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Roots Earth in New York City: audio stories about 57 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 57 places in New York City, United States, in North America. The New York City stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open New York City, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 57 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: new-york-city.md

The 57 places in New York City with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Statue of Liberty
  2. Empire State Building
  3. Times Square
  4. Central Park
  5. Brooklyn Bridge
  6. One World Trade Center
  7. National September 11 Memorial & Museum
  8. Rockefeller Center
  9. Metropolitan Museum of Art
  10. Grand Central Terminal
  11. Chrysler Building
  12. Flatiron Building
  13. St. Patrick's Cathedral
  14. Ellis Island
  15. American Museum of Natural History
  16. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
  17. Museum of Modern Art
  18. New York Public Library Main Branch
  19. Headquarters of the United Nations
  20. Wall Street
  21. New York Stock Exchange
  22. Charging Bull
  23. Trinity Church
  24. Federal Hall
  25. The Battery
  26. Washington Square Park
  27. High Line
  28. Vessel
  29. Bryant Park
  30. Radio City Music Hall
  31. Carnegie Hall
  32. Lincoln Center
  33. Cathedral of St. John the Divine
  34. Frick Collection
  35. Morgan Library & Museum
  36. Whitney Museum of American Art
  37. Columbus Circle
  38. Madison Square Garden
  39. Greenwich Village
  40. East Village
  41. Lower East Side
  42. Chinatown
  43. Little Italy
  44. SoHo
  45. Harlem
  46. Apollo Theater
  47. Williamsburg
  48. Dumbo
  49. Brooklyn Bridge Park
  50. Prospect Park
  51. Green-Wood Cemetery
  52. Coney Island
  53. Chelsea Market
  54. Smorgasburg
  55. Katz's Delicatessen
  56. McSorley's Old Ale House
  57. Arthur Avenue

Is there an audio guide for Statue of Liberty?

Yes. Statue of Liberty has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 57 New York City places in the app, at 40.68917, -74.04444. Every one of the other 56 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in New York City

Open Roots Earth and choose New York City. The city has its own map of places with all 57 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 57 places in New York City, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 57 places in New York City, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Statue of Liberty

Coordinates
40.68917, -74.04444
In one line
A copper colossus on Liberty Island, dedicated in 1886 as a gift from France. Sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi over an iron framework engineered by Gustave Eiffel, she has welcomed arrivals to New York Harbor for well over a century.

2. Empire State Building

Coordinates
40.7483, -73.9856
In one line
An Art Deco tower of 102 stories that opened in 1931 and held the title of world's tallest building until 1970. Designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and raised in roughly thirteen months, it remains one of Midtown Manhattan's defining silhouettes.

3. Times Square

Coordinates
40.7575, -73.9858
In one line
A blazing intersection where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue, renamed in 1904 for The New York Times. Famous for towering illuminated billboards, its New Year's Eve ball drop, and the surrounding theater district, it draws roughly fifty million visitors a year.

4. Central Park

Coordinates
40.78222, -73.96528
In one line
An 843-acre landscaped park at the heart of Manhattan, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and built from 1857. Their Greensward Plan wove together lawns, woods, and water into America's first major public park.

5. Brooklyn Bridge

Coordinates
40.7057, -73.9964
In one line
A steel-wire suspension bridge over the East River, opened in 1883 to link Manhattan and Brooklyn. Designed by John Roebling and completed by his son Washington and daughter-in-law Emily, its Gothic stone towers remain a defining New York landmark.

6. One World Trade Center

Coordinates
40.71306, -74.01333
In one line
The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, opened in 2014 on the rebuilt World Trade Center site. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, its symbolic height of 1,776 feet recalls the year of American independence.

7. National September 11 Memorial & Museum

Coordinates
40.71167, -74.01361
In one line
A memorial and museum on the World Trade Center site honoring those killed in the 2001 and 1993 attacks. Two reflecting pools, designed by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, fill the footprints of the Twin Towers, ringed with nearly three thousand names.

8. Rockefeller Center

Coordinates
40.75861, -73.97917
In one line
Rockefeller Center is a 19-building Art Deco complex begun in 1931 under John D. Rockefeller Jr. Spanning 22 acres of Midtown Manhattan, it pairs limestone towers with a sunken plaza, an ice rink, gilded sculpture, and Radio City Music Hall.

9. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Coordinates
40.7794, -73.9631
In one line
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded in 1870, anchors Fifth Avenue with its Beaux-Arts facade and monumental steps. Holding roughly 1. 5 million works across 17 departments, it ranks among the largest art museums on Earth and the most visited in the United States.

10. Grand Central Terminal

Coordinates
40.7528, -73.9772
In one line
Grand Central Terminal, opened in 1913, is a Beaux-Arts railway masterwork in Midtown Manhattan. Its vast main concourse shelters a painted celestial ceiling and a four-faced brass clock, and a 1970s preservation fight saved it from demolition.

11. Chrysler Building

Coordinates
40.75167, -73.97528
In one line
The Chrysler Building, completed in 1930, is William Van Alen's Art Deco masterpiece for auto magnate Walter Chrysler. Rising 1,046 feet, its stainless-steel crown of radiating arches briefly made it the world's tallest building and an enduring emblem of the machine age.

12. Flatiron Building

Coordinates
40.74111, -73.98972
In one line
The Flatiron Building, completed in 1902 by Daniel Burnham's firm, is a triangular steel-framed tower wedged where Broadway meets Fifth Avenue. Its narrow prow and ornate terracotta facade made this early skyscraper one of New York's most photographed landmarks.

13. St. Patrick's Cathedral

Coordinates
40.75861, -73.97639
In one line
Saint Patrick's Cathedral, dedicated in 1879, is James Renwick Junior's Neo-Gothic marvel on Fifth Avenue. The seat of the Archdiocese of New York, its white marble walls, twin spires rising 330 feet, and 103 stained-glass windows rise amid Midtown's skyscrapers.

14. Ellis Island

Coordinates
40.69944, -74.03972
In one line
Ellis Island opened as the nation's chief immigration station in 1892. Through its French Renaissance Revival main building and vaulted Great Hall, roughly 12 million immigrants entered the United States. Now a museum, it stands in New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty.

15. American Museum of Natural History

Coordinates
40.78083, -73.97444
In one line
Founded in 1869 on Central Park West, the American Museum of Natural History fills 25 connected buildings with around 32 million specimens, from towering dinosaur skeletons to a famous suspended blue whale and richly detailed wildlife dioramas.

16. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Coordinates
40.78306, -73.95889
In one line
Frank Lloyd Wright's spiraling white rotunda opened on Fifth Avenue in 1959, breaking every rule of museum design. Visitors ride to the top and descend a continuous ramp beneath a glass oculus, viewing modern art along one unbroken curve.

17. Museum of Modern Art

Coordinates
40.7617, -73.9775
In one line
Founded in 1929 by three pioneering women, the Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street holds defining works of modern art, including van Gogh's Starry Night and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, plus a celebrated sculpture garden.

18. New York Public Library Main Branch

Coordinates
40.75306, -73.98194
In one line
Opened in 1911, this Beaux-Arts landmark on Fifth Avenue is guarded by two marble lions, Patience and Fortitude. Designed by Carrère and Hastings on a former reservoir site, it holds the vast Rose Main Reading Room beneath a 52-foot ceiling.

19. Headquarters of the United Nations

Coordinates
40.74944, -73.96806
In one line
Completed in 1952 on land beside the East River, the United Nations Headquarters is international territory. Its slim glass Secretariat tower and domed General Assembly were shaped by a global design team led by Wallace Harrison, with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.

20. Wall Street

Coordinates
40.7069, -74.0089
In one line
Named for a Dutch defensive wall built in 1653, Wall Street runs eight blocks through Lower Manhattan's Financial District. Once the site of Federal Hall and the 1792 Buttonwood Agreement, it became the global byword for finance and American money.

21. New York Stock Exchange

Coordinates
40.7069, -74.0111
In one line
Rooted in the 1792 Buttonwood Agreement, the New York Stock Exchange occupies a 1903 Beaux-Arts building by George B. Post on Broad Street. Its Corinthian columns and sculpted pediment front the world's largest stock exchange and its famous opening bell.

22. Charging Bull

Coordinates
40.70558, -74.01342
In one line
A 7,100-pound bronze bull by sculptor Arturo Di Modica, dropped near Wall Street overnight in 1989 as guerrilla art. Now standing at Bowling Green, it has become a global symbol of market optimism and a magnet for crowds.

23. Trinity Church

Coordinates
40.70806, -74.01222
In one line
A Gothic Revival Episcopal church completed in 1846 at Broadway and Wall Street, designed by Richard Upjohn. Its 281-foot spire was once the tallest structure in New York, and its churchyard holds Alexander Hamilton and other founders.

24. Federal Hall

Coordinates
40.70722, -74.01028
In one line
A Greek Revival landmark at 26 Wall Street, built in 1842 as a Custom House on the site where George Washington was inaugurated in 1789. A bronze Washington statue marks the spot where the nation's first government took shape.

25. The Battery

Coordinates
40.70361, -74.01611
In one line
A 25-acre waterfront park at Manhattan's southern tip, named for the colonial artillery that once guarded the harbor. Home to historic Castle Clinton, the SeaGlass Carousel, and ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

26. Washington Square Park

Coordinates
40.73083, -73.9975
In one line
A 9. 75-acre Greenwich Village park built over a former burial ground, opened in 1827. Its marble arch, designed by Stanford White in 1892 to honor Washington, and its central fountain anchor a lively hub for artists, musicians, and protest.

27. High Line

Coordinates
40.748, -74.0048
In one line
A 1. 45-mile elevated park built on a 1930s freight railway on Manhattan's West Side. Saved from demolition and opened in phases from 2009, it threads gardens and walkways above Chelsea and the Meatpacking District.

28. Vessel

Coordinates
40.7538, -74.0022
In one line
A 150-foot honeycomb of copper-colored staircases at Hudson Yards, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and opened in 2019. Its 154 interconnecting flights and 2,500 steps climb 16 stories of interlocking landings inspired by Indian stepwells.

29. Bryant Park

Coordinates
40.75389, -73.98389
In one line
A 9. 6-acre Midtown green behind the New York Public Library, framed by London plane trees and flagstone walks. Once a derelict square, its acclaimed 1992 restoration turned it into one of the city's most beloved public lawns.

30. Radio City Music Hall

Coordinates
40.75972, -73.97917
In one line
Opened in 1932 within Rockefeller Center, this Art Deco showplace seats nearly 6,000 beneath a sweeping sunburst ceiling. Home of the Rockettes, its Great Stage and lavish interior remain among the grandest entertainment spaces ever built.

31. Carnegie Hall

Coordinates
40.765, -73.98
In one line
Opened in 1891 with Tchaikovsky conducting, this Italian Renaissance concert hall funded by Andrew Carnegie is famed for its acoustics. Saved from demolition in 1960, its main auditorium remains among the world's most prestigious stages.

32. Lincoln Center

Coordinates
40.7725, -73.9839
In one line
A 16-acre modernist arts complex on the Upper West Side, built from 1959 and home to the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, and New York City Ballet. Its travertine plazas and fountain form America's premier performing-arts campus.

33. Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Coordinates
40.80389, -73.96208
In one line
Begun in 1892 in Morningside Heights, this Episcopal cathedral is among the largest churches on Earth, yet remains famously unfinished. Its vast Gothic nave, towering granite columns, and great rose window draw worshippers and visitors alike.

34. Frick Collection

Coordinates
40.7711, -73.9672
In one line
Housed in a 1914 Fifth Avenue mansion built for industrialist Henry Clay Frick, this museum displays Old Master paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Bellini. Opened to the public in 1935, it pairs masterpieces with an intimate domestic setting.

35. Morgan Library & Museum

Coordinates
40.74917, -73.98139
In one line
Built from 1902 as the private library of financier J. Pierpont Morgan, this Renaissance-style landmark holds illuminated manuscripts, Gutenberg Bibles, and master drawings. Opened to the public in 1924, it was expanded by Renzo Piano in 2006.

36. Whitney Museum of American Art

Coordinates
40.7396, -74.0089
In one line
Founded in 1930 by sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the Whitney showcases 20th- and 21st-century American art. Its Renzo Piano building, opened in 2015 beside the High Line, holds more than 25,000 works.

37. Columbus Circle

Coordinates
40.769, -73.982
In one line
A grand traffic roundabout at the southwest corner of Central Park, anchored by a 76-foot column to Christopher Columbus from 1892. It is the official point from which distances to New York City are measured.

38. Madison Square Garden

Coordinates
40.75056, -73.99361
In one line
The fourth Madison Square Garden, opened in 1968 above Pennsylvania Station, is a circular arena home to the Knicks and Rangers. Seating roughly 20,000, it hosts marquee sports, boxing, and concerts in Midtown Manhattan.

39. Greenwich Village

Coordinates
40.73361, -74.00278
In one line
A historic West Side neighborhood of crooked streets and 19th-century row houses, long a haven for artists, writers, and musicians. Home to Washington Square Park, the Stonewall Inn, and a famous 1960s folk scene.

40. East Village

Coordinates
40.728, -73.986
In one line
A gritty, creative neighborhood east of the Bowery, once Little Germany and later the birthplace of New York punk. Home to CBGB's legacy, Tompkins Square Park, Saint Marks Place, and a lasting countercultural spirit.

41. Lower East Side

Coordinates
40.715, -73.985
In one line
A historic immigrant gateway of tenements and pushcart streets, long the densely packed home of Jewish, German, and Italian newcomers. Today it mixes Katz's Delicatessen and old synagogues with galleries, bars, and music venues.

42. Chinatown

Coordinates
40.715, -73.997
In one line
A dense Lower Manhattan enclave centered on Mott and Canal Streets, home to the largest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. It blends historic associations, markets, and more than 300 restaurants.

43. Little Italy

Coordinates
40.719, -73.997
In one line
Little Italy is a Manhattan neighborhood centered on Mulberry Street, once home to thousands of Italian immigrants. Today it survives as a few lively blocks of restaurants, bakeries, and the annual Feast of San Gennaro.

44. SoHo

Coordinates
40.723, -74
In one line
SoHo, short for South of Houston Street, holds the world's greatest concentration of cast-iron architecture. Once a manufacturing district, it became an artists' loft colony in the 1960s and today a high-end shopping quarter.

45. Harlem

Coordinates
40.80889, -73.94833
In one line
Harlem, founded by Dutch settlers in 1660, became the heart of African American culture and the birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance. Its churches, theaters, and avenues remain landmarks of Black history in the United States.

46. Apollo Theater

Coordinates
40.81, -73.95
In one line
The Apollo Theater on Harlem's 125th Street opened in 1914 and became the most famous stage in Black American entertainment. Its legendary Amateur Night launched countless careers and made the venue a cultural landmark.

47. Williamsburg

Coordinates
40.71, -73.96
In one line
Williamsburg, a Brooklyn neighborhood on the East River, evolved from a 19th-century industrial hub into a magnet for immigrants, artists, and later affluent newcomers. It remains a patchwork of Hasidic, Latino, and creative communities.

48. Dumbo

Coordinates
40.703, -73.99
In one line
Dumbo, short for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is a Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood of cobblestone streets and converted factories. Once industrial, it is now one of the city's wealthiest districts and a tech hub.

49. Brooklyn Bridge Park

Coordinates
40.69778, -73.99833
In one line
Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85-acre waterfront park on the East River, built on former shipping piers.

50. Prospect Park

Coordinates
40.66167, -73.97083
In one line
Prospect Park is Brooklyn's 526-acre masterwork by Olmsted and Vaux, the same pair behind Central Park. Opened in 1867, it weaves a vast meadow, a wooded ravine, and a lake into one rolling pastoral landscape.

51. Green-Wood Cemetery

Coordinates
40.6525, -73.99111
In one line
Green-Wood Cemetery, founded in 1838 across 478 rolling Brooklyn acres, blends Gothic Revival gates with hilltop monuments. Once a tourist draw rivaling Niagara Falls, it shelters over 600,000 graves and Brooklyn's highest point, Battle Hill.

52. Coney Island

Coordinates
40.575, -73.9825
In one line
Coney Island is New York's seaside playground, where the wooden Cyclone of 1927 and the steel Wonder Wheel of 1920 still spin above a 1920s boardwalk. For a century it has meant beaches, hot dogs, and cheap thrills.

53. Chelsea Market

Coordinates
40.7425, -74.00611
In one line
Chelsea Market fills the old Nabisco factory where the Oreo was born in the 1890s building. Reopened as a food hall in 1997, it packs bakers, fishmongers, and global kitchens into one block beneath the High Line.

54. Smorgasburg

Coordinates
40.72111, -73.96257
In one line
Smorgasburg is Brooklyn's open-air food bazaar, launched in 2011 as an offshoot of Brooklyn Flea. More than a hundred vendors serve inventive small-batch dishes outdoors, turning weekend crowds into a roaming feast.

55. Katz's Delicatessen

Coordinates
40.72233, -73.98742
In one line
Katz's Delicatessen has carved pastrami on the Lower East Side since 1888. A survivor of the old Jewish immigrant quarter, it serves towering sandwiches under neon signs and the famous booth from When Harry Met Sally.

56. McSorley's Old Ale House

Coordinates
40.72871, -73.98974
In one line
McSorley's Old Ale House is among New York's oldest taverns, founded by Irish immigrant John McSorley in the mid-1800s. With sawdust floors, two beers only, and walls unchanged for a century, it serves living history in the East Village.

57. Arthur Avenue

Coordinates
40.8505, -73.891
In one line
Arthur Avenue is the heart of the Bronx's Little Italy in Belmont, a mile-long stretch of bakeries, delis, and family-run shops anchored by an indoor retail market that mayor Fiorello La Guardia opened in 1940.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app.