8. Canyon of Heroes

What do the New York Yankees, Charles Lindbergh and Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia all have in common? They were all celebrated in New York City with a ticker tape parade and their parades are all commemorated by a granite plaque along the Canyon of Heroes. The Canyon of Heroes is the route travelled by parades down Broadway. Along that route from, Bowling Green to the Woolworth Building, there are 164 plaques that create a timeline of ticker tape parades from the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886 to the United States Women’s National Soccer Team Championship parade in 2015.

The plaques are made of 8 inch wide and 3 inch thick granite strips that resemble the strips of ticker tape paper thrown from the windows during parades. The strips are emblazoned with silver-leaf lettering that notes the date and honoree of each parade. The plaques were part of a $20 million streetscape project that also brought new sidewalks, lampposts, signs and wastebaskets to Broadway.