MIDTOWN, Manhattan (PIX11) — It’s opening night for New York City’s newest attraction, “RiseNY,” where visitors can hang from 30 feet in the air while learning about what shaped the city into what it is today.
“It really is meant to be a love letter to New York,” RiseNY Executive Producer James Sanna said.
Visitors suspend from their seats while their legs dangle, zipping in and around the city’s skyline and landmarks. The multi-sensory ride is just one part of the three-part “journey,” which isn’t only meant for tourists but New Yorkers too.
“I’ve done a lot of shows about different subjects in the city before, but I wanted to really pay tribute to what I consider one of the most important places in the world,” Sanna said.
The experience highlights seven iconic industries that started in the city and what made them so historic. For the skyline, it was the elevator brake that paved the way for high-rise structures and skyscrapers to be built.
Tourists like Laura McPeek and her husband Mark, who are visiting from Ohio, appreciated the new things they learned from the attraction.
“I liked that it was different pieces of the whole history of New York and some really cool things that I didn’t know that had started here or developed here,” McPeek said.
There are seven galleries that explain how each industry rose to global prominence. The finance gallery talks about the New York Stock Exchange. There are other galleries for fashion, Broadway, radio and television, and music and film.
“We enjoy theater, so the facts that we learned about Broadway and the rise of the theaters was wonderful,” McPeek’s husband said.
With a VIP upgrade, visitors can see West 45th Street from a replication of Lady Liberty’s Torch a few stories high.
The entire experience starts in a recreation of the city’s first subway station at City Hall. A modern-day subway then arrives to take visitors to the rest of the journey.
The icing on the cake, however, is the flying theater as patrons dip and wind through all the seasons and scents – like coffee in Central Park – of New York.
