Page 212 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

210  NE W Y ORK CIT Y AREA B Y AREA

q American Museum of Natural History

This is one of the world’s largest natural history
museums. Since the original building opened in
1877, the complex has grown to cover four city
blocks, and today holds more than 30 million
specimens and artifacts. The most popular areas
are the dinosaurs and the Milstein Hall of Ocean
Life. The Rose Center for Earth and Space includes
the Hayden Planetarium (see p212).

The facade on W 77th Street
Gallery Guide
The museum houses 46
exhibition halls, research . Star of India
laboratories, and a library, This 563-carat gem is the
spread over 25 interconnected world’s largest blue star
buildings. Enter at Central Park sapphire. Found in Sri
West onto the second floor to Lanka, it was given to the
museum by J. P. Morgan
view the Barosaurus exhibit, in 1900.
African, Asian, Central and
South American peoples, and
animals. First-floor exhibits
include ocean life, meteors,
minerals and gems, and the Hall
of Biodiversity. North American
Indians, birds, and reptiles occu-
py the third floor. Dinosaurs,
fossil fishes, and early mammals
are on the fourth floor.

. Blue Whale
The blue whale is the largest animal, living or
extinct. Its weight can exceed 100 tons. This
replica is based on a female captured off
South America in 1925.

. Great Canoe Entrance on
This 63-ft (19.2-m) seafaring war canoe
from the Pacific Northwest was carved out W 77th St
of the trunk of a single cedar. It stands in
the Grand Gallery.

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