Bronx Zoo
265 acres split by a real river — the largest metropolitan zoo in the US, open since 1899.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk New York offline.
This is a conservation heavyweight, not just a menagerie: its society helped pull the American bison back from a few hundred animals, and it built the world's first zoo animal hospital in 1916. It once held the now-extinct thylacine and the first Komodo dragons in America.
What to look for
- The Rainey Memorial Gates (Paul Manship, 1934) — the lion on top was modeled on Sultan, an early Barbary lion here
- The Rockefeller Fountain by the Fordham Road Gate, built in Como, Italy in 1872 and a NYC landmark
- Astor Court's Beaux-Arts pavilions around the circular sea lion pool, with the old Zoological Society seal on the lawn
The habitats are separated by the Bronx River, so budget time to cross between sections.
Bronx Zoo is one of 38 sights worth the detour in New York, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the New York pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in New York
- Statue of LibertyFrance's gift to the U.S.: a crowned, robed woman raising a torch over New York Harbor, long read as a welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
- Empire State BuildingRide up to the 86th- or 102nd-floor deck and look straight down on Midtown Manhattan.
- World Trade Center & 9/11 MemorialTwo reflecting pools now sit in the exact footprints where the Twin Towers stood until September 11, 2001.
- Wall StreetUnder 2,000 feet of pavement that stands in for all of American finance — named for a wall that hasn't existed since 1699.
- The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art)1.5 million works under one roof, from Sumerian stone to modern American rooms — a day here barely scratches it.
- Central ParkThe most visited urban park in the US — an estimated 42 million visits a year — built by hand on the razed land of a Black settlement, Seneca Village.