25 facts about Empire State Building
At the time of its completion, it was the only building in the world with more than 100 floors. It was the tallest building on Earth for 41 years. Con ...
Manhattan is the place where New York was born. Although it is its smallest district, it serves as the economic and administrative center of the city, as well as the world capital of culture, finance, media, and entertainment. Real estate in Manhattan is among the most expensive in the world, and the value of the island in 2013 was estimated at over $3 trillion.
Copyright: 2010 Andrew Mace
It is also the most densely populated district in New York. 1.628.701 people live in an area of 87 square kilometers, the population density is 26.821 people per square kilometer.
It is also a county in the state of New York, which, apart from Manhattan, includes several smaller islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall’s Island, Wards Island, Liberty Island, Ellis Island Mill Rock, and U Thant Island, as well as Marble Hill-the part of the county located in the mainland, separated from the rest of Manhattan by the Harlem Ship Canal and later connected to the Bronx.
The county’s area coincides with New York County, one of the original counties of the US state of New York.
Its area is 58.8 square kilometers. Manhattan Island is bounded by the Hudson River on the west and the East River on the east. To the north, the Harlem River separates the island from the Bronx and the continental United States. New York Bay is located south of Manhattan.
During the construction of the World Trade Center in 1968, 917.000 cubic meters of material was excavated from the construction site and used to widen the shoreline, creating Battery Park City - a housing estate.
Marble Hill was once part of Manhattan, but in 1895, to improve navigation on the Harlem River, the Harlem River Ship Canal was dug. This canal separated Marble Hill from Manhattan, creating an island between the Bronx and the rest of Manhattan.
Before World War I, this canal was filled in, and Marble Hill became part of the mainland.
The local Indians called this place “Manna Hata” or the island of Many Hills.
Four years later, the first Dutch settlers appeared on the island. The permanent presence of the Dutch in this area, which was then called New Netherland, began in 1624 with the establishment of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island.
In 1625, construction began on Fort Amsterdam in what is now Lower Manhattan, later called New Amsterdam. This fact is considered to be the birth of New York.
For the opportunity for settlers from the Netherlands to settle on the island, the Indians received some monetary equivalent from the colony’s governor, Peter Minuit. It is said that they were beads and other trinkets worth $24, but there is no documentation to prove this.
The first slaves began to be brought there, and soon a market was established where they were sold. In the years 1643-1645, battles with Indians took place there. To separate themselves from the Indians, the Dutch built a large fence (wall) to protect against attacks. The route running along the fence was called Wall Street-today this name is one of the most famous streets in Manhattan.
In honor of Henry Hudson, the river flowing around Manhattan from the west was named after him.
Under English rule, the city grew rapidly. In 1700 it housed 5000 inhabitants.
The 341-hectare park is the most visited urban park in the United States (42 million people) and the most filmed location in the world.
The park is designed in the English style. It has many extensive meadows, several hills, and pedestrian paths. The park’s greatest advantage is the large number of trees (26.000), almost completely covering the city buildings. The park is also attractive in terms of sports and recreation, there are many playgrounds for children, as well as a small zoo-Central Park Zoo.
Among several dozen monuments, the largest and most impressive is the monument to King Władysław Jagiełło of Poland, erected in 1945.
In 1981, one of the most famous concerts in the history of pop music took place in Central Park, played by the duo Simon & Garfunkel.
The skyline of New York, the largest city in the United States, is made up of 5818 skyscrapers, including 92 buildings at least 183 meters high. The tallest of them is the Freedom Tower, opened in 2014, located I the center of Manhattan (541.3 meters).
A special place is occupied by the Empire State Building, which was the 17th tallest building in the world (from the moment it was commissioned, it was the tallest building in the world until 1972).
The tallest skyscrapers are Central Park Tower, 111 West 57th Street, One Vanderbilt, 432 Park Avenue, and others.
In place of the WTC office buildings destroyed in the attack, a complex of four skyscrapers was built. One of them, 1 World Trade Center (formerly called Freedom Tower), was opened on 3rd November 2014. Its height is 541 meters (or 1776 feet), which symbolically marks the date of the United States Declaration of Independence - it is the tallest building in the United States.
It is one of the world’s leading centers for banking, finance, and communications. The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street is located there, Many of the world's largest corporations are headquartered in Manhattan.
The district had 46.5 million square meters of office space in 2015, making it the largest office market in the US. Manhattan is the largest central business district in the world. It is distinguished by a large concentration of companies from the sector of advanced services in the fields of law, accounting, banking, and management consulting.
It is the world’s leading center for the advertising industry, which is called “Madison Avenue.” It is also the country’s outstanding art center.
The district is also home to the headquarters of the New York Daily News and the New York Post, as well as The Wall Street Journal - the largest circulation newspaper in the country.
The four major American broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, as well as Univision, are headquartered in Manhattan.
It is home to the New York Public Library, which has the largest book collection of any public library system in the country.
Broadway theater is considered the highest professional form of theater in the US. Manhattan is also home to the most extensive art collections in the world, both contemporary and classical, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Frick Collection, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and those designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Guggenheim Museum. There are many art galleries on the Upper East Side, and downtown Chelsea has over 200.
