50 Amazing and Interesting Facts about New York (Part 1) | Amazing Facts 4U
- New York City is not the largest city in the United States but is made up of five separate boroughs: Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Manhattan. The entire city is approximately 300 square miles in size.
- In New York City, more than 26,000 people live in each square mile.
- The first known name for Manhattan was New Amsterdam, which referred to the southern tip of Manhattan, a Dutch trading port. The first settlers arrived in 1624.
- The Island of Manhattan derives its name from the Native American tribe that lived in the area, called the Mannahatta.
- Dutch explorer Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan in 1626 (Actually its southern tip) from the Algonquin tribe for trinkets and tools worth about $24! (The modern equivalent of US $1000)
- The oldest standing building in New York City is the Wyckoff Farmhouse, originally built in 1652.
- In 1664, the English took the territory of New Amsterdam from the Dutch settlers living there. King Charles II named the territory New York after his brother the Duke of York and gave it to him as a gift.
- The winter of 1780 was so harsh in New York that New York harbor froze over. People could walk from Manhattan to Staten Island on the ice.
- Amazingly New York City was the U.S. capital from 1789 to 1790.
- The New York Post, established by Alexander Hamilton in 1803, is the longest-running newspaper in the United States.
- In 1848, the first women’s rights convention in the United States was held in Seneca Falls, NY, officially starting off the fight for women’s rights. Women would win the right to vote in New York in 1917.
- In 1857, toilet paper was invented by Joseph C. Gayetty in NYC.
- During the 1863 New York Draft Riots, the staff of The New York Times averted rioters that targeted newspaper with two Gatling guns; one of which was manned by Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, himself.
- France gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States in 1886 as a celebration of 100 years of U.S. independence and continued allegiance between the two countries. The statue was shipped as 350 pieces in 214 crates and took 4 months to assemble at its current home on New York’s Ellis Island.
- New York City buries its unclaimed bodies on an island off the coast of the Bronx called Hart Island. Since 1869, nearly a million bodies have been buried there. The island is not open to the public.
- Hog Island, a one-mile-long island south of Rockaway Beach, was never seen again after the hurricane of 1893. This is the only reported incidence ever of the removal of an entire island by a hurricane.
- In 1901, New York was the first state to require all automobiles to have license plates. However, the plates were not issued by the state but were made by the owner and were required to have the owner’s initials.
- Amazingly in 1906, the Bronx Zoo put an African man on exhibit in the monkey house.
- In 1926, New York City launched a cabaret law that requires any place that serves food or drink to get an additional permit to allow dancing. Without this license, it was illegal to dance on the premises and the law is still in effect today.
- The original Penn Railway Station was considered to be one of the most beautiful train stations in the world but was torn down because of declining rail usage.
- The Brooklyn Bridge was the first steel wire suspension bridge constructed, and the first to include electric lighting. It spans the East River to connect Brooklyn with Manhattan.
- The New York Stock Exchange is the largest exchange in the world. The second largest is the NASDAQ, which is also located in New York.Manhattan is home to the first commodity market in the world, called the New York Cotton Exchange, as well as the largest securities exchange in the world: The New York Stock Market.
- After WWII, the United Nations headquarters was established in New York City in 1952.
- By the beginning of the 20th Century, the population of New York City was over 3 million.
- In 1920, a horse-drawn carriage filled with explosives was detonated on Wall Street killing 30 people. No one was ever caught, and it is considered to be one of the first acts of domestic terrorism.
- Currently New York city has about 8.4 million population. This represents more than one-third of the entire state’s population. The population of the entire metro New York City area is close to 19 million.
- New York City’s population is approximately 44 percent white, 25 percent African American and 28 percent Hispanic.
- With over 800 languages spoken by a significant portion of the population, New York City is the most linguistically diverse city in the world.
- Normally home to about 1.5 million residents, Manhattan’s population nearly doubles during the work week, when an additional 1.5 million commuters come to the island.
- New York City has more people than 39 of the 50 states in the U.S.
- New York City has the largest Chinese population of any city outside of Asia. Chinatown is the world’s largest Chinese society in the Western Hemisphere.
- New York City is the city with the largest Polish population after Warsaw.The Jewish population in NYC is the largest in the world outside of Israel.
- The Empire State Building was the world’s tallest structure from its construction in 1931 until 1972. The Empire State building has its own zip code.
- When the skies are clear, you can see up to 80 miles from the top of the Empire State Building. You can see five states including: New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
- Central Park is one of the largest urban parks in the world. Encompassing over 800 acres, drawing over 35 million annual visitors. It is larger than the principality of Monaco.
- Times Square, which is sometimes known as the “Center of the Universe,” is one of the most iconic and popular places in New York City. Name comes after the New York Times stationed there.
- It takes amazing 75,000 trees to print a Sunday edition of the New York Times.
- Approximately 1/3 of all New York City residents live at or below the poverty line. Approximately 6 percent of New York City residents have an income that is more than 10 times the poverty level.
- 1 out of every 21 New Yorkers is a millionaire.
- New York has approximately 50,000 homeless people.
- Amazingly New Yorkers travel an average of 40 minutes to work each day.
- The New York City Council consists of 51 members and is the legislative branch of city.
- The average sale price of an apartment in Manhattan is about $1.5 million.
- New York’s Yellow Cabs are yellow because John Hertz, the company’s founder, learned from a study that yellow was the easiest color for the eye to spot. He was right.
- The Federal Reserve Bank on New York’s Wall Street contains vaults that are located 80 feet beneath the bank and probably hold about 25 percent of the world’s gold bullion.
- 56 million international and domestic visitors come to New York City every year spending about $17 billion.
- The average daily room rate in New York hotels is about $275.
- More than 250 feature films are shot on location in New York City each year.
- More than 12,700 licensed medallion taxis work the streets of New York City.
- More than 18,600 restaurants and eating establishments do business in New York City, and the average cost of a dinner is about $40.
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