New York, N. Y. , September 1, 2011 -- Administrator Craig Fugate (left) speaks with New York City Office of Emergency Management Commissioner, Joseph Bruno, at an event in Times Square to kick off the start of National Preparedness Month.

Formerly named Longacre Square, it was renamed in April 1904 after the New York Times moved its headquarters to the Times Building, now called One Times Square. It's nicknames include 'The Crossroads of the World' and 'The Great White Way', and reportedly 'The Tenderloin' because it was supposedly the most desirable location in Manhatten in the 1920s. The 1929 stock market crash took its toll on the area, with many businesses moving out of the area to be replaced with seedier forms of entertainment, including pornographic "peep shows". In the 1990s led by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, New York City began a slow but steady cleaning up Times Square - the process was referred to as the 'Disneyfication'. On New Year's Eve, close to a million people congregrate to celebrate the 'Dropping of the Ball'. Famous for its electric, neon and illuminated signs including Coca-Cola, Toshiba and the curved NASDAQ sign, the location has been used in numerous films, including Vanilla Sky when it is depicted as eerily quiet, and a post-apocalyptic version in I Am Legend.