New York City Modifications

New York City (also known by the initials NYC), officially the City of New York, is the most populous city in the United States and the most densely populated major city in North America. Located in the state of New York, New York City has a population of over 8.1 million [1] within an area of 321 square miles (approximately 830 kmІ). [2]

The city is a center for international finance, fashion, entertainment and culture, and is widely considered to be one of the world's major global cities with an extraordinary collection of museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations and financial markets. It is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations.

The New York metropolitan area has a population of about 22 million, which makes it one of the largest urban areas in the world. [3] The city proper consists of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each of these boroughs, except for Staten Island, is home to at least a million people and would each be among the nation's largest cities if considered independently.

Nicknamed "the Big Apple", the city attracts large numbers of immigrants, with over a third of its population foreign born. Moreover, it attracts people from all over the United States, who come for its culture, energy, cosmopolitanism, and economic opportunity. At present, the city has the lowest crime rate among the 25 largest American cities.

Contents

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* 1 History

* 2 Geography and environment

o 2.1 Climate

o 2.2 Environmental Issues

* 3 Boroughs and neighborhoods

* 4 Government

* 5 Economy

* 6 Demographics

o 6.1 Crime

* 7 Culture

o 7.1 Arts

o 7.2 Media

o 7.3 Tourism and recreation

* 8 Transportation

o 8.1 Mass transit

o 8.2 Airports

* 9 Buildings and architecture

* 10 Education and research

o 10.1 Universities

o 10.2 Schools

o 10.3 Libraries

o 10.4 Medical research

* 11 Sports

o 11.1 New York City Teams

* 12 Trivia

o 12.1 Sister cities

* 13 References

* 14 Bibliography

* 15 External links

o 15.1 Virtual Tours

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History

Main article: History of New York City

The Castello Plan depicting New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan, 1660.

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The Castello Plan depicting New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan, 1660.

The region was inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans at the time of its discovery by Italian Giovanni da Verrazano. Although Verrazano 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 was employed by the Dutch monarchy 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 Albany now stands. The Dutch established New Amsterdam in 1613, which was granted self-government in 1652 under Peter Stuyvesant. The British conquered the city in September, 1664 and renamed it "New York" after the English Duke of York. 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. The New York Draft Riots during the American Civil War were suppressed by the Union Army. 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 consolidation of what would become the five boroughs in 1898.

Construction of the Empire State Building, 1930

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Construction of the Empire State Building, 1930

A series of new transportation links, most notably the opening of the New York City Subway in 1904, helped bind together the newly-consolidated 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 of dueling skyscrapers. New York overtook London as the most populous city in the world in 1925, ending that city's century-old