt for months.Heconducted internal research on the buildings by dressing up likeaconstruction workers and office employees and forged ID cardstoget through security. He and his team used a bow and arrow topasslarge ropes across the divide of the buildings so that theycouldstring the steel cable which he used.

17. Petit was offered to be cleared of all charges inexchangefor doing community service in the act of a publicperformance forchildren in Central Park. He did a high-wire walkover Turtle Pondand has gone on to perform all over the world,including New YorkCity, numerous times.

18. Permits to sell hot dogs from the much beloved food cartsinthe city can cost as much as $289,000 per year in the CentralParkarea

19. The Empire State Building has its own zip code, 10118.