The Flatiron Building and Madison Square Park on a NYC Bus Tour: The Stop, the Photo Spots and a One-Hour Hop-Off

Big Bus New York's Downtown Loop runs south from Times Square. After the Empire State Building / KoreaTown stop on 34th Street, the bus heads down toward 23rd Street, and Stop 4 is labeled Flatiron District. Hoptripo, an independent guide that checked the Big Bus stop list on October 5, 2026, names three things close to the stop: the Flatiron Building, Madison Square Park and Eataly, all at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street.

That corner is one of the easiest hop-offs on the loop. Unlike the Chinatown or Statue of Liberty stops, where the sight you came for is a real walk away, everything here is clustered around one intersection. You can see the Flatiron's narrow prow, cross into the park and be back at the curb in under an hour if that's all you want.

For transit, Hoptripo lists the 23 St station on the R and W lines at the corner and the 23 St station on the 6 train, on Park Avenue South, about 4 minutes away. Those matter if traffic is bad or you'd rather take the subway back to Midtown than wait for the next bus.

Exact stop positions move with construction and street events, so check the operator's live map on the day you ride. Our guide to where to board NYC hop-on hop-off buses explains how the Midtown boarding points feed into the rest of the Downtown Loop.

The Flatiron Building was completed in 1902 to a design by D. H. Burnham & Co., and the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it an individual landmark on September 20, 1966. Its triangular plan comes from the plot itself: Broadway cuts diagonally across Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street, leaving a wedge of land, and the building fills it to the point.

Visitors are often surprised that there's nothing to visit inside. The building was an office tower for most of its life, and in 2024 the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved plans to convert it to housing, including facade restoration and window replacement. In its August 2026 newsletter, the Commission said the conversion was now nearly complete. Either way, it is a private building. Treat it as an exterior landmark and you won't be disappointed.

The classic photo is of the narrow north end, the prow, which faces Madison Square. Stand on the north side of 23rd Street, near the park's southwest corner or on the pedestrian plazas around the intersection, and the building looks almost flat, like a ship's bow. Walk south down Broadway or Fifth Avenue a block and look back to see how thin the triangle really is. From the bus's upper deck, have your camera ready as you approach 23rd Street; you get a moving view you can't get from the sidewalk.

Mornings tend to be calmer at the intersection than late afternoons, when commuter traffic builds. If you're riding the first loops of the day, that is another reason to hop off here early rather than on the way back.

The Madison Square Park Conservancy lists the park's boundaries as Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue between 23rd and 26th Streets, with winter hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. from November 1 to May 31 and summer hours of 6 a.m. to midnight from June 1 to October 31. The lawns open separately, generally during the day and weather permitting, and the Conservancy posts their status online.

Practical details worth knowing before you hop off: there are no restrooms in the park itself, and the Conservancy directs visitors to a city DOT restroom on Madison Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets. Water fountains are near the fountain and the reflecting pool. Bikes aren't allowed on the paths. The Conservancy also says there are no steps or stairs within the park or between the sidewalk and the park, and that ramps serve all pathways and lawns, which makes it one of the easier stops for anyone using a wheelchair or pushing a stroller.

Walk the outer paths and you pass a run of 19th-century monuments. NYC Parks notes the statue of William H. Seward, dedicated in 1876, as the first monument in the city to honor a New Yorker; Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Admiral Farragut monument, his first major work, dedicated in 1881; and the Eternal Light Flagpole from 1923. The Conservancy also runs rotating public art installations, so there's often a contemporary piece on the lawns as well.

If you have kids along, the park's playground gives them a break from the bus. Our NYC bus tour with kids guide has more stops like this one, where a short hop-off doubles as a run-around break.

NYC Parks' history says the land was set aside for public use as early as 1686, served as a potter's field and then an army arsenal, and opened as Madison Square Park on May 10, 1847. New Yorkers were protective of it from the start: when there were plans to build the Crystal Palace exhibition hall here in 1853, public protests pushed it to Bryant Park instead.

The park's most surprising episode involves another stop on your bus route. According to the National Park Service's Liberty Island chronology, the Statue of Liberty's right arm and torch were shown at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and then displayed in Madison Square from 1877 to 1882. That was years before the statue itself was dedicated in the harbor in 1886. If Liberty Island is on your list, our Statue of Liberty bus tour guide covers the ferry from the Wall Street stop.

The name Madison Square Garden comes from here too. NYC Parks says the first Garden opened in 1879 next to the park at Madison Avenue and 26th Street. It was replaced by a Stanford White building that stood until 1925, when the New York Life Insurance Company headquarters took its place and the Garden moved uptown. The arena you see on 34th Street today is a later building that kept the name.

Shake Shack's story starts in this park. The Madison Square Park Conservancy says the company began in 2001 as a hot dog cart supporting one of the Conservancy's art installations, and the permanent kiosk opened in 2004. The kiosk is still in the park and is a popular stop, so lines at lunchtime on nice days can be long. If you're trying to catch a particular bus, eat earlier or later than the noon rush.

Eataly, the Italian food hall, is the other big draw at the corner Hoptripo lists. It's indoors, which makes it a good backup in rain or cold. Neither place is included in any bus ticket, and we don't list prices here because menus change; check each one's own site.

If you'd rather save your appetite, the next two stops are strong food stops too. Stop 5 is SoHo, and Stop 6 is Chinatown / Little Italy, which our Chinatown and Little Italy guide covers with a walking loop and places to eat.

Big Bus's service information says the Downtown Loop leaves Stop 1 at 9 a.m., the last full circuit leaves at 4:30 p.m., buses run every 30 minutes, and a full circuit takes about 90 minutes. Flatiron is only the fourth stop, so on a morning ride you'll reach it fairly early. That's the best time to hop off here: you get the photos and the park before the afternoon traffic, and the bigger downtown sights are still ahead of you.

A simple shape that works: ride from Midtown, look up at the Empire State Building from the top deck, hop off at Stop 4 for an hour, then reboard and choose one long stop downtown. If you'd rather not get off at all, Flatiron is one of the best stops to just watch from the upper deck, because the building is right on the bus's path and the intersection is wide open.

Remember that Big Bus's 30-minute frequency is a target, not a guarantee. Traffic around 23rd Street and Broadway can slow buses, so give yourself a buffer if you're aiming for a specific departure. Our one-day NYC bus tour itinerary shows how to budget a full Downtown Loop day, and our downtown vs. uptown comparison explains what the other loop covers.