On the MUSEENYC M ListThe M List — one we'd cross the city for, and keep going back to. See the list →
Grand Central Main Concourse
The best room in New York, and it costs nothing to stand in it.
- Where
- 89 E 42nd St, Midtown Open in Google Maps ↗
- Also called
- Main Concourse · Grand Central Terminal Main Concourse
- Cost
- Free
- Good with
- Solo · Family
- Go when
- Around 9am or after 9pm, from the west balcony
About 125 feet to the ceiling, a painted sky with the constellations reversed, and a brass clock in the middle that people have been meeting under since 1913. It survived a demolition attempt in the 1970s, and the 1990s restoration took decades of tobacco smoke off the ceiling — the untouched dark patch is still up in the corner if you know where to look.
What to know
Free, obviously, and open early to late. The balconies on either side are where to stand. The whispering gallery outside the Oyster Bar works exactly as advertised: two people in opposite corners of the arch can hear each other perfectly.