photo by gusto

Manhattan, or “The Big Apple,” is a unique city. Its skyline, residents, and place as a world center of finance, commerce, business, and culture account for this city’s high energy and extremely high profile. New York is also home to the United Nations. New Yorkers—there are some 8 million (20 million over the greater metro area)—are themselves unique. Character, backbone, stamina, persistence, and a will to survive are required to deal with seething extremes of environment, fierce competition, lack of personal space, and the stress and strains that the constant barrages on the senses bring. In short, New York is one of the most and least civilized cities in the world. New York City is in southeastern New York State, just east of New Jersey. It is made up of Manhattan and Staten Islands, the southern tip of the state’s mainland—the Bronx—and the western tip of Long Island—Brooklyn and Queens. Each of these five districts is known as a borough. From within the greater metro area—an area encompassing parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—a trip to “the city” invariably refers to a visit to any of the boroughs. In the boroughs, however, “New York” or “the city” strictly refers to Manhattan.

The Hudson River runs south, between New Jersey and Manhattan, into the Upper Bay. The Long Island Sound merges into the East Flushing Bay and then along the east side as the East River, passing under the Brooklyn Bridge. The East River then flows into the Upper Bay. Where Staten Island and Brooklyn are closest—the Narrows—the bay becomes the Lower Bay, and then the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean moderates the climate, and the harbor here is one of the largest in the world. It is also ice-free year-round. New York City is the largest city in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. The five boroughs together cover 309 square miles. Population is more dense here than in any other city in the world except for Tokyo, Mexico City, and Sao Paulo.

Four of the five boroughs have populations larger than many of the nation’s major cities. New York has been the most ethnically diverse city in the world since 1640. Even then, the city’s 1,000 residents conversed in more than 15 languages. By 1880, half of the working population was made up of immigrants. Today, about 40 percent of the population is foreign-born.

History

Native Americans of the Algonquian tribe were the original inhabitants along the East Coast from North Carolina to Canada. Subtribes and local groups, including the Reckgawawanc, Canarsee, and Matinecock, planted corn and tobacco, and enjoyed the abundant fish and game. The Canarsees settled in Brooklyn in areas known today as Gowanus, Sheepshead Bay, Flatlands, and Canarsie. In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazano sailed the narrows, into the Lower Bay, on the Delfina. His reports to King Francis I of France, the backer of the expedition, told of friendly natives running up to the shoreline with open arms, but storms caused the ship to retreat.In 1598 a small band of Dutch traders built two small forts on the southern tip of Manhattan and in 1609 English explorer Henry Hudson arrived in the New York Harbor. Being ice-free all year-round and having abundant natural resources such as beaver and mink appealed to the Dutch East India Company. It established a permanent Dutch settlement here in 1624. In 1626, Dutch colonial governor Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan for 60 guilders (around $24) from the Canarsees, who believed that what they were selling was the right to use the land, not the land itself. War broke out and by 1645 the Native American population was eliminated.

In 1647, police and fire protection began, the first hospital was built, and cobblestone streets replaced dirt roads under the administration of Governor Peter Stuyvesant. In 1664 the English, who had established a very strong presence in New England, captured the settlement from the Dutch and renamed it New York for the Duke of York, the brother of King Charles II of Britain, later crowned King James II of England. During the American Revolution, after the British were driven out of Boston, General George Washington moved his headquarters to New York City. He retreated to Manhattan after the British won the Battle of Long Island, and then to New Jersey as they took control of Manhattan. This became their army headquarters and served as an incarceration center for the duration of the war. In 1783 the last of the troops left the city. From 1785 to 1790 New York City was the capital of the United States, and the capital of New York State until 1797.

The first Congress of the United States was held here in 1789, and in the same year George Washington was sworn in as president. The city transformed into the wealthiest and largest community in the new republic. The harbor, the inland water route—the Hudson River and, in 1825, the Erie Canal—gave New York merchants access to coastal North America, midwestern markets, and the West Indies and Europe. The busiest port in the world throughout the nineteenth century, the city handled more than 70 percent of the nation’s foreign trade. It was also the destination of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many from Ireland and Germany. In 1811, the grid system of streets was established, with twelve 100-foot-wide avenues and 155 consecutively numbered streets. Gas illumination in 1825 and electric lighting in the 1880s transformed the city, as did the opening, in 1842, of the Croton Aqueduct Water System, the world’s largest municipal water system. Innovations included horse-drawn carriages by the 1850s, electric trolleys (1890s), elevated trains (1870s), and the first subway (1904).

The Academy of Music opened in 1854, Central Park in 1859, 20 theaters by the 1860s, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870, the Metropolitan Opera House in 1883, and the New York Public Library in 1895. In 1898 all boroughs were incorporated into the city. By 1870 New York had its first apartment building, and by 1902, its first skyscraper, the 21- story Flatiron Building. From the 1890s to World War II is known as the “Golden Age.” In 1892, 1,265 millionaires lived here. By 1895 more than 300 companies worth more than $1 million were here. Wall Street attracted investment bankers such as J.P. Morgan and August Belmont, oil baron John D. Rockefeller, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and retailer F. W. Woolworth. High society revolved around the Astor ballroom. Those fortunate enough to enter were known as the “Four Hundred,” the number of occupants Mrs Astor’s ballroom held.

At the other end of society, hundreds of poor working families lived in crowded tenements and slums in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In 1900, the Lower East Side of Manhattan had a population density equal to that of Bombay today. With transportation, many began to move out into the surrounding areas. New York continued as a leading center of commerce. Immigration laws of 1921 and 1924 slowed the influx of immigrants, as African-Americans, mostly from the rural south, arrived in droves. Many settled in Harlem, which became the center of African- American culture. The Harlem Renaissance during this period attracted jazz luminaries Duke Ellington and Chick Webb, as well as writers and intellectuals. After the stock market crash of 1929, the Depression began. One in four New Yorkers was unemployed, and shantytowns known as “Hoovervilles” filled Central Park. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, together with Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, cleaned up the city and set in place a public works program of massive scope.

By 1940 the city was at its peak. Thereafter, downward shifts in heavy industry and shipping caused recession and social unrest. At the same time, cultural growth took place. In 1959 the Guggenheim Museum opened and Lincoln Center opened in the 1960s. Broadway theaters were producing hit shows and television and publishing industries were booming. By 1975 the city was bankrupt. Mayor Ed Koch, elected in 1978, helped get the economy back on track. During his tenure, Trump Tower and the World Financial Center were built. Later mayors included David Dinkins, Rudolf Giuliani, and Mike Bloomberg.

Immigrants are yet again changing the face of the city, and are arriving from all over the world. Today the city is a thriving metropolis with perhaps a richer social fabric than any other city.

Manhattan

Manhattan Island is the oldest, densest, most builtup, and smallest borough. It covers 28 square miles and is 12 miles long and 3 miles wide. The grid pattern of streets—running east to west—and avenues—running north to south—with an efficient, inexpensive subway system make it one of the easiest cities to navigate. Population peaked in 1910 at 2.3 million. In 1980 it was about 1.4 million, and today is closer to 1.5 million. One-third of the residents are Hispanic.

The area south of 14th Street is called downtown. Midtown is the area between 34th and 59th Streets, and uptown is north of 59th Street and is primarily an office district. It is home to Times Square, the center of the bustling theater district. Downtown is the hip, cool, and trendsetting area that includes the bohemian Greenwich Village, artsy SoHo (South of Houston), Chelsea, and tiny Gramercy Park. Lower Manhattan is the area south of Canal Street. Battery Park City is a residential area here. Lower Manhattan is also home to a large number of Italians (Little Italy and NoLita—North of Little Italy), Chinese (Chinatown), and Hispanics. Tribeca (the Triangle Below Canal) and Alphabet City are here as well. The East Side is east of 5th Avenue, and the West Side is west of 5th. The Upper East and Upper West Side neighborhoods flank the east and west borders of Central Park and are a mix of residential and commercial properties. Museum Mile is in the Upper East Side. Hispanics and African-Americans dominate the northern Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem, Inwood, and Washington Heights.

The hub of New York City’s public transportation system of rapid buses and subways is here. Bridges and tunnels enable vehicular access. These are the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, and Queensboro Bridges over the East River; the Triborough Bridge connecting to the Bronx and Queens; the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River to New Jersey; and the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels under the Hudson to New Jersey; and the Queens- Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels under the East River. Drivers will find unusually challenging situations, and parking is ridiculously expensive. Walking within neighborhoods and connecting between them by subway in business hours is the best way to experience the city. Bus, helicopter, boat, walking, and other tours are available. Manhattan is the epicenter of New York City, and a leading center of commerce, finance, manufacturing, culture, medicine, tourism, and education. The New York Public Library is one of the world’s leading research facilities. Manhattan is a leading center for international and domestic trade, radio and television broadcasting, insurance, and advertising, and is the headquarters of many large corporations. The nation’s largest banks, brokerage houses, and other financial institutions, including the New York and American Stock Exchanges, are here. The nation’s finest theater district is here, as are such prominent music and dance organizations as the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Philharmonic Society of New York, the American Ballet Theater, and the New York City Ballet. Museums include the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), the Whitney, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), and many others. Nearby attractions include the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island National Monument. New York’s nightlife is unparalleled anywhere in the nation. Manhattan has one of the world’s most exciting restaurant scenes.

Central Park has 840 acres and is the island’s largest park.It runs from 59th to 110th Streets between 5th Avenue and Central Park West. It has a zoo, built in 1864, now known as the Central Park Wildlife Conservation Center; an openair theater; lakes; a reservoir; and recreational facilities. This park is popular for horse-and-buggy rides, strolling, hiking, sunbathing, and for playing soccer, softball, and baseball. Don’t enter alone after dark. Other city parks include Battery, Washington Square, Riverside, and Fort Tyron, home of the Cloisters, a medieval art museum. Manhattan barrages the senses from all points. Algonquian peoples gave the name “island of hills,” or Manhattan, to what is better known today as “the City That Never Sleeps.” It is as empowering as it is debilitating. Visitors can have whatever they want whenever they want, for a price. It is easier to spend money, and in large amounts, here than anywhere else in the world, whether for clothing, art, or lodging— anything you could possibly imagine. The best of the best is easily had, as is the worst of the worst. Hustlers set up shop in front of Saks Fifth Avenue and trade your money for card tricks and fake Rolex watches. One is either hustling or being hustled, insulting or being insulted, surviving with street smarts or providing the wolves with another easy mark. New Yorkers have “eyes in the backs of their heads,” and for good reason. At all times they must be aware of their immediate environment.

As in any big city, certain precautions are advised, especially against muggers and pickpockets. Do not make eye contact while riding on buses or subways, do not wear flashy or expensive jewelry or carry expensive accessories, and if the streets get lonely, walk as close to car traffic as you can. Neighborhoods go from relatively safe to downright frightening within distances as short as one city block.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn makes up Kings County and is the second-largest and most populous of the five boroughs, with a population of about 2.5 million.It covers about 71 square miles of the southwest tip of Long Island and sits across the East River from Manhattan.It has a total water frontage of about 200 miles, has an extensive deepwater harbor facility, and is an important industrial center.Brooklyn has a strong identity of its own, with more than 28 unique neighborhoods. Bedford-Stuyvesant is the largest African-American community in the nation and Orthodox Jews live in Williamsburgh, Crown Heights, and Borough Park. The principal business district is between Brooklyn Heights and Flatbush Avenue. An extensive park system covers 4,170 acres and includes Prospect Park, a vast landscaped area of lakes and forests with a restored 1912 carousel, and the Lefferts Homestead, a 1783 Dutch Colonial farmhouse. Along the coast is the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The Brooklyn Marine Park is also on Jamaica Bay, and the Dyker Beach Park adjoins Fort Hamilton, an army reservation.Attractions include the Brooklyn Bridge and the Fulton Ferry Historic District, the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Aquarium, Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and the Coney Island beaches, aquarium, amusement park, and boardwalk. Coney Island was once an island but has been made into a peninsula.The “Brooklyn Fold” is the way to eat pizza here. Pick up a large slice, fold it down the center, hold it above your mouth to catch the drips, and take a bite.

Queens

Queens is the largest borough, covering 109 square miles and, with Brooklyn to the south, forms the western end of Long Island. Industrial activities, including transportation, distribution, and manufacturing, are centered in Long Island City, Maspeth, and College Point. Two of the world’s busiest airports are located here—La Guardia and John F. Kennedy International.Queens is a large residential center that is ethnically diverse. Its population of about 2.1 million is clustered into highly individual neighborhoods, each with their own strong sense of identity. Astoria is Greek; Woodside is Irish; Maspeth and Ridgewood are Italian; South Jamaica, Hollis, Cambria Heights, and St Albans are African-American; Forest Hills is Jewish; and Flushing, Corona, and Elmhurst are Asian. Asian-Americans make up one-fifth of the population. Jackson Heights is mixed Latino and Asian. Douglaston, Forest Hill Gardens, and Kew Gardens are upper-crust suburban neighborhoods. Two historic buildings of note are in Flushing— the Bowne House, built in 1661, and the Society of Friends (Quaker) Meeting House, which was built in 1696. The First Presbyterian Church, dating to 1662, is in Jamaica, and the 1732 colonial Onderdonk Farmhouse is in Maspeth.The Queens Museum, American Museum of the Moving Image, New York Hall of Science, Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, Queens County Farm Museum, and the Jamaica Artist Center are here. Also here is Shea Stadium and the National Tennis Center, site of the annual US Open tennis tournament, and the Aqueduct Racetrack, a thoroughbred horse-racing facility in Ozone Park. The Queens Wildlife Conservation Center and the Queens Botanic Garden are in Flushing.More than 6,400 acres are devoted to parkland, including Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, site of the World’s Fairs in 1934-35 and 1964-65, and Forest, Cunningham, Alley, Kissena, and Highland Parks. Queens offers 10 miles of ocean beaches on the Rockaway Peninsula, a favorite retreat for city dwellers. Part of the Gateway National Recreation Area lies on the Queens County side of Jamaica Bay. Queens has more cemeteries (2.5 million burial sites) than any other city in the nation.

Bronx

The Bronx, which makes up Bronx County, is the northernmost borough and the only one on the US mainland. Covering 42 square miles, it has water on three sides—Long Island Sound to the east, the Harlem and Hudson Rivers to the west, and the East River to the south. The largest produce market in the Northeast is here, with shipping and a small pocket of industry. Largely residential, the Bronx is often associated with the slums in the South Bronx. About half of the borough’s 1.3 million residents are Hispanic.The Bronx has two of the nation’s largest housing projects. Parkchester houses 40,000, and the resident-owned Co-op City houses 50,000. Belmont is an Italian neighborhood; Italian restaurants here are a throwback to the 1960s, and the streets are lined with Italian delicatessens and bakeries. Riverdale, on the Hudson River, and Fieldston are affluent areas with large estates, though most of the affluent eventually move north to Westchester or out to Long Island. Other neighborhoods include Mott Haven, Morrisania, and Kingsbridge.New York City’s biggest parks are in the Bronx, covering 5,800 acres, or one-fifth of the landmass. Bronx Park is home to the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo (International Wildlife Conservation Park). Pelham Bay Park with Orchard Beach on the Long Island Sound and Van Cortlandt Park are also popular. Yankee Stadium, home to the World Series-winning New York Yankees, is also here. Other attractions include the Bronx Museum of the Arts; Poe Cottage, home to Edgar Allan Poe and his wife in 1846; Fonthill Castle; and City Island, a former fishing village that has managed to retain its charm. Several of the America’s Cup sailboats were built here. Don’t explore the South Bronx. Drive straight through it (or better yet, take the subway). Though the area is improving, it is still unsafe.

Staten Island

Staten Island makes up Richmond County and is a large residential district covering about 59 square miles. The southernmost borough, it has about 380,000 residents and is the most rural. Only one bridge— the Verrazano Narrows to Brooklyn— and the Staten Island Ferry connect Staten Island to the rest of New York City. Staten Island Rapid Transit trains are the best way to explore as buses are slow.Many of the 600,000 residents have requested secession from the city. It is physically closer to New Jersey. The Goethals, Bayonne, and Outerbridge Crossing Bridges connect over the narrow Arthur Kill to New Jersey. Mariner’s Harbor is the industrial center, and shipping and oil-refining activities take place on the north and northeastern shores. Residents are mostly middle- to lower-middleclass whites. They live in the city’s large concentration of singlefamily and owneroccupied housing.Attractions include Historic Richmond Town; Snug Harbor Cultural Center, with the adjoining botanical garden; the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art; the Staten Island Children’s Museum; the Alice Austen House; the Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences; the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum; the Staten Island Zoo; and perhaps the Big Apple’s best deal—the Staten Island Ferry.

The Staten Island Nature Preserve is a 2,500-acre greenbelt in the center of the island and offers two hiking trails. Do not enter unescorted. The rambling home used by Francis Ford Coppola as the Corleone family estate in The Godfather is in Todt Hill, an affluent neighborhood and the city’s highest point. There are also small islands in the waters of New York City. Two such islands, Liberty and Ellis Islands, make up the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Ellis Island was the reception center for immigrants from 1892 to 1924—about 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island. The island was reopened to the public in 1990 and is now the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, with many of the buildings restored to their original condition. Liberty Island is about 12 acres and is home to the world-famous copper sculpture, the Statue of Liberty. Ferries to the statue leave from Battery Park and take about 15 minutes.

Transportation

Three major international airports serve New York City. Newark International in New Jersey is small and offers fewer flights but is the closest to Manhattan. Its fares are often substantially lower. La Guardia and John F. Kennedy International are both in Queens. A subway to Howard Beach connects with a free airport shuttle bus to Kennedy. Allow plenty of extra time for traffic in rush hour and on weekend evenings as the “bridge and tunnel” crowd descends on Manhattan. Cars are a nuisance, especially in Manhattan. Driving here is not for the timid. The New York City Transit Authority operates an extensive network of subways and buses connecting Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, while the Staten Island Ferry connects to Staten Island. Subways are the quickest, cheapest, and most efficient way of getting around. They cover 714 miles and run 24 hours. A taxicab ride of a few blocks may take much longer than a few minutes if traffic is gridlocked. The best way to explore individual neighborhoods is on foot.