New York City, New York

New York City is one of the wealthiest, largest, and best-known cities in the world. It is the largest city in the United States, as well as one of the richest and most cosmopolitan. Though it is not the state capital (that honor goes to Albany), New York City dominates politics not only throughout New York State but also the region. In some respects, New York has become the quintessential American big city, with its skyline and landmarks made famous in countless books, movies, and television shows.

Located at the mouth of the Hudson River, on the Atlantic Coast, the city was originally a Dutch colony known as New Amsterdam (established 1614). The British seized the colony in 1664, renaming it New York in honor of their king's brother, the Duke of York.

New York City is the home of much of the US mass communication industry, particularly publishing and broadcasting. It is also a major center for financial and professional services. New York City remains an important site for light manufacturing. Theater, fashion, and tourism are other important industries.

The city is one of the nation's most important transportation hubs. The Port of New York and New Jersey is one of the largest in the country, handling commerce from all over the world.

Landscape

New York stretches over approximately 302 square miles, which covers five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The city is defined in large part by rivers; the city sits at the mouth of the Hudson, which flows southward from upstate New York. As the city includes several islands (Manhattan, Staten), New York is bound together by its bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The city is linked to neighboring New Jersey by the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge.

Although highly developed, much of the city remains as green space, including more than 1,700 public parks (more than 30,000 acres) across the five boroughs. The most famous is Central Park, designed in the 1850s by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and covering 843 acres. However, the city's largest park is the Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, which features a thirteen-mile shoreline along Long Island Sound. The city's streets are laid out in a grid pattern, as dictated by the state legislature in 1811. This has not only made the immense city easier to navigate but has also dictated the size and placement of its large buildings and skyscrapers.

Lower Manhattan is home to some of the world's tallest buildings. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, destroyed the World Trade Center, built in the 1970s. Construction began at the site of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in 2006, and the 9/11 Memorial was opened to the public in September 2011.

People

With more than 8.478 million inhabitants (according to a US Census Bureau American Community Survey 2024 estimate), New York City is the nation's most populous city. It is also a city of remarkable ethnic, racial, and religious diversity, due to New York's status as the most important East Coast port of entry for immigrants. According to 2019–23 estimates, more than 36.5 percent of the city's inhabitants were born in other countries.

Much of the city's growth came following the American Civil War, as immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe sought better lives in the United States. In the twentieth century, a large number of African Americans moved northward to New York to escape Jim Crow laws and widespread racial segregation in the South. During the 1920s, they established the cultural movement known as the "Harlem Renaissance," producing many significant works of literature, art, and music (particularly jazz) in the process. Hispanic, Asian, and African immigration all became important in the twentieth century. This diversity is reflected today in New York's many distinct neighborhoods, such as Chinatown, Little Italy, Greenwich Village, and others.

No single ethnic or racial group dominates New York's population. According to 2024 ACS estimates, White people make up 30.7 percent of the population, representing a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. The Black population comprises 20 percent of the population. Other major groups include Hispanic or Latino people (28.7 percent) of any race and Asian Americans (15.1 percent). About 11.6 percent of the population claim two or more races.

New Yorkers are known for their immense loyalty to their home city, as shown in the number of songs, movies, books, and plays in which the city itself appears as a central character. One important example is the song "New York, New York," which became a popular standard as performed by Frank Sinatra. Another is the 2009 hit song "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

According to a May 2019 article in the New York Times, the US Census Bureau reported in April 2019 that New York City's population had decreased in 2017 and 2018 and that such outflows were occurring in eight out of ten of the nation's largest metropolitan areas and in thirty of its forty-four largest counties. According to the article, although the cities are "hotbeds of innovation and economic activity," they do not provide workers with different levels of education the same level of opportunity. In the mid-to-late twentieth century, workers with only a high school education could earn more working in a large city than they could in other areas. In the twenty-first century, workers without four-year college degrees found that their wages in the city had decreased while the cost of living in the city had increased. However, the population of New York City increased by 629,057 people, a record high, from 2010 to 2020. The population continued increasing into the mid-2020s.

Economy

The New York City metro area is the largest urban economy in the world. The city's gross domestic product was steadily increased from 2001 to 2023, when it reached $1.91 trillion. It is the nation's chief financial market, as well as the center of the US broadcasting industry. Other important industries are health care, professional business services, real estate, fashion, entertainment, trade and transportation, and technology. The tourism industry gained new strength in the 1990s due to a reduction in the city's crime rate. Although Mayor Rudolph Giuliani took and was given credit for the 56 percent decrease in the city's violent crime rate during his eight-year tenure, independent studies have not been able to link the transformation to his administration's policing tactics and policies. His campaign to clean up and redevelop Times Square was met with praise from businesses and tourists, while many New York residents criticized what they saw as the homogenization of the city's unique character and culture.

The city's economy suffered somewhat following the terrorist attacks of September 2001. The World Trade Center was home to many international firms, which lost not only their records but also many employees in the attacks. Tourism also suffered a decline following the attacks, but New York City has been attracting increasing numbers of tourists each year in the decades following the attack.

Landmarks

New York is home to some of the world's most recognizable landmarks. These include skyscrapers such as the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings. Before their destruction in the September 2001 attacks, the World Trade Center's twin towers were among the world's tallest structures. The One World Trade Center was built on the site of the former World Trade Center, becoming the tallest building in the US on its completion in 2012. Famous New York churches include St. Patrick's Cathedral (Roman Catholic), St. John the Divine (Episcopalian), and Trinity Church, Wall Street (Episcopalian). Another highly recognizable landmark is the statue of twin stone lions in front of the New York Public Library.

Although the Statue of Liberty, located in New York Harbor, is shared with nearby New Jersey, it is a popular attraction for tourists visiting the city. An image of the statue appears on New York's automobile license plates.

Sports landmarks include Yankee Stadium, known as "The House That Ruth Built," home to the New York Yankees baseball team.

History

Before European colonization of what is now New York City, the region was part of lands inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, also known as the Leni Lenape, Lenape, and Delaware people. The Dutch West India Company (DWI) established New Amsterdam as the capital of the colony of New Netherland in 1625. According to a DWI internal communication, in 1626, Peter Minuit, New Netherland's first director general, made a deal with leaders of local Lenape tribes regarding land rights to Manhattan Island. Many of the details of the transaction remain unclear, however, due to the lack of historical evidence.

The British seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664 and renamed it New York in honor of the Duke of York (later King James II of Great Britain). Settlement grew, though New York's semifeudalistic government hindered the rise of democratic institutions as in New England. During the Revolution, New York City was a stronghold of Tory (pro-British) sentiment.

New York City served as the capital of the United States from 1785 to 1790, when the government moved to Philadelphia. Congress met in the old New York City Hall.

New York began its rise to political and economic dominance with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825. This western waterway allowed New York to ship its goods westward, creating huge new markets. The city also flourished due to the growth of the railroads, especially from the 1830s onward. By the time of the American Civil War, New York had cemented its position as a major metropolis. In the postwar era, the city became the major financial center of the United States, with the term "Wall Street" coming to symbolize high finance in general.

During the two World Wars in the twentieth century, New York provided financial and manufacturing muscle to defeat the nation's enemies.

New York has come to symbolize the economic power, energy, and drive of the United States and its people. Thousands of immigrants arrive in New York City each year, though instead of arriving at Ellis Island they often now step out at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, against the World Trade Center brought forth an immense outpouring of support from around the world and dramatically altered the cityscape. However, New Yorkers demonstrated their resilience following the attacks and throughout the construction of the 9/11 Memorial.

Following the global financial crisis that began in late 2007, a protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street began gathering in August 2011 in New York City's Zuccotti Park, near the Wall Street financial district, to protest the mismanagement of American financial institutions. The Occupy Wall Street movement ultimately inspired protests across the United States and the world and drew widespread attention to growing economic inequality in the United States and the influence of corporations in US politics.

The 2025 mayoral race drew national attention leading up to the primary elections in June of that year. Major focus was on former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and newcomer and assemblymember Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani went on to win the primary election and the general election. He won the general election with over half of the votes, and the election saw record-breaking voter turnout for a mayoral election, namely due to younger voters. When Mamdani is sworn into office in January 2026, he will be New York City's first South Asian and first Muslim mayor, as well as the city's youngest mayor since 1982.

Trivia

• New York expanded rapidly in the late 19th century, in part through annexation. In 1898, the city of Greater New York was created. This included the formerly independent city of Brooklyn, which became a borough.
• The New York Yankees baseball team was originally known as the New York Highlanders. The team arrived from Baltimore in 1903, where it had been known as the Baltimore Orioles.
• The two towers of the World Trade Center, once the world's tallest buildings, were destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
• New York has often served as the model for numerous fictitious big cities, including in the comics. Batman's fictional "Gotham City" and Superman's "Metropolis" both parallel the city on the Hudson.

Bibliography

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