23 Facts About Times Square

Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Together with adjacent Duffy Square, Times Square is a bowtie-shaped space five blocks long between 42nd and 47th Streets.

Times Square is one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors annually.

Formerly known as Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the then newly erected Times Building, now One Times Square.

Times Square is the official name of the southern triangle, below 45th Street, but the northern triangle is officially Duffy Square.

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New York Times moved to more spacious offices one block west of the square in 1913 and sold the building in 1961.

The old Times Square Building was later named the Allied Chemical Building in 1963.

Now known simply as One Times Square, it is famed for the Times Square Ball drop on its roof every New Year's Eve.

Times Square grew dramatically after World War I It became a cultural hub full of theatres, music halls, and upscale hotels.

Times Square quickly became New York's agora, a place to gather to await great tidings and to celebrate them, whether a World Series or a presidential election.

General atmosphere of Times Square changed with the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s.

Nevertheless, Times Square continued to be the site of the annual ball drop on New Year's Eve.

Later that decade, Times Square was depicted in Midnight Cowboy as gritty, depraved, and desperate.

Furthermore, as part of the West Midtown special zoning district created in 1982, the New York City government had allowed new buildings in Times Square to be developed with an increased floor area ratio.

Detractors have countered that the changes have homogenized or "Disneyfied" the character of Times Square and have unfairly targeted lower-income New Yorkers from nearby neighborhoods such as Hell's Kitchen.

Times Square started hosting other major annual events in the 2000s.

In February 2011, Times Square became smoke-free as New York extended the outdoors smoking ban to the area.

Today, Countdown Entertainment and One Times Square handle the New Year's Eve event in conjunction with the Times Square Alliance.

Times Square is a busy intersection of art and commerce, where scores of advertisements – electric, neon and illuminated signs and "zipper" news crawls – vie for viewers' attention.

An immediately recognizable location, Times Square has been featured countless times in literature, films, video games, music videos, and on television.

Times Square has been fictionally attacked and destroyed in several movies, including Knowing, when a solar flare destroys New York City; Deep Impact, when a tsunami created from a meteor impact destroys New York City; the 1998 film Godzilla, where Godzilla is chased through the square; the Ghostbusters movies; Stephen King's The Stand, where the intersection is overcome by total anarchy; Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

For instance, in Grand Theft Auto IV, a recreation of the Times Square area referred to in-game as "Star Junction", is included in the game's fictional "Liberty City" setting.

Times Square is shown in Battlefield 3, where the final fight with the main antagonist takes place, where the player must stop him from detonating a nuclear bomb in the square; and Crysis 2, in which player must fight off attacking alien forces to assist U S Marines in evacuating the area.