New York City
From Conservapedia
New York City, officially City of New York, is a city and metropolitan area in the state of New York, located on the easter coast of the United States of America. With a population of 8,140,000 as in 2005, it is the most populous city in the United States. The city is divided into five different areas, called boroughs. Manhattan, the first of the boroughs, is the financial and commercial center of the city. Brooklyn is the most populous of the boroughs, and Queens is the largest in area. The other two boroughs are Staten Island and the Bronx. The modern city was formed in 1898 through a merger of the original New York City with Brooklyn.
New York is the cultural capital of the United States; it has global importance in fashion, finance, news, diplomacy, education, medicine and arts. The city is an important tourist destination. It contains many landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan, and many others. The city (along with its #2 rival Chicago) invented the skyscraper, and still has some of the tallest buildings in the world, like Empire State Building; the World Trade Center towers, which were destroyed by terrorists in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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Boroughs
Each of New York City's boroughs is coterminous a county in the State of New York. The five boroughs are:
- Manhattan (New York County)
- Brooklyn (Kings County)
- Queens (Queens County)
- The Bronx (Bronx County)
- Staten Island (Richmond County)
All of the non-Manhattan boroughs are sometimes referred to collectively as "the outer boroughs" as they are arranged in a sort of semicircle around Manhattan; also, they are often perceived as less politically and culturally significant than Manhattan, which is among the United States' top cultural and economic centers. The four non-Manhattan boroughs were also added to New York City after Manhattan.
Many places have been proposed as "Sixth Boroughs," which can carry a different meaning depending on who is asked. Some areas often cited as "Sixth Boroughs" include:
- Hudson County, New Jersey
- Nassau County, Long Island, New York
- Westchester County, New York
- Newark, New Jersey
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
History
New York City was formerly named New Amsterdam, in recognition of the original Dutch settlement of the area. It was not the largest city in the colonies (Boston, then Philadelphia, held those honors). But after the completion of the Erie Canal, New York City became a trading center connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes and Midwest.
The use of Ellis Island as the checkpoint for millions of European immigrants in the late 1800s caused New York City's population to swell, as many settled in nearby areas.
Politics
New York City is historically considered a liberal city, with the majority of the population voting Democratic. However, the mayor has recently been Republican (Rudy Giuliani) or independent (Michael Bloomberg).
Culture
New York City is home to top-notch museums in art, architecture, photography, natural history, television, radio and technology, like: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Frick Collection, the National Design Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts. [1]
Featured cultural sites are:
•Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
•Carnegie Hall
•Radio City Music Hall
•Hayden Planetarium
•New York Aquarium
•The Morgan Library
•New York Public Library
•Rose Center for Earth and Space
•International Center of Photography
•Empire State Building Lobby Gallery
•SculptureCenter
•Museum of Biblical Art
•Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences
•Center for Architecture
•Studio Museum in Harlem
See also
External links
- Museum of American Financial History.
- The Met.
- NYC ARTS.
- A Walking Tour of Rockefeller Center's Public Art.
Further reading
- Jackson, Kenneth, ed. The Encyclopedia of New York City (1995), the best reference book; 1350pp; excerpt and text search
- Jackson, Kenneth and Sam Roberts, eds. The Almanac of New York City (2008)


