Rockefeller Center

The Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres (89,000 m2) between 48th and 51st streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

The centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is the GE Building skyscraper. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet (259 m) tall, the 70-story building is the 9th tallest building in New York City and the 32nd tallest in the United States.

The observation deck at the top of the skyscraper, dubbed "Top of the Rock", offers amazing views, competing with the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building. It is often considered the best panoramic city view, if only because it offers a view of the aforementioned Empire State Building, which obviously cannot be seen from its own observation deck. After the views that we experienced from the top of the Empire State Building we were interested in going along to check it out and we weren't disappointed. The views from here were tremendous and it was easy to tell that $75m restoration work had been carried out up here 5 years ago.

The big advantages it had over the Empire State Building is that it was closer to Central Park, it was far less crowded and spread out over 3 levels, and it was glass panels that you could look through as opposed to the chain-fence on the Empire State Building.