Holiday Train Show in Times Square

Dec. 3, 2007 — -- After two busy months of building and preparing, "Good Morning America" unveiled the premiere installation of its new annual "extraordinary holiday windows" series this morning.

It's called The New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Gregory Long, NYBG president and CEO, joined "GMA" for the unveiling in Times Square studio to celebrate the legendary train show and remind everyone that it's easy to be green during the holidays.

The Botanical Garden installed a traditional Victorian scene of New York in wintertime, complete with an antique trolley running through, to kick off the new "GMA" holiday tradition.

Both beautiful and eco-friendly, it features more than 140 replicas of New York landmarks created from plant materials such as leaves, seeds, twigs, bark, gourds and pine cones.

Highlights of this year's Holiday Train Show display include the famous Flatiron building and the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a beautiful glass hall that houses the actual show.

"GMA's" window can be seen every day until midnight at the Times Square studio on the corner of 43rd Street and Broadway in New York City.

The Holiday Train Show will be on at the Botanical Garden through Jan. 13, 2008.

For more on the Holiday Train Show click here.

Find out more about the Tada! Youth Theater, the children's choir that sang today on "GMA."

Why not take some ideas from the Botanical Garden to spice up your holiday decorations this year? Here's what our display is made of:

Flatiron Building (1901–1903)
175 Fifth Ave., Manhattan

This unusual triangular building, designed by Daniel H. Burnham, marks the beginning of the skyscraper era in New York City. The spire is made of pomegranate and honey locust thorn. Other decorative elements are made of cedrela pods, eucalyptus pods, beechnut husks, shelf fungus, hemlock cones; bands are honeysuckle twigs; masonry is square cut bark pieces; horizontal trim is black cherry and sycamore; and window mullions are black cherry.

Seaport District (1790s–1811)
Corner of Fulton and South streets, Manhattan

The warehouses and counting houses of South Street Seaport were built by Peter Schermerhorn, a merchant and ship owner, when the area was New York's major shipping center. This replica is made of white oak leaves, cinnamon stick slices, walnut shell halves on roof, bark, acorn caps, sliced branch for signs, honeysuckle sticks and various seed pods.

The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx

The conservatory's design, by William R. Cobb of Lord & Burnham, was inspired by two major glasshouses in England: the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the 1851 Crystal Palace at Hyde Park. Conservatory architects were the first to use curvilinear steel frames and shaped glass. The replica is made of reeds and casting resin for the glass.

Lycée Français de New York (1898–1899)
7 E. 72nd St., Manhattan

Originally the home of Oliver Gould and Mary Brewster Jennings, the curved copper and slate mansard roof, deep-set French windows, and elegant ironwork of this ornate building evoke the opulence of Napoleon III's Paris. This version is made of contorted hazel, pecan shells, reeds, eucalyptus leaves and pods, moss, bark, and shelf fungus.

Apartment Building, 1880s
Manhattan
This prototypical New York apartment building is remade with eucalyptus pods, willow twigs, cinnamon sticks, acorn caps, hemlock cones, moss, gravel, bark, grape vine tendrils.

Great Garden Clock, 1997
The New York Botanical Garden
This lifelike replica of the classic antique clock consists of black cherry wood, grape vine tendrils, walnut bark, sugar pine cone seeds.