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In 1863, Henry Bergh, an affluent Manhattan resident from the Lower East Side, had been appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to a U.S. diplomatic post in Russia. During his time abroad Bergh often observed the mistreatment of animals. “In Russia, he saw peasants beating horses that had fallen and were unable to continue pulling carts,” notes the New-York Historical Society website, “and was appalled by the violent nature of bullfighting in Spain.”

Bergh wanted to protect such animals, which he called “mute servants of mankind,” and soon resigned from his government position. Upon his return to America, Bergh began to gain widespread support, including recognition from notable literary figures Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Bergh’s presentation of his document “Declaration of the Rights of Animals” led the New York State legislature to pass a charter incorporating the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) on April 10, 1866.

The Flatiron Building: Built in 1903 as the Fuller Building, its unusual and striking shape (designed by Daniel Burhnam to match its triangular lot) quickly earned it its lasting nickname. It is not true that is New York's first skyscraper- just one of its most memorable. A traditional publishing center, it's still home to St Martin's Press. In 1910s, it housed the offices of the Socialist Labor Party, NYC - ancestor of most U.S. left parties. It features in the movie Spider-Man as the Daily Bugle building, and Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak are teleported here in Bell, Book and Candle.

The phrase "23 Skidoo" supposedly originated with a police officer chasing off loiterers at the 23rd Street corner hoping to catch a glimpse of stocking under a skirt blown up by the freakish Flatiron winds.

The original Madison Square Garden was born, appropriately enough, just a whisper away from Madison Square. The site on which it stood had been the southern terminus of the New York and Harlem Railroad, filling the entire block between Madison Avenue and Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South), from 26th to 27th Streets. In 1873, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who owned the railroad, leased the depot to the legendary Phineas Taylor Barnum, who tore down most of the old building, transformed what was left into an amphitheater and called it the “Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome.” Beneath a tent that accommodated 15,000, he presented extravaganzas that ranged from chariot races to waltzing elephants.

Barnum closed down on Feb. 27, 1875, and the space was leased to Patrick Gilmore, a bandleader and showman who converted it into a spectacular space bursting with fountains, statues and exotic plants. He called it Gilmore's Garden. In 1877, the waltzing elephants were replaced by prancing poodles, as Gilmore presented the first Westminster Kennel Club Show. For the next couple of years, there were concerts on summer evenings, horticultural exhibitions, charity balls - and walking races, a portent of things to come.

In 1879, Gilmore's lease expired and on May 22, The New York Times reported that after extensive renovations and at the request of the Vanderbilts, “Gilmore's Garden will hereafter be known as the 'Madison-Square Garden.'” Together with its original hyphen, it made its public debut nine days later with a concert by a 60-piece band.

The Garden popped with pop culture, programs “suited to the demand of most pleasure-seekers in Summer, who do not wish to be called on for any serious mental effort while taking their amusements,” said The Times.

What followed were flower shows; wrestling matches between such stalwarts as Edwin Bibby, the champion of England, and Andre Cristol, “the Tiger of the Pyrenees”; billiard contests; political rallies; and an exhibition of “fine American-bred Durham cattle and fancy sheep.”

There were also six-day “pedestrian competitions,” international race-walking events that drew capacity crowds of 10,000 around the clock, but the Garden was best known as a venue for bicycle races. MSG's position as the nation's preeminent racing arena gave rise to a form of team cycling called “the Madison,” which even today is part of the Olympic Games.

The original Garden was razed in 1889. It was replaced on the same site by MSG II, a magnificent Moorish-influenced building designed by Stanford White. It opened on June 6, 1890 at a cost of $3 million. It was distinguished by a 32-story tower that looked like a minaret, topped by a statue of a fetching Diana the Huntress, wielding a bow and arrow and serving as a weather vane. It was reportedly the country's first nude sculpture in a public place. Diana was created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, whose body of work includes a fully clothed Admiral David Farragut in Madison Square Park.

In addition to the arena, the Garden boasted a theater, concert hall, swimming pool, shopping arcade and meeting hall. There was also an ornate rooftop restaurant and it was there that White - a notorious womanizer - paid with his life for his earlier dalliances with a teenage model/actress named Florence Evelyn Nesbit, who had gone on to marry the millionaire Harry Thaw. On the night of June 25, 1906, Thaw, seething with jealousy, approached White during a performance of the musical “Mam'zelle Champagne” and shot him to death as the cast was singing “I Could Love a Million Girls.” It was White's requiem.

In its 35 years of existence, MSG II was one of New York's premier showcases, housing dog and pony shows, political conventions, circuses, society balls and sporting events. In 1908, it was sold to a real estate firm with a mortgage secured by the New York Life Insurance Co., and it closed on May 5, 1925. Its third incarnation bowed the followed November on Eighth Avenue, between 49th and 50th Streets. In 1968, the Garden moved south to its present location, the Penn Plaza complex. After MSG II was razed, New York Life asked architect Cass Gilbert to design a new headquarters building on the site of the original Garden. It was completed in 1928. Although the waltzing elephants and the six-day cyclists are long gone, some vestiges of showmanship remain in the mammoth limestone skyscraper: 72 gargoyles and a great golden pyramid. Barnum would be beaming.