What to Know
- Developer Seymour Durst first put up the sign on the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue in 1989
- At the time, the national debt was under $3 trillion; today's it's more than $19 trillion
- The sign won't be gone forever; it'll reappear at One Bryant Park in a few weeks
The iconic National Debt Clock that broadcasts the nation's running tab from the southwest corner of 44th Street and Sixth Avenue is coming down, a spokesman for the developer family that installed it confirms to NBC 4 New York.
The clock, which developer Seymour Durst first put up on the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue in 1989, will be taken down Thursday so crews can build a new entrance at the West 44th Street building it has adorned since 2004, Jordan Barowitz, vice president of public affairs for the Durst Organization, said.
Like the debt, it won't be gone for good, though. The clock will have a new home a block away at One Bryant Park, the Durst skyscraper that replaced the building where the clock initially appeared. It'll go up in the next month or so, Barowitz said.
The billboard-sized sign has been a fixture for nearly three decades. When it first went up, the national debt was just less than $3 trillion. On Monday, The New York Post, which first reported the clock's planned move, said it was more than $19 trillion -- at an average share of $168,000 per family.
