New York City
New York City (officially
City of New York) is the
largest city in the
United States and one of the world's major
global cities. Located in the
state of
New York, the city has a population of over 8.1 million
[U.S. Census Bureau, "Residential Population and Components of Change New York State and Counties, April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2005." Retrieved on 2006-07-19.] within an area of 469 square miles (1214 km²),
[New York City's total area is 468.9 mi². 159.88 mi² of this is water and 321 mi² is land. New York City Land Use Factsheet. Retrieved on 2006-07-19.] making it the most densely populated city in
North America. Its
metropolitan area has a population of 18.7 million and is one of the
largest urban areas in the world.
[U.S. Census Bureau, "Annual Estimates of the Population of Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004" (CBSA-EST2004-01) Retrieved on 2006-07-19.] New York City is an international center for
business,
finance,
fashion,
medicine,
entertainment,
media and
culture, with an extraordinary collection of
museums,
galleries, performance venues (most notably
Broadway theatre),
media outlets, international
corporations, and financial markets. With nearly every language in the world spoken in the city, its ethnic and linguistic diversity matches its cultural diversity. The city is also home to the
headquarters of the
United Nations, adding to its cosmopolitan atmosphere, and to some of the world's most famous
skyscrapers.
Popularly known as the
"Big Apple" or the
"Capital of the World", the city attracts large numbers of
immigrants; over one-third of its population is foreign-born, as well as people from all over the United States who come for its culture, diversity, fast-paced lifestyle, cosmopolitanism, and economic opportunity.
The region was inhabited by the
Lenape Native Americans at the time of its discovery by Italian
Giovanni da Verrazzano. Although Verrazzano sailed into
New York Harbor, his voyage did not continue upstream and instead he sailed back into the
Atlantic. It was not until the voyage of
Henry Hudson, an
Englishman who worked for the
Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped. He discovered Manhattan on
September 11 1609, and continued up the river that bears his name, the
Hudson River, until he arrived at the site where New York State's capital city,
Albany, now stands. The
Dutch established
New Amsterdam in 1613, which was granted self-government in 1652 under
Peter Stuyvesant. The
British took the city in September 1664, and renamed it "New York" after the English
Duke of York and Albany. The Dutch briefly regained it in August 1673, renaming the city "New Orange," but ceded it permanently in November 1674.
Under British rule the City of New York continued to develop, and while there was growing sentiment in the city for greater political independence, the area was decidedly split in its loyalties during the
New York Campaign, a series of major early battles during the
American Revolutionary War. The city was under British occupation until the end of the war, and was the last port British ships
evacuated in 1783.
New York City was the
capital of the newly-formed United States from 1788 to 1790. In the 19th century, the opening of the
Erie Canal in 1825 enabled New York to overtake
Boston and
Philadelphia in economic importance, and local politics became dominated by a
Democratic Party political machine known as
Tammany Hall that drew on the support of Irish immigrants. In later years, known as the
Gilded Age, the city's upper classes enjoyed great prosperity amid the further growth of a poor immigrant working class. It was also an era associated with economic and municipal integration, culminating in the consolidation of
the five boroughs in 1898.
[Burrows and Wallace (1998).] |
The Castello Plan depicting New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan, 1660 |
A series of new transportation links, most notably the opening of the
New York City Subway in 1904, bound together the newly-enlarged city. The height of European immigration brought social upheaval, and the anticapitalist labor union
IWW was fiercely repressed. Later, in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of African-Americans as part of the
Great Migration from the
American South. The
Harlem Renaissance blossomed during this period, part of a larger boom in the
Prohibition era that saw the city's skyline transformed by construction the
skyscrapers that have come to define New York. New York overtook
London as the most populous city in the world in 1925, ending that city's century-old claim to the title.
New York City suffered during the
Great Depression, which saw the end of Tammany Hall's eighty years of political dominance with the 1934 election of reformist mayor
Fiorello LaGuardia. The city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under LaGuardia and his controversial parks commissioner
Robert Moses.
New York City played a major role in
World War II as a port and a center of finance and industry. It emerged from the war as the unquestioned leading city of the world, with
Wall Street leading America's emergence as the world's dominant economic power, the United Nations headquarters (built in 1952) emphasizing its political influence, and the rise of
Abstract Expressionism displacing Paris as center of the art world.
However, the growth of post-war
suburbs saw a slow decline in the city's population. A decline in manufacturing, rising crime rates and
white flight pushed New York into a social and economic crisis in the 1970s. These problems plagued the city until the 1990s. Racial tensions calmed in these years; a dramatic fall in crime rates, improvements in quality of life, economic growth and new immigration renewed the city.
The city was one of the sites of the
September 11, 2001 attacks, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the destruction of the city's tallest buildings, the
World Trade Center. The
Freedom Tower, intended to be exactly 1,776 feet tall (a number symbolic of the year the
Declaration of Independence was written), is to be built on the site and is slated for completion by 2010.
|
Satellite image showing most of the five boroughs, portions of eastern New Jersey, and the important waterways around New York harbor. |
New York City is located at the center of the
BosWash megalopolis, 218 miles (350 km) driving distance from
Boston and 220 miles (353 km) from
Washington, D.C. The city's total area is 468.9 square miles (1,214.4 km²), of which 35.31% is water.
The city is situated on the three major islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and western Long Island. The Bronx is the only borough that is part of the mainland United States.
New York City's significance as a trading city results from the natural harbor formed by Upper New York Bay, which is surrounded by Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of
New Jersey. It is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by
the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island in
Lower New York Bay.
The
Hudson River flows from the
Hudson Valley into
New York Bay, becoming a
tidal estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from New Jersey. The
East River, actually a tidal strait, stretches from the
Long Island Sound to New York Bay, separating the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The
Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates Manhattan from the Bronx.
The city's land has been altered considerably by human intervention, with substantial
land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in
Lower Manhattan with modern developments like
Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan. One possible meaning for "Manhattan" is "island of hills"; in fact, the island was quite hilly before European settlement.
Boroughs
|
The five boroughs: 1: Manhattan, 2: Brooklyn,
3: Queens, 4: Bronx, 5: Staten Island |
New York City, officially the
"City of New York", is comprised of the
Five Boroughs. Throughout the boroughs there are hundreds of distinct
neighborhoods, many with a definable history and character all their own. If the boroughs were independent cities, each would be among the 50 most populous cities in the United States.
Manhattan (New York County, pop. 1,593,200
) is the business center of the city, and the most superlatively urban of the boroughs. It is the most densely populated, and the home of most of the city's skyscrapers. It is loosely divided into
downtown,
midtown, and
uptown regions.
The Bronx (Bronx County, pop. 1,357,589
) is known as the birthplace of
hip hop culture, as well as the home of the
New York Yankees and the largest cooperatively owned housing complex in the United States,
Co-op City. Excluding its minor islands, the Bronx is the only borough of the city that is on the mainland of the United States.
Brooklyn (Kings County, pop. 2,486,235
), the most populous borough, was until 1898 an independent city and has a strong native identity. It ranges from a modern business district downtown to large historic residential neighborhoods in the central and south-eastern areas. It also features a long beachfront and
Coney Island, famous as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country.
Queens (Queens County, pop. 2,241,600
) is geographically the largest borough and, according to the US census, the most ethnically diverse county in the United States.
Prior to consolidation with New York City it was composed of small towns and villages founded by the Dutch. It is home to the
New York Mets, two of the region's three major airports, and
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, site of the 1939 and 1964
World's Fairs.
Staten Island (Richmond County, pop. 464,573
) is the most suburban in character of the five boroughs, but has gradually integrated with the rest of the city since the opening of the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, an event that caused controversy and even an attempt at secession. Until 2001, Staten Island was the home of the infamous
Fresh Kills Landfill, formerly the largest landfill in the world, and now being reconstructed as one of the largest urban parks in the United States.
Climate
Although located at a more southern latitude than Italian
Tuscany or the
French Riviera, New York has a
humid continental climate resulting from prevailing wind patterns that bring cool air from the interior of the North American continent. New York winters are typically cold but somewhat milder than those of inland cities at a similar latitude in the
Eastern and
Midwestern United States. Snowfall varies from year to year, usually averaging about 2 ft (60 cm) in total. Rain is more common than snow in the winter, because the Atlantic Ocean helps keep temperatures warmer than in the interior Northeast.
Environment
New York's population density has environmental benefits and dangers. It facilitates the highest
mass transit use in the United States, but also concentrates pollution. Although gasoline consumption in the city is at the rate the national average was in the 1920s,
New York City has some of the dirtiest air in the United States. Pollution varies greatly from borough to borough, and residents of Manhattan face the highest risk in the country of developing cancer from chemicals in the air.
Recently, the city has focused on reducing its environmental impact. The city government is required to purchase only the most energy-efficient equipment for use in city offices and public housing.
New York has the largest clean-air diesel-
hybrid and
compressed natural gas bus fleet in the country, and some of the first hybrid taxis.
[Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityDifferent Buses for Different Jobs, retrieved on 2006-07-19 and ] The city is also a leader in energy-efficient "green" office buildings, such as
Hearst Tower and
7 World Trade Center.
The city is supplied with water by the vast
Catskill Mountains watershed, one of the largest protected wilderness areas in the United States. As a result of the watershed's integrity and undisturbed natural water filtration process, New York is one of the few cities in the United States with drinking water that does not require purification by
water treatment plants, and only chlorination is necessary to ensure its purity at the tap.
Since its consolidation in 1898, New York City has been a
metropolitan municipality with a "strong"
mayor-council form of government. The
mayor and
councillors are elected to four-year terms. The
New York City Council is a
unicameral body consisting of 51 Council members whose districts are defined by geographic population boundaries. The mayor and councilors are limited to two four-year terms.
The
Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. 66% of registered voters in the city are Democrats.
s center on affordable housing, education and economic development. Labor politics are important in the city. The city, however, is the most important source of political fundraising in the United States. Four of the top five
zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code, 10021 on the
Upper East Side, generated the most money for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both
George W. Bush and
John Kerry.
The city has a strong imbalance of payments with the national and state governments. New York City receives 83 cents in services for every $1 it sends to the federal government in
taxes (or annually sends $11.4 billion more than it receives back). The city also sends an additional $11 billion more each year to the state of New York than it receives back.
The mayor is
Michael Bloomberg, a former Democrat elected as a
Republican in 2001 and re-elected in 2005 with 59% of the vote.
He is known for taking control of the city's education system from the state, rezoning and economic development, sound fiscal management, and aggressive public health policy. In his second term he has made school reform and strict gun control central priorities of his administration.
As the host of the
United Nations, New York City is also home to the world's largest international
consular corps, comprising 105 consulates, consulates general and honorary consulates.
[Society of Foreign Consuls, About us. Retrieved on 2006-07-19.]New York City is a major center for international business and commerce and is one of three "command centers" for the global economy (along with
Tokyo and
London).
The city is widely regarded as a financial capital of the world and is a major center for finance, insurance, real estate, media and the arts in the United States. Other important sectors include the city's television and film industry, second largest in the country after Hollywood; medical research and technology; non-profit institutions and universities; and fashion.
The New York metropolitan area had an estimated
gross metropolitan product of $901.3 billion in 2004. The city's economy accounts for the majority of the economic activity in the states of
New Jersey and New York.
The city's stock exchanges are among the most important in the world. The
New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest stock exchange by dollar volume, while the
NASDAQ is the world's largest by number of listings. Many major corporations have headquarters in New York, including more
Fortune 500 companies than any other city.
New York is unique among American cities for its large number of foreign corporations. One out of every ten private sector jobs in the city is with a foreign company.
Creative industries, like new media, advertising, design and architecture account for a growing share of employment. High-tech industries like software development, game design, and Internet services are also growing; because of its position at the terminus of the transatlantic
fiber optic trunk line New York City is the leading Internet gateway in the United States.
Manufacturing accounts for a large but declining share of employment. Garments, chemicals, metal products, processed foods, and furniture are some of the principal products.
International shipping has always been a major part of the city's economy due to New York's natural harbor, but with the advent of
containerization most cargo shipping has moved from the Brooklyn waterfront across the harbor to the
Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey. Some cargo shipping remains; for example, Brooklyn still handles the majority of cocoa bean imports to the United States.
| New York City Compared | | 2000 Census | NY City | NY State | U.S. |
| Total population | 8,008,278 | 18,976,457 | 281,421,906 |
| Population, percent change, 1990 to 2000 | +9.4% | +5.5% | +13.1% |
| Population density | 26,403/mi² | 402/mi² | 80/mi² |
| Median household income (1999) | $38,293 | $43,393 | $41,994 |
| Per capita income | $22,402 | $23,389 | $21,587 |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 27% | 27% | 24% |
| Foreign born | 36% | 20% | 11% |
| White | 45% | 62% | 69% |
| Black | 27% | 16% | 12% |
| Hispanic (any race) | 27% | 15% | 13% |
| Asian | 10% | 6% | 4% |
According to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there are 8,143,197 people (up from 7.3 million in 1990), 2,984,544 households, and 1,802,009 families residing in the city.
This amounts to about 40% of New York State's population and a similar percentage of the metropolitan regional population. Over the last decade the city has been growing rapidly. Demographers estimate New York's population will reach 9.4 million by 2025.
The two key demographic features of the city are its density and diversity. The city has an extremely high population density of 26,402.9/mi² (10,194.2/km²), about 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest American city,
San Francisco. Manhattan's population density is 66,940.1/mi² (25,845.7/km²).
["Census 2000 Data for the State of New York", U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2006-07-19.]New York City is exceptionally diverse. Throughout its history the city has been a major point of entry for immigrants; the term "
melting pot" was first coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the
Lower East Side, and according to some estimates as many as one in four Americans can trace their roots to Brooklyn. In 2000, 36% of the city's population was foreign-born. Among American cities this proportion was higher only in Los Angeles and Miami.
While the immigrant communities in those cities are dominated by a few nationalities, such as Mexicans or Cubans, in New York no single country or region of origin dominates. The four largest countries of origin are the
Dominican Republic,
China,
Jamaica, and
Russia.
The city and its metropolitan area is home to the largest
Jewish community outside
Israel. It is also home to nearly a quarter of the nation's
Indian-Americans, and the largest
African American community of any city in the country. The
Irish also have a notable presence; according to a 2006 genetic survey by Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, about one in 50 New Yorkers of European origin carry a distinctive genetic signature on their Y chromosomes inherited from
Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish high king of the fifth century A.D.
New York City has long had a large
gay community, estimated to be between 360,000 and 500,000 people.
[The 2000 U.S. Census recorded 25,906 gay households in New York City, or about 52,000 people, three times larger than was reported in 1990 but significantly less than other estimates. Demographers suggest Census methodology undercounts the actual number. ]Since 1991, New York City has seen a continuous fifteen-year trend of decreasing crime; it is now the safest city in the United States with a population greater than 1,000,000 and the fourth safest among cities with populations over 500,000.
[ 2005 Ten Safest Big Cities ] In 2004 New York City had a rate of 2,800 crimes per 100,000, compared with 8,959.7 in
Dallas; 7,903.7 in
Detroit; and 7,402.3 in
Phoenix. While many credit the continuous drop in crime to innovations implemented by the
NYPD in the 1990s, such as
CompStat, economist
Steven Levitt and others have pointed instead to broader social and economic trends.
Writer
Tom Wolfe said of New York that "Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather." Many major American cultural movements began in the city. The
Harlem Renaissance established the African-American literary canon in the United States. The city was the epicenter of
jazz in the 1940s,
abstract expressionism in the 1950s, and the birthplace of
hip hop in the 1970s.
Punk rock developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and the city has also been a flourishing scene for
Jewish American literature.
Wealthy industrialists in the 19th century built a network of major cultural institutions, such as
Carnegie Hall and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, that became internationally established. Artists are drawn to the city by opportunity, as well; there are 2,000 arts and cultural non-profits and 500 art galleries of all sizes, and the city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the
National Endowment for the Arts.
The advent of electric lighting led to elaborate theatre productions, and in the 1880s New York City theaters on Broadway and along 42nd Street began showcasing a new stage form that came to be known as the
Broadway musical. Strongly influenced by the city's immigrants, these productions used song in narratives that often reflected themes of hope and ambition. Today these productions are a mainstay of the New York theatre scene. The city's 39 largest theatres (with more than 500 seats) are collectively known as "
Broadway," after the
major thoroughfare through the
Times Square theatre district.
The
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which includes
Jazz at Lincoln Center, the
Metropolitan Opera, the
New York City Opera, the
New York Philharmonic and the
New York City Ballet, is the largest performing arts center in the United States.
Tourism
40 million foreign and American tourists visit New York City each year.
Major destinations include the
Empire State Building, Broadway productions, scores of museums from the
El Museo del Barrio to the
Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, the
Bronx Zoo and
New York Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along
Fifth and
Madison Avenues, and events like the
Halloween Parade in the East Village and the
Tribeca Film Festival. Many of the city's ethnic enclaves, such as
Jackson Heights,
Flushing, and
Brighton Beach are major shopping destinations for first and second generation Americans up and down the East Coast.
New York City has 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland and 14 miles (22 km) of public beaches. Manhattan's
Central Park, designed by
Frederick Law Olmsted and
Calvert Vaux, is the most visited city park in the United States.
in Brooklyn, also designed by Olmsted and Vaux, has a 90 acre (360,000 m²) meadow.
Flushing Meadows Park, the city's third largest, was the setting for the
1939 and
1964 World's Fair in Queens.
New York's food culture, influenced by the city's immigrants and large number of dining patrons, is diverse. Jewish and Italian immigrants made the city famous for
bagels and
New York style pizza. Some 4,000 mobile food vendors licensed by the city, many immigrant-owned, have made
falafels and
kebabs standbys of contemporary New York street food. The city is also home to many of the finest
haute cuisine restaurants in the United States.
[ ]Sports
New York is home to teams in each of the major American professional sports leagues.
Baseball is the city's most closely followed sport. There have been fourteen
World Series championship series between New York City teams; such matchups are called
Subway Series. The city's two
Major League Baseball teams are the
New York Yankees and the
New York Mets, which enjoy a fierce rivalry.
In
American football the city's teams are the
New York Giants and
New York Jets, who share a stadium outside the city limits in
East Rutherford, New Jersey. The
New York Rangers represent the city in
ice hockey. The
National Hockey League is headquartered in Manhattan.
The first national college-level
basketball championship, the
National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938 and remains in the city. The
New York Knicks are the city's
National Basketball Association team.
As a global city, New York supports many events outside the big four American sports. Examples are the
U.S. Tennis Open, the
New York City Marathon, and many amateur leagues in sports such as
soccer,
cricket and
stickball. The
New York Cosmos (1971-1985) was a former franchise in the
North American Soccer League, renowned for signing the great Brazilian player
Pelé.
Red Bull New York, formerly known as the MetroStars, is a professional soccer club based in
New Jersey that participates in
Major League Soccer.
Media
|
New York's use of mass transit gives the city a large newspaper readership base. |
New York is often called "the media capital of the world". It is home to several of the largest media conglomerates in the world, including
Time Warner,
News Corporation, the
Hearst Corporation, and
Viacom. Three of the "
Big Four" record labels have their headquarters in the city. One-third of all
independent films in the world are produced in New York. More than 200 newspapers and 350 consumer magazines have an office in the city. The book-publishing industry alone employs about 13,000 people.
The city is home to two of the three national daily newspapers in the United States:
The New York Times (circulation 1.1 million), and the
The Wall Street Journal (circulation 2.1 million). Aside from the Times, the other leading papers are
New York Daily News (circulation 730,000), and the
New York Post (circulation 650,000), which was founded in 1801 by
Alexander Hamilton. The city also has a large ethnic press with newspapers in over twenty languages;
El Diario La Prensa (circulation 265,000) is New York's largest Spanish-language daily and the oldest in the nation.
New York City is the nation's largest metropolitan media market, comprising about 7% of American television-viewing households. The city is the national headquarters of the four major American broadcast
television networks,
ABC,
CBS,
FOX and
NBC. It is also the home of many large cable television channels, including
MTV,
Fox News,
HBO and
Comedy Central. In 2005 there were more than 100 television shows taped in New York City.
Radio broadcasting in the city is equally varied. Presently the city is home to
shock jocks Howard Stern and
Opie and Anthony, conservative talk hosts
Sean Hannity and
Rush Limbaugh, and the
Sirius Satellite Radio network.
WQHT ("Hot 97"), claims to be the nation's premier
hip-hop station, while the morning radio program
El Vacilón de la Mañana on
WSKQ is the highest-rated Spanish-language radio show in the United States.
Public access television got its start in New York, and
WNET, the city's major public television station, is a primary national provider of
PBS programming.
WNYC is the most listened-to public radio station in the United States.
New York City is also the home of
NY1, a 24-hour news channel owned by
Time Warner and broadcast on
Time Warner Cable and
Cablevision.
The skyline of New York is one of the most recognizable in the world. New York actually has three separately recognizable skylines:
Midtown Manhattan,
Lower Manhattan, and
Downtown Brooklyn. New York City has architecturally important buildings in a variety of styles, including
French Second Empire (The
Kings County Savings Bank Building),
gothic revival (the
Woolworth Building),
Art Deco (the
Empire State Building and
Chrysler Building),
international style (
the New School,
Seagram Building and
Lever House), and
post-modern (the
AT&T Building). The
Condé Nast Building is an important example of
green design in American skyscrapers.
The residential parts of the city have a distinctive character from the skyscrapers of the commercial cores that is defined by the elegant
brownstone rowhouses and
apartment buildings which were built during the city's rapid expansion from 1870–1930. Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835. Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its own limestone bedrock, New York has always drawn its building stone from a far-flung network of quarries and its stone buildings have a variety of textures and hues.
[ See also the WPA Guide to New York City.] |
New York is home to the two busiest rail stations in the country, including Grand Central Station seen here. |
New York City is home to the most complex and extensive transportation network in the United States, with more than 12,000 iconic yellow cabs,
120,000 daily bicyclists,
subway, bus and railroad systems, immense airports, landmark bridges and tunnels, ferry service and even an
aerial commuter tramway. While nearly 90% of Americans drive to their jobs, only about 30% of New Yorkers do; about one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York and its suburbs.
Data from the 2000 U.S. Census reveals that New York City is the only major city in the United States where more than half of all
households do not own a car (the figure is even higher in Manhattan, over 75%; nationally, the rate is 8%).
New York's high rate of
public transit use and its
pedestrian-friendly character makes it one of the most energy-efficient cities in the country. A study by the environmental organization SustainLane found New York to be the city in the United States best able to endure an oil crisis with an extended gasoline price shock in the range of US$3 to US$8 per gallon.
The
New York City Subway is the largest subway system in the world when measured by track mileage (656 miles or 1,056 km of mainline track) and the world's fifth largest when measured by annual ridership (1.4 billion passenger trips in 2004). New York City's public
bus fleet and vast commuter rail network are the largest in North America. The rail network, which connects the suburbs in the
tri-state region to the city, has more than 250 stations and 20 rail lines.
[ In addition to the MTA lines, NJ Transit also operates four lines terminating in New York City.] The commuter rail system converges at the two busiest rail stations in the United States,
Penn Station and
Grand Central Terminal, both in Manhattan.
[More than half a million people pass through Grand Central, the main terminus for the Metro North rail system, each day. Grand Central Terminal Page. Retrieved on 2006-07-19. Penn Station, the main station for New York's intercity trains and the regional Long Island Railroad, is Amtrak's busiest station. nationalatlas.gov Amtrak facts. Retrieved on 2006-07-19.] Long-haul buses depart from the
Port Authority Bus Terminal, the nation's busiest bus station.
Three major airports serve New York City and its surrounding suburbs:
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and
LaGuardia Airport, both in
Queens, and
Newark Liberty International Airport in nearby
Newark, New Jersey. About 100 million travelers used these New York-area airports in 2005 as the metropolitan region surpassed Chicago to become the busiest air gateway in the nation.
Education in New York City is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. The city's public school system, the
New York City Department of Education, is the largest in the United States, and New York is home to some of the most important libraries, universities, and research centers in the world. The city is particularly known as a center for research in medicine and the life sciences.
New York has the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions. The city receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the
National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities.
It also struggles with disparity in its public school system, with some of the best and worst performing public schools in the United States. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg the city has embarked on major school reform efforts.
The
City University of New York is the third-largest public university system in the United States.
Columbia University is an
Ivy League university established in 1754, and
New York University is the largest private,
non-profit university in the United States.
The
New York Public Library is one of the largest public library systems in the United States. Its Library for the Humanities research center has 39 million items in its collection, among them the first five folios of
Shakespeare's plays, ancient
Torah scrolls, and
Alexander Hamilton's handwritten draft of the
United States Constitution.
360° Panorama, Manhattan, Empire State Building (to view, move the slidebar at the bottom of the picture with your mouse) |
360° Panorama of New York City from Empire State Building in spring 2005. |
New York City has fourteen
sister cities worldwide, which include:
*
Tokyo,
Japan*
Beijing,
China*
Madrid,
Spain*
Cairo,
Egypt*
Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic*
Rome,
Italy*
Budapest,
Hungary*
Jerusalem,
Israel*
Sydney,
Australia*
London,
England*
Johannesburg,
South Africa*
Limerick,
Ireland*
Toronto,
Canada*
Amsterdam,
Netherlands*
National Geographic Traveler's Guide to New York City*
Edwin G. Burrows and
Mike Wallace (1998),
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, Oxford University Press.
*
Anthony Burgess (1976).
New York, Little, Brown & Co.
*
Federal Writers Project (1939).
The WPA Guide to New York City, The New Press (1995 reissue).
*
Kenneth T. Jackson (ed.) (1995).
The Encyclopedia of New York City, Yale University Press.
* Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. Dunbar (eds.) (2005),
Empire City: New York Through the Centuries, Columbia University Press.
*
E. B. White (1949).
Here is New York, Little Bookroom (2000 reissue).
*
Colson Whitehead (2003).
The Colossus of New York: A City in 13 Parts, Doubleday.
* E. Porter Belden (1849).
New York, Past, Present, and Future: Comprising a History of the City of New York, a Description of its Present Condition, and an Estimate of its Future Increase, New York, G.P. Putnam. from
Google Books
*
NYC.gov - official website of the city
*
Blogs: Gothamist,
NewYorkNarrative*
History: Forgotten NY,
Origins of New York,
Placematters*
A few Old Postcards of NYC*
Maps: A9,
Google*
Photos: Citynoise,
NYC Addict,
Panoramas*
Travel: ,
Exploring New York City*
Virtual tours: Virtual NYC tour,
NY Songlines*
Wikis: Wikicities,
NYCity MediaWiki
