Michael Arndt - Minimal New York: Graphic, Gritty, and Witty

Michael Arndt is an award-winning graphic designer and author/illustrator. His books include Cat Says Meow and Other Animalopoeia , My Heart Grows , One Yellow Sun , and Thoughts Are Air . He lives minimally in New York with his dog, Clooney, and cat, Greta.

Evening commute: train

Whether by train via majestic and bustling Grand Central Station or crawling in congested rush-hour traffic, on any given weekday in New York throngs of commuters stream in and out of Manhattan from the boroughs and beyond, doubling the islands population from about 1.6 million to 3.1 million. At its peak during the day, Midtown has over 680,000 people. That is more than 10 times its nighttime population!

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States for the American centennial in 1876. The seven spikes in the crown are said to represent the seven seas and seven continents.

Chrysler Building

Completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building was New Yorks tallest building until the Empire State Building surpassed it the following year. Its Art Deco design elements were inspired by features on Chrysler automobiles.

Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge, opened in 1883, was the worlds first steel-wire suspension bridge. The first living creature to cross the bridge was a rooster on the lap of chief engineer Emily Warren Roebling.

Broadway

Broadway crosses Manhattan diagonally and runs for 33 miles before finishing in Westchester County. It is the oldest north-to-south thoroughfare in New York, and its name is a literal translation of the Dutch Brede Weg.

Washington

The George Washington Bridge connects Manhattan to New Jersey. About 108 million vehicles drive across it each year, making it the most heavily trafficked motor-vehicle bridge in the world.

Lincoln

The Lincoln Tunnel runs under the Hudson River, connecting Manhattan to New Jersey. Omero Catannicknamed Mr. Firstwas the first person to cross it as well as the lower level of the George Washington Bridge.

Bridge and tunnel

There are more than 2,000 bridges and tunnels in and around New York. The largest ones are used to connect the boroughs to each other, to mainland New York, and to New Jersey.

Subway

The signage system for the New York subway was designed by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda in the 1960s using color-coded dots to delineate lines. The now-ubiquitous white band was originally a printing mistake.

Honk

Unnecessary honking carries a fine of $350, but in impatient and noisy New York this law is rarely enforced.

Read text messages

Texting while driving carries a fine of $200 for the first offense plus 5 points added to your drivers license.

Walk

The text in the Walk/Dont Walk signs at crosswalks was changed in 2003 to universal visual symbols: a walking figure in white lights for Walk and a hand in red lights for Dont Walk.

Walk

The blinking red hand warns pedestrians not to enter the crosswalk. In frenetic New York, however, where jaywalking is more pastime than crime, the Dont Walk signs often go ignored.

Times Square by day

The electronic billboards in Times Square have become so closely associated with tourism that zoning laws require buildings there to be covered with them.

Times Square by night

Times Squares lights are so bright that they can be seen from outer space. As of 2020, the cost of a billboard runs between $1.1 million and $4 million a year.

Last weekend in June

The first annual Pride March was held on June 28, 1970, a year after the Stonewall riots. The rainbow flag was designed by Gilbert Baker in 1978 to symbolize diversity and inclusion.

First weekend in July

New York was the capital of the United States from 1785 to 1790. The red stripes on the American flag stand for courage and readiness to sacrifice; the white stripes stand for pure intentions and high ideals.

2016 election map: Manhattan