Your NYC travel advisor
Your NYC travel advisor
The Vessel in NYC is one of the city’s most famous landmarks.
Officially opened on March 15, 2019, the Vessel has gained great fame in a very few years.
According to many, this architectural structure should be visited especially during the Christmas Season in New York, when, together with the Hudson Yards Mall, it is decorated with more than 2 Million Lights.
In today’s article in my BLOG I take you on a tour of everything you need to know about this tourist attraction. I talk about where it is located, how to get there, why it is closed to the public, and also how to visit it.
So let’s get ready and discover the Vessel in NYC together.
The Vessel is an architectural structure and tourist attraction in NYC. The city built it as part of the Hudson Yards urban redevelopment project in Manhattan. Hudson Yards is in Midtown West, New York, United States. Its complex structure and shape are reminiscent of a honeycomb. In terms of size, the Vessel in NYC reaches a height of 16 stories and includes 154 flights of stairs, nearly 2,500 steps and 80 viewing terraces for visitors.
As for the cost of construction, this is estimated at between $150 million and $200 million.
Two interesting facts about the Vessel: the first is that the parts to build it were individually manufactured in Italy and transported one by one to New York. The second is that next to its name you very often see the three letters TKA which stand for “Temporarily Known As.” Its name in fact has created various controversies and as a result it is not yet a definitive name.
The Vessel is located in NYC on the west side of Midtown Manhattan. The area where you will find it is called Hudson Yards and represents the most recently built neighborhood in New York City. The river you see next to The Vessel is the Hudson. This river divides New York City and New Jersey.
In the GOOGLE MAP below I show you exactly where the Vessel is located in NYC.
Getting to The Vessel in NYC is really easy, either on foot or by subway. In the following paragraphs I explain step by step what you need to do to get there.
To get to the Vessel in NYC in my opinion there are two very viable options. The first is to walk while the second is to take the subway.
If you decide to walk, the easiest starting point to find from a tourist point of view is Macy’s Herald Square.
Macy’s Mall is on 34th Street at the intersection with 6th Avenue.
Use Macy’s as the starting point for your walk towards Vessel NYC. From here it is in fact about a 20-minute walk at a normal pace.
To reach the Vessel from Macy’s you must walk west on 34th Street until you reach the intersection with 11th Avenue. Here you will see on your left the Hudson Yards Shopping Center and consequently also the giant Vessel.
The New York City subway connects Times Square directly with the Vessel.
The line you need to take is the number 7. This is easily recognized by its purple color.
From Times Square to the Vessel is only 1 subway stop. With this means of transportation it will therefore take you less than 5 minutes to get to The Vessel.
This is in my opinion the fastest way to visit this part of Manhattan in New York City.
Click HERE to learn about all the stops on the New York City Subway Line 7.
The Vessel in NYC can now be admired exclusively from the outside. This was not the case when the Vessel opened to the public in March 2019.
In fact, at first, visitors could climb the architectural structure and admire the beautiful Hudson Yards complex and the entire West Side of Manhattan.
As you can see from the image above, though, the protective barriers of the Vessel in New York were not high enough, and as a result several people chose this tourist attraction as a place to commit suicide.
After the first suicide cases, the city of New York decided to close the Vessel. After a few month it was reopened with measures to mitigate the risk of suicide. These included the fact that one could not visit alone and the fact that one had to buy a ticket costing $10.
This, unfortunately, did not help. In June 2019 there was another suicide case and since then NYC decided to close the Vessel to the public.
Will the Vessel in NYC open again in the future? No one knows. There is currently no plan of action to allow the architectural structure at Hudson Yards to be reopened to the public again.
Although rumors in recent months about the possibility of dismantling the Vessel in NYC, for now there is nothing concrete. The Vessel remains at Hudson Yards, and while you can no longer get on it, it is still an iconic piece of NYC to visit outside.
During the Christmas season, more than 2 million nativity lights decorate Hudson Yards and the Vessel. This is in my opinion one of the most beautiful things to do in NYC to officially get into the Christmas mood.
I wrote an article about it and I recommend you check it out by clicking on the link below:
Also, if you are planning a trip to New York during the holiday season, I suggest you click on the image below where you will find ALL the articles I have written about Christmas in New York.
I talk about Christmas Trees, Skating Rinks, Christmas Markets, Lights and Decorations, Christmas Shows and much more.
Click on the image below to find out more
