New York – history, boroughs, immigration

¨NY history, boroughs, immigration

History :
• the New York Bay area had been inhabited for centuries by Native Americans; the first European to visit the area was an Italian navigator in the service of France, who landed there in 1524; Henry Hudson, whose expedition sailed under the Dutch flag, explored the Hudson River in 1609; the Dutch bought the island and called it New Amsterdam; later a wall against the Indians was biuld there, at a place of recent Wall street

• during the mid-17th century, further colonization of Manhattan Island took place, and other settlements were begun in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island; in 1664 the colony was surrendered to the English and renamed to New York

• during the War of Independence New York was for four years the capital of the country, the American Congress met in New York and George Washington was inaugurated as the first United States president here in 1789

• between 1820 and 1840, the immigrants, particularly Irish, German, Jewish, and Italian, began to arrive in large numbers; the city’s population more than doubled and by 1850 it had doubled again

• by the late 19th century the population was swelled by immigrants from southern and eastern Europe as well as from China; the Ellis Island, in upper New York Bay near Manhattan, is best known for the immigration centre located there between 1892 and 1954; an estimated 20 million immigrants passed through this island

• In 1904 construction of the complex underground transport system linking the boroughs was begun and integrated the boroughs into the pattern recognizable today; in the period during and after World War II, the city received numerous black immigrants, largely from the southern states; immigration from Puerto Rico and from other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America followed in the 1950s

City of NY :
• New York is subdivided into five boroughs; in descending order of area, the boroughs are Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Bronx, and Manhattan; almost all of the Bronx is situated on the mainland, but the other boroughs are situated on, or comprise, islands; in all, New York comprises some 50 islands

• when looking on the city plan, streets lay horizontally and avenues vertically; the exception is Broadway, which predates the plan and lays irregularly

Boroughs :
Queens – there are two international airports – La Guardia and John F. Kennedy, both are major air-cargo terminals

Bronx – famousfor the International Wildlife Conservation Park (commonly known as the Bronx Zoo), one of the world’s largest, and an Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees professional baseball team

Brooklyn – the most populous borough of New York City

Neighbourhoods :
Harlem – home to a predominantly black and Puerto Rican population, during the 1920s, black culture exploded on to the scene with the Harlem Renaissance movement in literature and with jazz

Greenwich Village – began to attract artists, writers, actors, and political theorists from all parts of America and Europe, and continues to provide a focus for café life
Chinatown – where Chinese immigrants began to settle in the 1850s
SoHo – a former warehouse and factory district

Sights in NY
The statue of liberty – was donated to the American people by France in 1886 as a symbol of French-American friendship and their alliance during the American revolution; it is located on Liberty Island

The financial district of Lower Manhattan – centred on Wall and Broad streets, includes the New York Stock Exchange, World Trade Center (one of the world’s tallest structures) and a United States Federal Reserve bank as well as other prominent banking, brokerage, and financial institutions

Empire State Building (1931) – the2nd highest building in New York with 2 observations and a restaurant on the top

St. Patrick – one of the most beautiful churches in USA in Gothic style

Broadway – the original Indian path, now a famous theater center

UN HQ – 39 -storey monolith structure of glass and steel

Rockefeller Center – the group of 21 buildings, mostly scyscrapers in Manhattan; consists of skating ring, gardens, promenades, statues, shops, restaurants …

Fifth and Madison avenues – in Manhattan, especially famous for their elegant shops

Skyscrapers dominate the skyline – the Flatiron Building, completed in 1902, was one of the first in the city; others include the Chrysler Building (1930), the Woolworth Building (1915), the Empire State Building (1931), the group of buildings that constitute (begun 1931), Rockefeller Center (begun 1931), and the World Trade Center (1977)

New York Public Library – with some 10 million volumes

Times Square – the hub of the city’s theatre district with more than 30 theatres
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts – a large cluster of buildings that includes the Metropolitan Opera House