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In ancient times, people said, "all roads lead to Rome." In the Christian Middle Ages, mapmakers put Jerusalem at the center of things. Modern New Yorkers know that the real "crossroads of the world" is Times Square at Broadway and 42nd Street.
It wasn't always this way, of course. Originally called Long Acre Square, Times Square got its name in the early 1900s when the New York Times moved its headquarters there.
Even as it was getting its new name, the square was gaining a new reputation -- as the entertainment capital of America. By the 1920s, Times Square was home to most of the city's finest theaters, and its Tin Pan Alley district was where much of the nation's popular music was produced.
Crowds flocked to the square -- on half a dozen subway lines -- to enjoy the shows, the nickelodeons and movie houses, the restaurants, the hotels, and the incandescent extravaganza -- so bright that people began to call the Times Square stretch of Broadway "the great white way." Never before -- and never again -- would so much of the city's entertainment be located in one dazzling place.
By the 1950s and 1960s, the square had lost much of its glamour, as flophouses (cheap hotels for transients), crime, and pornography took over. In the 1990s, big corporations like Disney and Marriot began building new theaters and hotels in Times Square. These efforts may clean up the square, say old-time New Yorkers, but they can't bring the excitement back.
 Illustration: Courtesy of Culver Pictures.
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Early New York 
