Okay, it's not a building, but the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most well-known symbols of New York City—so much so that the East River crossing can now be found on T-shirts, posters, and other ephemera. The more than mile-long span is notable for its suspension construction, which was considered revolutionary when it was built in the 1880s, and its beautiful stone anchorages, with their elegant Gothic arches.

The Statue of Liberty is easily the most famous and recognizable New York structure, and we have the French to thank for it. Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed 151-foot-tall Lady Liberty while Gustave Eiffel built it (American Richard Morris Hunt created the pedestal). It was dedicated on October 28, 1886. Constructed of copper, the statue didn’t take on its well-known blue-green patina until it was 20 years old, and at that point, it was almost painted over. After September 11, the statue was closed to the public until 2009; that year, she saw her most visitors ever: 3.2 million.

The road to One World Trade Center’s completion was long and rocky—one that included several different designs for the building (the ultimate winner: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) and many, many delays—but the building finally welcomed its first tenants in 2014, 13 years after the terrorist attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers. Its height, 1,776 feet, makes it the tallest building in the city.

Cass Gilbert's copper-topped skyscraper was once described as "the cathedral of commerce," thanks to its neo-Gothic architecture and its owner, retail guru F. W. Woolworth. The elegant building is currently undergoing big changes, as the uppermost floors are converted into ultra-luxury condos; thankfully, that won't disturb the ornate lobby, which is off-limits to the general public but can be viewed on regular tours of the interior. 

Despite being called “doubtful” in the fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City, published before the building’s completion, the towering stack of boxes has indeed become an icon of New York’s skyline. The 60-story condo designed by Herzog & de Meuron has gained notoriety for its Jenga-like appearance, and has been wooing high-paying buyers to its condos since it hit the market in February 2013.

The historic Foundation Building of the Cooper Union was constructed between 1853 and 1859 under the design of the college’s namesake, Peter Cooper. The Italianate brownstone building is the oldest extant structure in America to be framed with steel beams. Fun fact: Cooper created room for an elevator shaft predating the invention, believing the technology would come along soon enough. The building’s Great Hall has hosted many-a great speaker, including Mark Twain and presidents Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland, Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson, Clinton, and Obama.

There may be taller buildings, or more innovative ones, but this Art Deco beauty is perhaps New York City's most beloved building. It was the tallest skyscraper in the world upon completion in 1931 (surpassing the Chrysler Building, which was finished in 1930), and remained so until the original World Trade Center topped out in the 1970s. Its mark on the skyline is indelible, but it's also a pop-culture icon, having appeared in movies and TV shows and varied as the original King Kong, Sleepless in Seattle, and Doctor Who. 

Formerly the site of a slaughterhouse, the multi-acre area that's home to the United Nations complex was purchased from William Zeckendorf Sr. in the 1940s. The complex is composed of several main buildings, among them the 39-story Secretariat building and oft-pictured General Assembly building, which were conceived by Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier.

This century-old Beaux Arts beauty is home to many hidden treasures. There's the Whispering Gallery, close to the iconic Oyster Bar; the Campbell Apartment, a cocktail bar hidden within an old office; the secret tunnel that connected the train station to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel; and the fabled "M42," a bunker that may contain electrical equipment, but no one really knows. But even if you never uncover its secrets, you won't be missing out: The terminal's grand main concourse is perhaps the prettiest train depot in the country. (And certainly this city.)

The landmarked main branch of the New York Public Library, designed by Carrère and Hastings, took more than a decade to design and build, eventually opening in 1911. Two Tennessee marble lions, known as Patience and Fortitude, flank the Beaux Arts structure’s main entrance along Fifth Avenue; inside, the Rose Reading Room may be the loveliest and most majestic public space in New York. (It’s also one of the city’s newest landmarks.) The 51-foot high ceilings feature intricate sculpted moldings and painted clouds. 

The erstwhile General Electric building (it was renamed for new owner Comcast in 2015) is the anchor of Rockefeller Center in Midtown. And thanks to its myriad attractions—the Top of the Rock observation deck, NBC's studios, the Rainbow Room—the Art Deco tower is a landmark in its own right. It's also the setting for one of the most famous NYC photographs: Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, taken in 1932 while the building was under construction, was taken (and possibly staged) on the building's 69th floor.

New York City's most famous house of worship is a neo-Gothic marvel, with ornate decorative elements—spires, stained glass windows, marble cladding—that make it stand out amid Midtown's skyscrapers. A massive renovation project, which began in 2012, has restored some of the church's most iconic elements, including its heavy bronze doors, its ceiling, and the massive main organ. 

This skyscraper debuted in 1952 as the American headquarters of the British soap company Lever Brothers, and it marked a shift along Park Avenue. The thoroughfare, previously dominated by masonry apartment buildings, soon became a boulevard of glass office towers. Lever House was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as a glass-box skyscraper with an innovative courtyard and public space, and was the second curtain wall skyscraper in New York City (after the UN Building).

Radio City's neon marquee has been welcoming performers and visitors alike to the beautiful old theater since 1932. And its interiors are just a beautiful as the outside: Designed by Donald Deskey, every bit of the theater, from the grand staircase to the bathrooms, is gloriously retro. 

Rafael Viñoly’s supertall skyscraper—the city’s tallest residential building, for now—is an exercise in minimalism, with an unadorned concrete facade punctuated by oversized square windows. The building is loved by some, despised by others, but one thing’s for sure: It’s changed the game, as far as ultra-luxury real estate in New York goes. (We can overlook the fact that its design was basically inspired by a trash can, considering it was executed in a rather elegant fashion.)

A Robert Moses creation, Lincoln Center is less one single noteworthy building than a collection of midcentury gems, including spaces designed by legends like Eero Saarinen, Philip Johnson, Max Abramovitz, and Hugh Hardy, all under the direction of Wallace Harrison. The Center’s main plaza and its iconic illuminated fountain is a New York City site landmark in its own right. A complex-wide renovation project upgraded the superblock in the late aughts, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro revamped the public spaces, creating a lawn and redesigning several theaters.

This imposing concrete structure served as the Whitney Museum’s third home before it moved to its latest building in the Meatpacking District. It was designed by the Hungarian-born and Bauhaus-trained architect Marcel Breuer, and today is hailed as one of the Upper East Side’s most notable buildings. But that wasn’t always the case: When it debuted in 1966, the modernist structure—in a neighborhood of historic townhouses and apartment buildings—was considered somber and brutal.

Calvert Vaux, the museum's original architect, designed a High Victorian Gothic-style building for the museum, but the its president soon regarded the building as a "mistake" with its outdated style, and engulfed the structure with further expansions. Architects like Richard Morris Hunt, McKim Mead & White, and firm Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo & Associates have contributed to the structure in its century of existence, helping to make it the largest museum in the United States.

Preservationists and baseball fans alike were not happy when the old Yankee Stadium, a 1923 gem dubbed "the House that Ruth Built," was put on the chopping block in favor of a new, updated ballpark. But the new stadium, which opened in 2009, pays homage to the old while adding modern amenities, including larger seats and better food options. And, to be fair, part of what makes it so iconic is the team that plays there.

The 1964 World’s Fair took place in what is now known as Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, once a vast Queens tidal marsh and garbage dump that was converted to a park to host the 1939 exposition. For the 1964 extravaganza, the site was transformed once again to showcase mid-20th-century American architecture and technology, with a futurist style influenced by car culture, jet aircraft, the Space Age, and the Atomic Age. While most of the pavilions have since been demolished, the 12-story high, stainless steel Unisphere still stands, as does the New York State Pavilion (which is currently closed to the public, though there are groups who want to change that).

The TWA Flight Center was designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1962, one year after Saarinen's death. The building was conceived as a hyper-efficient terminal meant to symbolize a bird with its characteristic swooping form. After an extensive renovation that preserved the midcentury icon, the terminal reopened to the public this year as part of the new TWA Hotel.

Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch is one of New York City’s greatest literary destinations, containing a plethora of historical collections, contemporary works, and practically any scholarly materials one might need. And its Art Deco building on Grand Army Plaza, built in the 1930s, is a beaut—pay special attention to the gold figures at the entrance, which represent different notable literary figures, including Moby Dick, Rip Van Winkle, and Brooklyn’s own Walt Whitman.

One of the last major projects of planner Robert Moses, this suspension bridge connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn is the longest in the United States. It was designed by Othmar Ammann, who was also the brains behind the George Washington Bridge and the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, among many others. The construction of the Verrazano, which took five years and claimed three lives, was famously chronicled by Gay Talese in his book The Bridge. Today, it’s also known as the the starting point of the New York City Marathon.