Photo: Steve Galiczynski / @stevegski
The American Museum of Natural History handed West 79th Street over to chalk, salsa and Double Dutch on Saturday — and by 8 p.m., the block between Columbus and Amsterdam was a solid wall of people with their phones in the air, waiting on the sun.
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The free outdoor party, “From Stoops to Stadiums: How New Yorkers Play,” ran from 3 to 10 p.m. as part of the Museum’s World Cup, World Cultures summer programming, tied to the FIFA World Cup 2026 the New York-New Jersey region is helping host. Instead of the pro game, it leaned into the street version: pickup soccer, chess with Chess in the Schools, dominoes and board games, and Double Dutch demonstrations from Brooklyn’s Jazzy Jumpers.
Kids took the roadbed almost immediately, covering the asphalt from curb to curb. © Priscilla Degan
The whole thing was built to end with the sky. Manhattanhenge is the twice-a-year alignment when the setting sun drops into the slot of Manhattan’s east-west grid, a phenomenon named by Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson as a nod to Stonehenge. Saturday’s was the “full sun” version — the entire disk framed just above the horizon — arriving at 8:20 p.m., according to NYC Parks.
Partner dancing broke out in the roadway well before sunset. © Priscilla Degan
The Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra played the golden hour, setting up mid-block and pulling a crowd that filled the street between the prewar co-ops on either side.
The Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra performing on West 79th Street. © Priscilla Degan
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As 8:20 p.m. approached, the party turned into a viewing. The crowd compressed toward the western end of the block, phones up, the last light catching faces in a long orange stripe down the middle of the street.
If you missed it: there is one more. A “half-sun” Manhattanhenge — the sun’s top half visible as it sets dead-on the grid — arrives tonight, Sunday, July 12, at 8:21 p.m., and it’s the last Manhattanhenge of 2026. The next ones won’t come until late May 2027. Any wide crosstown street with a clear view west toward New Jersey will work; get there early, and stand as far east as you can while still seeing the horizon.
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