6. Washington Square Arch
One of the city’s most notable “off-limits” spaces is the inside of the Washington Square Arch. But in 1917, artists Marcel Duchamp, John Sloan, and poet Gertrude Drick broke into the arch and declared the area of Greenwich Village the new independent republic of New Bohemia. To celebrate, they threw an all-night picnic complete with Japanese lanterns, cooking, firing cap pistols, and launching balloons.
They drank “tea” all night (though one could easily suspect it was something stronger), while Gertrude Drick read a declaration of her own writing claiming the areas independence and John Sloan created an etching of the event. The group became known as “The Arch Conspirators.”