Get Ready for Your Glow Up NYC!

The Big Apple’s most stunning lightshow is set for a limited run between May 28 and July 12, 2025. It’s called Manhattanhenge. If you’re visiting the city anytime during those dates, you can catch the show – and it’s totally free!

This glorious natural phenomenon takes place when the rising and setting suns align exactly with New York City’s east-west numbered streets, illuminating those high-rise canyons with an otherworldly golden glow.

Manhattanhenge occurs twice a year, but because the city’s grid is not precisely aligned east-west, the rising sun displays happen early December through early January. The spring-summer Manhattanhenge sunsets, however, draw the biggest crowds and provide the most unforgettable displays.

Optimum Viewing Days

The position of the sun constantly changes slightly each day during run of Manhattanhenge, and the two best viewing days are Thursday, May 29 at 8:12 pm ET and Friday, July 11 at 8:20 pm ET. That’s when the entire glowing orb of the sun can be seen sinking perfectly into the Hudson River at the west ends of the city’s east-west streets.

Best Viewing Areas

The best places to view Manhattanhenge sunsets, according to the American Museum of Natural History, are these main east-west thoroughfares:

14th Street
23rd Street
34th Street
42nd Street
57th Street

Find a spot as far east as possible that still has views of New Jersey across the Hudson River.

The sunset can also be viewed from these locations:

Tudor City Overpass, Manhattan
Hunter's Point South Park in Long Island City, Queens

The Original

Manhattanhenge coins its name after Stonehenge, the prehistoric ring of massive standing stones located on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. It is known for its alignments with the sun, particularly the solstices, with the summer solstice sunrise aligning with the Heel Stone and the winter solstice sunset aligning with a gap between two huge trilithon stones.

Other “Henges”

Any city whose street grids align east-to-west can boast having the similar natural light shows, including Baltimore, Cambridge (MA), Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, and Montreal. Where city street grids are precisely sited eat-west, the phenomenon happens at both sunrise and sunset on the same days.