New York City

HISTORY

While sailing aboard the Halve Maen, Henry Hudson an Englishman in the service of the Dutch Republic, began his exploration of the Hudson River in 1609. His journey laid the foundation for Dutch colonization of present-day New York.

In 1624 the Dutch established a settlement, New Amsterdam, at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, which served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. It was designated the capital of the New Netherland province the following year.

New Amsterdam in 1664 (looking approximately due north)

In 1626 to legally safeguard the settlers' investments and property on Manhattan island, the Dutch West India Company director Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from the local Native Americans for 60 guilders worth of cloth, buttons and trinkets (around $1,100 in today's money).

New York's Wall Street is so named because there actually was a wall across Manhattan Island, designed to keep the Indians from the small city then huddled on the tip of the island.

Dutch immigrant Jonas Bronck was the first settler in the Bronx area. In 1639 he built a house at the juncture of the Harlem River and the Bronx Kill across from Randalls. The Bronx River, and by extension, the county and New York City borough of the Bronx are named after him.

New Amsterdam received municipal rights on February 2, 1653, thus becoming a city.

The village of Harlem was created by Peter Stuyvesant on March 4, 1658 as a northern outpost to protect the larger colony of New Amsterdam.

On September 8, 1664 New Amsterdam was captured by the British. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York, future King James II of England, who had organised the mission.

The Fall of New Amsterdam, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. 

For the first time, the Common Council appointed 30 volunteers to be the 'Firemen of New York City' on September 19, 1738.

New York City became the new nation's capital on January 11, 1785, when Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, met at the Federal House in Lower Manhattan. The city remained the seat of the nation for five years until 1790 when the capital city of the U.S. moved to Philadelphia.

So many Germans moved to the United States in the 1850s that, by 1855, New York City had the third largest German population of any city in the world. Only those of Berlin and Vienna were larger.

New York’s Broadway received its first electric lights between 14th and 34th Streets on December 20, 1880. The Broadway theater district would gradually move north and become known as the Great White Way, for its blazing illumination.

New York City welcomed its first steel skyscraper, the 13 story Tower Building at 50 Broadway on September 27, 1889.

On January 1, 1898 New York City annexed land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, were joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.

Map of New York City's current boroughs .By User PerryPlanet - Wikipedia

The formerly named Longacre Square acquired its present name of Times Square in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters there.

The first underground segment of the New York City Subway officially opened on October 27, 1904 running from City Hall in lower Manhattan to Broadway in Harlem. The fare was $0.05 and on the first day the trains carried over 150,000 passengers. Today it is one of the most extensive public transportation systems in the world.

The City Hall station of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line 

About 300,000 pedestrians, the population of Iceland, pass through Times Square every day.

The 55-storey Woolworth Building in New York opened on April 24, 1913. With a height of 792 feet (241 meters) and 55 stories, it was the tallest structure in the world, with the exception of the Eiffel Tower.

"The Big Apple" is a nickname for New York City.  It derives from a horse racing reference to the ‘big apple’, which meant the biggest money prize. The phrase was first popularized in the 1920s by New York Morning Telegraph turf racing writer John J. Fitz Gerald. Jockeys and owners then called all competitions in New York City ‘the Big Apple’ as it was where the biggest prizes were awarded.

In 1925 New York was the largest city in the world by population with 7.7 million.

In 1954, The Times reported the top five attractions for tourists to New York were: the Statue of Liberty, the United Nations headquarters, Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building and Times Square

On July 13, 1977, New York City, amidst a period of financial and social turmoil experienced an electrical blackout. The shutdown lasted nearly 24 hours and it led to widespread fires, citywide looting and other disorders, including arson.

T-shirts commemorating the blackout were sold on the streets in the summer of 1977.

New York City in the 1970s was known as "Fear City" and a very blunt tourist notice was displayed in order to keep tourists from ending up in dangerous situations.

November 25, 2012 was the first day since 1960 that there was no reported murder or manslaughter in New York City. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) had been implementing a comprehensive crime reduction strategy known as CompStat, which focused on data-driven policing and accountability. This strategy had been instrumental in reducing crime rates throughout the city over the previous decade.

FUN NEW YORK CITY FACTS

Several buildings in Manhattan have their own zip code.

Despite how TV shows and movies depict it, New York only has a few alleys. Almost every alley scene is shot at the same location: Cortlandt Alley.

New York City is further south than Rome, Italy.

New York drifts about one inch farther away from London each year.

New York City is sinking at a rate of 1-2mm per year due to a combination of factors, including the weight of its skyscrapers causing the land to compress and sink. This is a process known as subsidence. Subsidence is natural and occurs over time, but it is being accelerated by the weight of the city's buildings.

Rising sea levels are also contributing to New York City's sinking. Sea levels are rising due to climate change, which is melting glaciers and ice sheets. As sea levels rise, the water puts more pressure on the coast, causing it to sink.

The Catholic Church is the largest land owner in New York City.

New York City has entire fake buildings that act as vents for the underground subway.

Washington Square Park, Bryant Park, Union Square Park and Madison Square Park were all cemeteries at one time. Washington Square Park alone contains over 20,000 bodies. Most of these cemeteries closed in the 1800’s, and the parks were built right on top.

There are no Walmart's operating within New York City's five boroughs.

New York City gets its nickname from the Big Apple Jazz Club in Harlem.

About 800 languages are spoken in New York, more than any other city.

The New York City borough of Queens holds the Guinness World Record for “most ethnically diverse urban area on the planet."

New York is home to the second largest Polish population. Warsaw is first.

If everyone lived as densely as they do in New York City, the entire human race could fit in New Zealand.

If New York City were its own country and the NYPD was its army, it would be the twentieth-best-funded army in the world.

At $1.5 trillion, the Greater New York area's contribution to the US economy not only outstrips all other regions in the Unites States, it also exceeds the GDP of all but 11 countries.

If the entire length of New York City's subway tracks—about 660 miles—were laid out end to end, they would reach Chicago.

There are 5.2 million trees in New York City, and tree canopies shade roughly twenty-five percent of the city.

New York City is one of four major cities in the United States whose drinking water is pure enough not to require purification by water treatment plants. The city is supplied with drinking water by the protected Catskill Mountains watershed.

Times Square in New York City is the world's third most-visited tourist attraction, behind The Zocalo in Mexico City and Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.

Here is a list of songs inspired by New York City

Source The Dictionary of Misinformation by Tom Burnam