Rockefeller Center

A CITY WITHIN A CITY, BORN OF DEFIANCE

When the 1929 crash killed plans for a new Metropolitan Opera house in midtown, financier John D. Rockefeller Jr. could have walked away. Instead, he bet his personal fortune on the largest private construction project of its era, a 22-acre Art Deco masterpiece that put over 40,000 people to work during the Great Depression. The workers themselves started one of New York’s most beloved traditions, pooling their wages to buy a modest Christmas tree for the building site. From the iconic ice rink to the soaring tower at 30 Rock to over a hundred works of public art, Rockefeller Center is a living testament to building something magnificent when the world says it can’t be done. And at its summit, the Top of the Rock observation deck crowns the experience, three open-air terraces offering an unobstructed panorama of the NYC skyline that few vantage points in New York can rival. What will its secrets reveal to you?