Standing at the “Crossroads of the World”—in the Great White Way—is the statue not of an entertainer (though there is one of those very close by!) but a man of the cloth: Father Francis Duffy, who served as chaplain to the 69th Infantry Regiment during WWI. This regiment was largely comprised of Irish-American New Yorkers and after the world, Father Duffy returned to minister to the same population in Hell’s Kitchen at the Holy Cross Church, the oldest structure along 42nd Street. To learn more about Fighting Father Francis Duffy and Hell’s Kitchen, take the 42nd Street River-to-River tour….

The two Tennessee marble lions who guard the entrance to the New York Public Library’s Main Branch were given nicknames by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia: Patience and Fortitude, traits the mayor thought were cardinal virtues of New Yorkers and which would see them through the Great Depression. To learn more about New York City’s library system, take the 42nd Street River-to-River tour….

Believe it or not, the stunning Beaux-Arts Grand Central Terminal (featuring the largest Tiffany stained-glass clock in the world) was actually threatened with demolition during the 1970s; but thanks to the sustained efforts of preservation activists like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a court battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court saved this architectural masterpiece for future generations to admire. To learn more about the features of Grand Central Terminal and how it relates to NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, take the 42nd Street River-to-River tour….

Mounted at the exact angle of Earth’s axis and rotating at the speed of the Earth’s rotation since 1930, this impressive globe in the lobby of The News Building was featured in Richard Donner’s Superman movies as the lobby to the Daily Planet, where Clark Kent and Lois Lane worked. To learn more about The News Building and its relationship to popular culture (not just Superman but Ayn Rand figures into the picture), take the 42nd Street River-to-River tour….

In addition to the numerous stately buildings and structures throughout the city, New York City has some rather quirky landmarks including the Pepsi-Cola neon sign that stands along Long Island City’s waterfront. This 147-foot-tall sign was once atop a Queens bottling plant, but today it stands more-or-less opposite the United Nations. To learn more about the history of landmark preservation in NYC, take the 42nd Street River-to-River tour….