Q 01/05

Times Square lies in which part of Manhattan?

A) Lower Manhattan

B) Midtown

C) Upper West Side

D) Harlem

Answer · why

B) Midtown

It is formed where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue at 42nd Street; that diagonal cutting across the 1811 grid gives the plaza its bowtie shape.

Q 02/05

Before 1904 the plaza was named after a London carriage-trade street. What was it called?

A) Astor

B) Herald

C) Union

D) Longacre

Answer · why

D) Longacre

Longacre Square took its name from Long Acre in London; William Henry Vanderbilt ran the American Horse Exchange there.

Q 03/05

Which New York Times publisher persuaded the mayor to rename the square and build a subway station in 1904?

A) Arthur Hays Sulzberger

B) Adolph S. Ochs

C) Joseph Pulitzer

D) William Randolph Hearst

Answer · why

B) Adolph S. Ochs

The paper's new tower stood on the site of the short-lived Pabst Hotel; the first electrified ad appeared on a nearby bank three weeks later.

Q 04/05

Roughly how many people pass through Times Square on an ordinary day?

A) 33,000

B) 130,000

C) 330,000

D) 1,300,000

Answer · why

C) 330,000

On the busiest days it tops 460,000, and the square draws an estimated 50 million visitors a year.

Q 05/05

Times Square is not a square at all; its shape is usually compared to what?

A) A crescent

B) A horseshoe

C) A bowtie

D) A diamond

Answer · why

C) A bowtie

Two triangles meet at 45th Street; the northern one is officially Duffy Square.