Fodor's Expert Review Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower

In 1909, with the addition of a 700-foot tower resembling the campanile of St. Mark's in Venice, this 1893 building became the world's tallest—but it was surpassed in height in 1912, when the Woolworth Building was completed. The Met Life Tower was stripped of much of its classical detail during renovations in the early 1960s but remains a prominent feature of the Midtown skyline. The clock's four faces are each three stories high, and their minute hands weigh half a ton each. If the view from the street doesn't quite cut it, you can reserve a room in the skyline itself: Marriott International and Ian Schrager operate a luxury hotel, the New York EDITION, in the clock-tower portion of the building.