New York City
Source:Wikipedia
Tourism
Main articles: Tourism in New York City and List of
museums and cultural institutions in New York City
Times Square has been dubbed "The Crossroads of the
World".[88]
Tourism is important to New York City, with about 47
million foreign and American tourists visiting each
year.[89] Major destinations include the Empire
State Building, Ellis Island, Broadway theatre
productions, museums such as the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, and other tourist attractions including
Central Park, Washington Square Park, Rockefeller
Center, Times Square, the Bronx Zoo, New York
Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and
Madison Avenues, and events such as the Halloween
Parade in Greenwich Village, the Tribeca Film
Festival, and free performances in Central Park at
Summerstage. The Statue of Liberty is a major
tourist attraction and one of the most recognizable
icons of the United States.[90] Many of the city's
ethnic enclaves, such as Jackson Heights, Flushing,
and Brighton Beach are major shopping destinations
for first and second generation Americans up and
down the East Coast.
New York officially the City of New York is the most
populous city in the United States, and the center
of the New York metropolitan area, which is among
the most populous urban areas in the world. A
leading global city, New York exerts a powerful
influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture,
fashion and entertainment. As host of the United
Nations headquarters, it is also an important center
for international affairs. The city is often
referred to as New York City to differentiate it
from the state of New York, of which it is a part.
Located on a large natural harbor on the Atlantic
coast of the Northeastern United States, the city
consists of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn,
Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The city's
2007 estimated population exceeds 8.3 million
people,[2] and with a land area of 305 square miles
(790 km2),[3][4] New York City is the most densely
populated major city in the United States.[5] The
New York metropolitan area's population is also the
nation's largest, estimated at 18.8 million people
over 6,720 square miles (17,400 km2).[6]
New York is notable among American cities for its
high use of mass transit, most of which runs 24
hours per day, and for the overall density and
diversity of its population. In 2005, nearly 170
languages were spoken in the city and 36% of its
population was born outside the United States.[7][8]
The city is sometimes referred to as "The City that
Never Sleeps", while other nicknames include
Gotham[9] and the Big Apple.[10]
New York was founded as a commercial trading post by
the Dutch in 1624. The settlement was called New
Amsterdam until 1664 when the colony came under
English control.[11] New York served as the capital
of the United States from 1785 until 1790.[12] It
has been the country's largest city since 1790.[13]
Many neighborhoods and landmarks in the city have
become world-famous. The Statue of Liberty greeted
millions of immigrants as they came to America in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wall Street,
in Lower Manhattan, has been a dominant global
financial center since World War II and is home to
the New York Stock Exchange. The city has been home
to several of the tallest buildings in the world,
including the Empire State Building and the twin
towers of the former World Trade Center.
New York is the birthplace of many cultural
movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in
literature and visual art, abstract expressionism
(also known as the New York School) in painting, and
hip hop,[14] punk,[15] salsa, disco and Tin Pan
Alley in music. It is the home of Broadway theater.
History
Main article: History of New York City
Lower Manhattan in 1660, when it was part of New
Amsterdam. North is to the right.
The region was inhabited by about 5,000 Lenape
Native Americans at the time of its European
discovery in 1524[16] by Giovanni da Verrazzano, an
Italian explorer in the service of the French crown,
who called it "Nouvelle Angoulême" (New Angoulême).[17]
European settlement began with the founding of a
Dutch fur trading settlement, later called "Nieuw
Amsterdam" (New Amsterdam), on the southern tip of
Manhattan in 1614. Dutch colonial Director-General
Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from
the Lenape in 1626 for a value of 60 guilders (about
$1000 in 2006);[18] a legend, now disproved, says
that Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of glass
beads.[19][20] In 1664, the English conquered the
city and renamed it "New York" after the English
Duke of York and Albany.[21] At the end of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War the Dutch gained control of
Run (a much more valuable asset at the time) in
exchange for the English controlling New Amsterdam
(New York) in North America. By 1700, the Lenape
population had diminished to 200.[22]
New York City grew in importance as a trading port
while under British rule. The city hosted the
seminal John Peter Zenger trial in 1735, helping to
establish the freedom of the press in North America.
In 1754, Columbia University was founded under
charter by George II of Great Britain as King's
College in Lower Manhattan.[23] The Stamp Act
Congress met in New York in October of 1765.
The city emerged as the theater for a series of
major battles known as the New York Campaign during
the American Revolutionary War. After the Battle of
Fort Washington in upper Manhattan in 1776 the city
became the British military and political base of
operations in North America until military
occupation ended in 1783. The assembly of the
Congress of the Confederation made New York City the
national capital shortly thereafter; the
Constitution of the United States was ratified and
in 1789 the first President of the United States,
George Washington, was inaugurated there; the first
United States Congress assembled for the first time
in 1789, and the United States Bill of Rights
drafted; all at Federal Hall on Wall Street.[24] By
1790, New York City had surpassed Philadelphia as
the largest city in the United States.
In the 19th century, the city was transformed by
immigration and development. A visionary development
proposal, the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, expanded
the city street grid to encompass all of Manhattan,
and the 1819 opening of the Erie Canal connected the
Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of
the North American interior.[25] Local politics fell
under the domination of Tammany Hall, a political
machine supported by Irish immigrants.[26]
Public-minded members of the old merchant
aristocracy lobbied for the establishment of Central
Park, which became the first landscaped park in an
American city in 1857. A significant free-black
population also existed in Manhattan, as well as in
Brooklyn. Slaves had been held in New York through
1827, but during the 1830s New York became a center
of interracial abolitionist activism in the North.
New York's black population was over 16,000 in
1840.[27] By 1860, New York had over 200,000 Irish,
one quarter of the city's population.[28]
Mulberry Street, on Manhattan's Lower East Side,
circa 1900
Anger at military conscription during the American
Civil War (18611865) led to the Draft Riots of
1863, one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in
American history.[29] In 1898, the modern City of
New York was formed with the consolidation of
Brooklyn (until then an independent city), the
County of New York (which then included parts of the
Bronx), the County of Richmond, and the western
portion of the County of Queens.[30] The opening of
the New York City Subway in 1904 helped bind the new
city together. Throughout the first half of the 20th
century, the city became a world center for
industry, commerce, and communication. However, this
development did not come without a price. In 1904,
the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East
River, killing 1,021 people on board. In 1911, the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city's worst
industrial disaster, took the lives of 146 garment
workers and spurred the growth of the International
Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and major
improvements in factory safety standards.[31]
Midtown Manhattan, New York City, from Rockefeller
Center, 1932
In the 1920s, New York City was a major destination
for African Americans during the Great Migration
from the American South. By 1916, New York City was
home to the largest urban African diaspora in North
America. The Harlem Renaissance flourished during
the era of Prohibition, coincident with a larger
economic boom that saw the skyline develop with the
construction of competing skyscrapers. New York City
became the most populous urbanized area in the world
in early 1920s, overtaking London, and the
metropolitan area surpassed the 10 million mark in
early 1930s becoming the first megacity in human
history.[32] The difficult years of the Great
Depression saw the election of reformer Fiorello
LaGuardia as mayor and the fall of Tammany Hall
after eighty years of political dominance.[33]
Returning World War II veterans created a postwar
economic boom and the development of huge housing
tracts in eastern Queens. New York emerged from the
war unscathed and the leading city of the world,
with Wall Street leading America's ascendance as the
world's dominant economic power, the United Nations
headquarters (completed in 1950) emphasizing New
York's political influence, and the rise of abstract
expressionism in the city precipitating New York's
displacement of Paris as the center of the art
world.[34]
The pre-9/11 skyline of Lower Manhattan, August 2001
In the 1960s, New York suffered from economic
problems, rising crime rates and racial tension,
which reached a peak in the 1970s. In the 1980s,
resurgence in the financial industry improved the
city's fiscal health. By the 1990s, racial tensions
had calmed, crime rates dropped dramatically, and
waves of new immigrants arrived from Asia and Latin
America. Important new sectors, such as Silicon
Alley, emerged in the city's economy and New York's
population reached an all-time high in the 2000
census.
The city was one of the sites of the September 11,
2001 attacks, when nearly 3,000 people died in the
destruction of the World Trade Center.[35] A new 1
World Trade Center (previously known as the Freedom
Tower), along with a memorial and three other office
towers, will be built on the site and is scheduled
for completion in 2013.[36] On December 19, 2006,
the first steel columns were installed in the
building's foundation. Three other high-rise office
buildings are planned for the site along Greenwich
Street, and they will surround the World Trade
Center Memorial, which is under construction. The
area will also be home to a museum dedicated to the
history of the site.
Geography
Main articles: Geography of New York City and
Geography of New York Harbor
Satellite image showing the core of the New York
metropolitan area. Over 10 million people live in
the imaged area.
New York City is located in the Northeastern United
States, in southeastern New York State,
approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and
Boston.[37] The location at the mouth of the Hudson
River, which feeds into a naturally sheltered harbor
and then into the Atlantic Ocean, has helped the
city grow in significance as a trading city. Much of
New York is built on the three islands of Manhattan,
Staten Island, and Long Island, making land scarce
and encouraging a high population density.
The Hudson River flows through the Hudson Valley
into New York Bay. Between New York City and Troy,
New York, the river is an estuary.[38] The Hudson
separates the city from New Jersey. The East River,
actually a tidal strait, flows from Long Island
Sound and separates the Bronx and Manhattan from
Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait
between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates
Manhattan from the Bronx.
The city's land has been altered considerably by
human intervention, with substantial land
reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch
colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in Lower
Manhattan, with developments such as Battery Park
City in the 1970s and 1980s.[39] Some of the natural
variations in topography have been evened out,
particularly in Manhattan.[40]
The city's land area is estimated at 304.8 square
miles (789 km2).[3][4] New York City's total area is
468.9 square miles (1,214 km2). 164.1 square miles
(425 km2) of this is water and 304.8 square miles
(789 km2) is land. The highest point in the city is
Todt Hill on Staten Island, which at 409.8 feet
(124.9 m) above sea level is the highest point on
the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine.[41] The summit
of the ridge is largely covered in woodlands as part
of the Staten Island Greenbelt.[42]
Climate
Under the Köppen climate classification, New York
City has a humid subtropical climate and enjoys an
average of 234 sunshine days annually.[43] It's the
northernmost major city in North America that
features a humid subtropical climate using the 0 °C
(American scientist standard) isotherm as criteria.
Summers are typically hot and humid with average
high temperatures of 79 84 °F (26 29 °C) and
lows of 63 69 °F (17 21 °C), however
temperatures exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on average of 16
19 days each summer and can exceed 100 °F (38 °C)
every 46 years.[44] Winters are cold, and
prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore somewhat
minimizes the influence of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet,
the Atlantic Ocean keeps the city warmer in the
winter than inland North American cities located at
similar latitudes such as Chicago, Pittsburgh and
Cincinnati. The average temperature in January, New
York City's coldest month, is 32 °F (0 °C). However
temperatures in winter could for few days be as low
as 10s to 20s °F (−12 to −6 °C) and for a few days
be as high as 50s or 60s °F (~1015 °C).[45] Spring
and autumn are erratic, and could range from chilly
to warm, although they are usually pleasantly mild
with low humidity.[46]
New York City receives 49.7 inches (1,260 mm) of
precipitation annually, which is fairly spread
throughout the year. Average winter snowfall is
about 24.4 inches (62 cm), but this often varies
considerably from year to year, and snow cover
usually remains very short.[43] Hurricanes and
tropical storms are very rare in New York area, but
not unheard of.
Environment
Main articles: Environmental issues in New York City
and Food and water in New York City
Mass transit use in New York City is the highest in
the United States, and gasoline consumption in the
city is the same rate as the national average in the
1920s.[48] New York City's high level of mass
transit use saved 1.8 billion gallons of oil in
2006; New York saves half of all the oil saved by
transit nationwide.[49] The city's population
density, low automobile use and high transit utility
make it among the most energy efficient cities in
the United States.[50] New York City's greenhouse
gas emissions are 7.1 metric tons per person
compared with the national average of 24.5.[51] New
Yorkers are collectively responsible for one percent
of the nation's total greenhouse gas emissions[51]
though comprise 2.7% of the nation's population. The
average New Yorker consumes less than half the
electricity used by a resident of San Francisco and
nearly one-quarter the electricity consumed by a
resident of Dallas.[52]
In recent years, the city has focused on reducing
its environmental impact. Large amounts of
concentrated pollution in New York City led to high
incidence of asthma and other respiratory conditions
among the city's residents.[53] The city government
is required to purchase only the most
energy-efficient equipment for use in city offices
and public housing.[54] New York has the largest
clean air diesel-hybrid and compressed natural gas
bus fleet in the country, and some of the first
hybrid taxis.[55] The city government was a
petitioner in the landmark Massachusetts v.
Environmental Protection Agency Supreme Court case
forcing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases as
pollutants. The city is also a leader in the
construction of energy-efficient green office
buildings, including the Hearst Tower among
others.[56]
New York City is supplied with drinking water by the
protected Catskill Mountains watershed.[57] As a
result of the watershed's integrity and undisturbed
natural water filtration process, New York is one of
only four major cities in the United States with
drinking water pure enough not to require
purification by water treatment plants.[58]
Architecture
Main article: Architecture of New York City
The building form most closely associated with New
York City is the skyscraper, whose introduction and
widespread adoption saw New York buildings shift
from the low-scale European tradition to the
vertical rise of business districts. As of August
2008, New York City has 5,538 highrise
buildings,[59] with 50 completed skyscrapers taller
than 656 feet (200 m). This is more than any other
city in United States, and second in the world
behind Hong Kong.[60] Surrounded mostly by water,
the city's residential density and high real estate
values in commercial districts saw the city amass
the largest collection of individual, free-standing
office and residential towers in the world.[61][not
in citation given]
Brownstone rowhouses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
New York has architecturally significant buildings
in a wide range of styles. These include the
Woolworth Building (1913), an early gothic revival
skyscraper built with massively scaled gothic
detailing able to be read from street level several
hundred feet below. The 1916 Zoning Resolution
required setback in new buildings, and restricted
towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow
sunlight to reach the streets below.[62] The Art
Deco design of the Chrysler Building (1930), with
its tapered top and steel spire, reflected the
zoning requirements. The building is considered by
many historians and architects to be New York's
finest building, with its distinctive ornamentation
such as replicas at the corners of the 61st floor of
the 1928 Chrysler eagle hood ornaments and V-shaped
lighting inserts capped by a steel spire at the
tower's crown.[63] A highly influential example of
the international style in the United States is the
Seagram Building (1957), distinctive for its facade
using visible bronze-toned I-beams to evoke the
building's structure. The Condé Nast Building (2000)
is an important example of green design in American
skyscrapers.[56]
The character of New York's large residential
districts is often defined by the elegant brownstone
rowhouses, townhouses, and shabby tenements that
were built during a period of rapid expansion from
1870 to 1930.[64] Stone and brick became the city's
building materials of choice after the construction
of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of
the Great Fire of 1835.[65] Unlike Paris, which for
centuries was built from its own limestone bedrock,
New York has always drawn its building stone from a
far-flung network of quarries and its stone
buildings have a variety of textures and hues.[66] A
distinctive feature of many of the city's buildings
is the presence of wooden roof-mounted water towers.
In the 1800s, the city required their installation
on buildings higher than six stories to prevent the
need for excessively high water pressures at lower
elevations, which could burst municipal water
pipes.[67] Garden apartments became popular during
the 1920s in outlying areas, including Jackson
Heights in Queens, which became more accessible with
expansion of the subway.[68]
Parks
Central Park is the most visited city park in the
United States.[69]
New York City has over 28,000 acres (110 km2) of
municipal parkland and 14 miles (23 km) of public
beaches.[70] This parkland is augmented by thousands
of acres of Gateway National Recreation Area, part
of the National Park system, that lie within city
boundaries. The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, the
only wildlife refuge in the National Park System,
alone is over 9,000 acres (36 km2) of marsh islands
and water taking up most of Jamaica Bay. Manhattan's
Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and
Calvert Vaux, is the most visited city park in the
United States with 30 million visitors each year10
million more than Lincoln Park in Chicago, which is
second.[69] Prospect Park in Brooklyn, also designed
by Olmsted and Vaux, has a 90-acre (360,000 m2)
meadow.[71] Flushing MeadowsCorona Park in Queens,
the city's third largest, was the setting for the
1939 World's Fair and 1964 World's Fair. Over a
fifth of the Bronx's area, 7,000 acres (28 km2), is
given over to open space and parks, including Van
Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the Bronx Zoo and
the New York Botanical Gardens.[72]
Boroughs
Main articles: Borough (New York City) and
Neighborhoods of New York City
New York City is composed of five boroughs, an
unusual form of government.[73] Each borough is
coextensive with a respective county of New York
State as shown below. Throughout the boroughs there
are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods, many with a
definable history and character to call their own.
If the boroughs were each independent cities, four
of the boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and
the Bronx) would be among the ten most populous
cities in the United States.
New York's Five Boroughs at a Glance
Jurisdiction Population Land Area
Borough of County of estimate for
1 July 2008 square
miles square
km
Manhattan New York 1,634,795 23 59
the Bronx Bronx 1,391,903 42 109
Brooklyn Kings 2,556,598 71 183
Queens Queens 2,293,007 109 283
Staten Island Richmond 487,407 58 151
City of New York
8,363,710 303 786
State of New York
19,490,297 47,214 122,284
Source: United States Census Bureau [74][75][76]
The five boroughs: 1.Manhattan, 2.Brooklyn,
3.Queens, 4.The Bronx, 5.Staten Island
* The Bronx (Bronx County: Pop. 1,373,659)[77] is
New York City's northernmost borough, the site of
Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees, and
home to the largest cooperatively owned housing
complex in the United States, Co-op City.[78] Except
for a small piece of Manhattan known as Marble Hill,
the Bronx is the only section of the city that is
part of the United States mainland. It is home to
the Bronx Zoo, the largest metropolitan zoo in the
United States, which spans 265 acres (1.07 km2) and
is home to over 6,000 animals.[79] The Bronx is the
birthplace of rap and hip hop culture.[14]
* Manhattan (New York County: Pop. 1,620,867)[77] is
the most densely populated borough and home to most
of the city's skyscrapers, as well as Central Park.
The borough is the financial center of the city and
contains the headquarters of many major
corporations, the United Nations, as well as a
number of important universities, and many cultural
attractions, including numerous museums, the
Broadway theatre district, Greenwich Village, and
Madison Square Garden. Manhattan is loosely divided
into Lower, Midtown, and Uptown regions. Uptown
Manhattan is divided by Central Park into the Upper
East Side and the Upper West Side, and above the
park is Harlem.
* Brooklyn (Kings County: Pop. 2,528,050)[77] is the
city's most populous borough and was an independent
city until 1898. Brooklyn is known for its cultural,
social and ethnic diversity, an independent art
scene, distinct neighborhoods and a unique
architectural heritage. It is also the only borough
outside of Manhattan with a distinct downtown area.
The borough features a long beachfront and Coney
Island, established in the 1870s as one of the
earliest amusement grounds in the country.[80]
* Queens (Queens County: Pop. 2,270,338)[77] is
geographically the largest borough and the most
ethnically diverse county in the United States,[81]
and may overtake Brooklyn as the city's most
populous borough due to its growth. Historically a
collection of small towns and villages founded by
the Dutch, today the borough is largely residential
and middle class. It is the only large county in the
United States where the median income among African
Americans, approximately $52,000 a year, is higher
than that of White Americans.[82] Queens is the site
of Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, and
annually hosts the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
Additionally, it is home to two of the three major
airports serving the New York metropolitan area,
LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International
Airport. (The third being Newark Liberty
International Airport in New Jersey.)
* Staten Island (Richmond County: Pop. 481,613)[77]
is the most suburban in character of the five
boroughs. Staten Island is connected to Brooklyn by
the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and to Manhattan via
the free Staten Island Ferry. The Staten Island
Ferry is one of the most popular tourist attractions
in New York City as it provides unsurpassed views of
the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and lower
Manhattan. Located in central Staten Island, the 25
km² Greenbelt has some 35 miles (56 km) of walking
trails and one of the last undisturbed forests in
the city. Designated in 1984 to protect the island's
natural lands, the Greenbelt comprises seven city
parks. The FDR Boardwalk along South Beach is 2.5
miles (4.0 km) long, the fourth largest in the
world.
Culture and contemporary life
Main article: Culture of New York City
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest
museums in the world.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is home to 12
influential arts organizations, making it the
largest performing arts complex in the United
States.
"Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of
the weather", the writer Tom Wolfe has said of New
York City.[83] Numerous major American cultural
movements began in the city, such as the Harlem
Renaissance, which established the African-American
literary canon in the United States. The city was a
center of jazz in the 1940s, abstract expressionism
in the 1950s and the birthplace of hip hop in the
1970s. The city's punk and hardcore scenes were
influential in the 1970s and 1980s, and the city has
long had a flourishing scene for Jewish American
literature. Prominent indie rock bands coming out of
New York in recent years include The Strokes,
Interpol, The Bravery, Scissor Sisters, and They
Might Be Giants.
Entertainment and performing arts
See also: Music of New York City
The city is also important in the American film
industry. Manhatta (1920), an early avant-garde
film, was filmed in the city.[84] Today, New York
City is the second largest center for the film
industry in the United States. The city has more
than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more
than 500 art galleries of all sizes.[85] The city
government funds the arts with a larger annual
budget than the National Endowment for the Arts.[85]
Wealthy industrialists in the 19th century built a
network of major cultural institutions, such as the
famed Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Museum of Art,
that would become internationally established. The
advent of electric lighting led to elaborate theatre
productions, and in the 1880s New York City theaters
on Broadway and along 42nd Street began showcasing a
new stage form that came to be known as the Broadway
musical.
Strongly influenced by the city's immigrants,
productions such as those of Harrigan and Hart,
George M. Cohan and others used song in narratives
that often reflected themes of hope and ambition.
Today these productions are a mainstay of the New
York theatre scene. The city's 39 largest theatres
(with more than 500 seats) are collectively known as
"Broadway," after the major thoroughfare that
crosses the Times Square theatre district.[86] This
area is sometimes referred to as The Main Stem, The
Great White Way or The Realto.
The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which
includes Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan
Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York
Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, the Vivian
Beaumont Theatre, the Juilliard School and Alice
Tully Hall, is the largest performing arts center in
the United States. Central Park SummerStage presents
performances of free plays and music in Central Park
and 1,200 free concerts, dance, and theater events
across all five boroughs in the summer months.[87]
Cuisine
Main article: Cuisine of New York City
New York's food culture, influenced by the city's
immigrants and large number of dining patrons, is
diverse. Eastern European and Italian immigrants
have made the city famous for bagels, cheesecake,
and New York-style pizza. Some 4,000 mobile food
vendors licensed by the city, many immigrant-owned,
have made Middle Eastern foods such as falafels and
kebabs standbys of contemporary New York street
food, although hot dogs and pretzels are still the
main street fare.[91] The city is also home to many
of the finest haute cuisine restaurants in the
United States.[92] New York City's variety of World
cuisines is also diverse. Examples could include
Italian, French, Spanish, German, Russian, English,
Greek, Moroccan, Chinese, Indian, and Japanese
cuisines, as well as the diverse indigenous sort.
Media
Main article: Media in New York City
New York's MTA gives the city a large newspaper
readership base.[93]
New York is a global center for the television,
advertising, music, newspaper and book publishing
industries and is also the largest media market in
North America (followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, and
Toronto).[94]
Some of the city's media conglomerates include Time
Warner, the News Corporation, the Hearst
Corporation, and Viacom. Seven of the world's top
eight global advertising agency networks have their
headquarters in New York.[95] Three of the "Big
Four" record labels are also based in the city, as
well as in Los Angeles.
One-third of all American independent films are
produced in New York.[96] More than 200 newspapers
and 350 consumer magazines have an office in the
city[96] and the book-publishing industry employs
about 25,000 people.[97]
Two of the three national daily newspapers in the
United States are New York papers: The Wall Street
Journal and The New York Times. Major tabloid
newspapers in the city include The New York Daily
News and The New York Post, founded in 1801 by
Alexander Hamilton.
The city also has a major ethnic press, with 270
newspapers and magazines published in more than 40
languages.[98] El Diario La Prensa is New York's
largest Spanish-language daily and the oldest in the
nation.[99] The New York Amsterdam News, published
in Harlem, is a prominent African American
newspaper.
The Village Voice is the largest alternative
newspaper.
Rockefeller Center NBC Studios
The television industry developed in New York and is
a significant employer in the city's economy. The
four major American broadcast networks, ABC, CBS,
FOX and NBC, are all headquartered in New York.
Many cable channels are based in the city as well,
including MTV, Fox News, HBO and Comedy Central. In
2005, there were more than 100 television shows
taped in New York City.[100]
New York is also a major center for non-commercial
media. The oldest public-access television channel
in the United States is the Manhattan Neighborhood
Network, founded in 1971.[101] WNET is the city's
major public television station and a primary
provider of national PBS programming. WNYC, a public
radio station owned by the city until 1997, has the
largest public radio audience in the United
States.[102]
The City of New York operates a public broadcast
service, nyctv, that produces several original Emmy
Award-winning shows covering music and culture in
city neighborhoods, as well as city government.
Accent
The New York City area has a distinctive regional
speech pattern called the New York dialect,
alternatively known as Brooklynese or New Yorkese.
It is often considered to be one of the most
recognizable accents within American English.[103]
The classic version of this dialect is centered on
middle and working class people of European American
descent, and the influx of non-European immigrants
in recent decades has led to changes in this
distinctive dialect.[104]
The traditional New York area accent is non-rhotic,
so that the sound [ɹ] does not appear at the end of
a syllable or immediately before a consonant; hence
the pronunciation of the city as "New Yawk".[104]
There is no [ɹ] in words like park [pɔːk] (with
vowel raised due to the low-back chain shift),
butter [bʌɾə], or here [hiə]. In another feature
called the low back chain shift, the [ɔ] vowel sound
of words like talk, law, cross, and coffee and the
often homophonous [ɔr] in core and more are tensed
and usually raised more than in General American.
In the most old-fashioned and extreme versions of
the New York dialect, the vowel sounds of words like
"girl" and of words like "oil" both become a
diphthong [ɜɪ]. This is often misperceived by
speakers of other accents as a reversal of the er
and oy sounds, so that girl is pronounced "goil" and
oil is pronounced "erl"; this leads to the
caricature of New Yorkers saying things like "Joizey"
(Jersey), "Toidy-Toid Street" (33rd St.) and "terlet"
(toilet).[104] The character Archie Bunker from the
1970s sitcom All in the Family was a good example of
a speaker who had this feature. This particular
speech pattern is no longer very prevalent.[104]
Sports
Main article: Sports in New York City
The new Yankee Stadium has been home to the New York
Yankees since 2009.
New York City has teams in the four major North
American professional sports leagues.
New York is one of the few areas of the United
States where baseball, rather than American
football, remains the most popular sport.[citation
needed] There have been fourteen World Series
championship series between New York City teams, in
matchups called Subway Series. New York is one of
only five metro areas (Chicago,
Washington-Baltimore, Los Angeles and the San
Francisco Bay Area being the others) to have two
baseball teams. The city's two current Major League
Baseball teams are the New York Yankees and the New
York Mets, who compete in six games every regular
season. The Yankees have enjoyed 26 world titles,
while the Mets have taken the Series twice. The city
also was once home to the New York Giants (now the
San Francisco Giants) and the Brooklyn Dodgers (now
the Los Angeles Dodgers). Both teams moved to
California in 1958. There are also two minor league
baseball teams in the city, the Staten Island
Yankees and Brooklyn Cyclones.
The city is represented in the National Football
League by the New York Jets and New York Giants
(officially the New York Football Giants), although
both teams play their home games in Giants Stadium
in nearby New Jersey.
The New York City Marathon is the largest marathon
in the world.
The New York Rangers represent the city in the
National Hockey League. Within the metro area are
two other teams, the New Jersey Devils and the New
York Islanders, who play in Long Island. This is the
only instance of any metro area having 3 teams
within one of the 4 major North American
professional sports leagues.
In Association football, New York is represented by
the Major League Soccer side, Red Bull New York. The
"Red Bulls" also play their home games at the Giants
Stadium in New Jersey.
The city's National Basketball Association team is
the New York Knicks and the city's Women's National
Basketball Association team is the New York Liberty.
Also within the metro area is the NBA team New
Jersey Nets. The first national college-level
basketball championship, the National Invitation
Tournament, was held in New York in 1938 and remains
in the city.[105] Rucker Park in Harlem is a
celebrated court where many professional athletes
play in the summer league.
The U.S. Tennis Open (held in Queens) is the fourth
and final event of the Grand Slam tennis
tournaments.
As a global city, New York supports many events
outside these sports. Queens is host of the U.S.
Tennis Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
The New York City Marathon is the world's largest,
and the 2004-2006 runnings hold the top three places
in the marathons with the largest number of
finishers, including 37,866 finishers in 2006.[106]
The Millrose Games is an annual track and field meet
whose featured event is the Wanamaker Mile. Boxing
is also a very prominent part of the city's sporting
scene, with events like the Amateur Boxing Golden
Gloves being held at Madison Square Garden each
year.
Many sports are associated with New York's immigrant
communities. Stickball, a street version of
baseball, was popularized by youths in working class
Italian, German, and Irish neighborhoods in the
1930s. Stickball is still commonly played, as a
street in The Bronx has been renamed Stickball Blvd.
as tribute to New York's most known street sport. In
recent years several amateur cricket leagues have
emerged with the arrival of immigrants from South
Asia and the Caribbean. Street hockey, football, and
baseball are also commonly seen being played on the
streets of New York. New York City is often called
"The World's Biggest Urban Playground", as street
sports are commonly played by people of all
ages.[107]
New York City is a global hub of international
business and commerce and is one of three "command
centers" for the world economy (along with London
and Tokyo).[109] The city is a major center for
finance, insurance, real estate, media and the arts
in the United States.
The New York metropolitan area had an estimated
gross metropolitan product of $1.13 trillion in
2005,[110][111] making it the largest regional
economy in the United States and, according to IT
Week, the second largest city economy in the
world.[112] According to Cinco Dias, New York
controlled 40% of the world's finances by the end of
2008, making it the largest financial center in the
world.[113] [114] [115]
Many major corporations are headquartered in New
York City, including 43 Fortune 500
companies.[108][116] New York is also unique among
American cities for its large number of foreign
corporations. One out of ten private sector jobs in
the city is with a foreign company.[117]
New York City is home to some of the nation'sand
the world'smost valuable real estate. 450 Park
Avenue was sold on July 2, 2007 for $510 million,
about $1,589 per square foot ($17,104/m²), breaking
the barely month-old record for an American office
building of $1,476 per square foot ($15,887/m²) set
in the June 2007 sale of 660 Madison Avenue.[118]
Manhattan had 353.7 million square feet (32,860,000
m²) of office space in 2001.[119]
Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business
district in the United States and is home to the
highest concentration of the city's skyscrapers.
Lower Manhattan is the third largest central
business district in the United States, and is home
to The New York Stock Exchange, located on Wall
Street, and the NASDAQ, representing the world's
first and second largest stock exchanges,
respectively, when measured by average daily trading
volume and overall market capitalization.[120]
Financial services account for more than 35% of the
city's employment income.[121] Real estate is a
major force in the city's economy, as the total
value of all New York City property was $802.4
billion in 2006.[122] The Time Warner Center is the
property with the highest-listed market value in the
city, at $1.1 billion in 2006.[122]
The city's television and film industry is the
second largest in the country after Hollywood.[123]
Creative industries such as new media, advertising,
fashion, design and architecture account for a
growing share of employment, with New York City
possessing a strong competitive advantage in these
industries.[124] High-tech industries like
biotechnology, software development, game design,
and internet services are also growing, bolstered by
the city's position at the terminus of several
transatlantic fiber optic trunk lines.[125] Other
important sectors include medical research and
technology, non-profit institutions, and
universities.
Manufacturing accounts for a large but declining
share of employment. Garments, chemicals, metal
products, processed foods, and furniture are some of
the principal products.[126] The food-processing
industry is the most stable major manufacturing
sector in the city.[127] Food making is a $5 billion
industry that employs more than 19,000 residents.
Chocolate is New York City's leading specialty-food
export, with $234 million worth of exports each
year.[127]
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of New York City
Historical populations
Year Pop. %ħ
1698 4,937
1712 5,840 18.3%
1723 7,248 24.1%
1737 10,664 47.1%
1746 11,717 9.9%
1756 13,046 11.3%
1771 21,863 67.6%
1790 33,131 51.5%
1800 60,515 82.7%
1810 96,373 59.3%
1820 123,706 28.4%
1830 202,589 63.8%
1840 312,710 54.4%
1850 515,547 64.9%
1860 813,669 57.8%
1870 942,292 15.8%
1880 1,206,299 28.0%
1890 1,515,301 25.6%
1900 3,437,202 126.8%
1910 4,766,883 38.7%
1920 5,620,048 17.9%
1930 6,930,446 23.3%
1940 7,454,995 7.6%
1950 7,891,957 5.9%
1960 7,781,984 −1.4%
1970 7,894,862 1.5%
1980 7,071,639 −10.4%
1990 7,322,564 3.5%
2000 8,008,288 9.4%
2008* 8,363,710 4.4%
Beginning 1900, figures are for consolidated city of
five boroughs. Sources: 16981771,[128]
17901990,[129] *2008 est[130]
New York is the most populous city in the United
States, with an estimated 2007 population of
8,274,527 (up from 7.3 million in 1990).[77] This
amounts to about 40.0% of New York State's
population and a similar percentage of the
metropolitan regional population. Over the last
decade the city's population has been increasing and
demographers estimate New York's population will
reach between 9.2 and 9.5 million by 2030.[131]
New York's two key demographic features are its
population density and cultural diversity. The
city's population density of 26,403 people per
square mile (10,194/km²) makes it the most densely
populated American municipality with a population
above 100,000.[132] Manhattan's population density
is 66,940 people per square mile (25,846/km²),
highest of any county in the United
States.[133][134]
New York City is exceptionally diverse. Throughout
its history the city has been a major point of entry
for immigrants; the term melting pot was first
coined to describe densely populated immigrant
neighborhoods on the Lower East Side. Today, 36.7%
of the city's population is foreign-born and another
3.9% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or
born abroad to American parents.[135] Among American
cities, this proportion is exceeded only by Los
Angeles and Miami.[134] While the immigrant
communities in those cities are dominated by a few
nationalities, in New York no single country or
region of origin dominates. The ten largest
countries of origin for modern immigration are the
Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, Guyana, Mexico,
Ecuador, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, and
Russia.[136] About 170 languages are spoken in the
city.[7]
The New York metropolitan area is home to the
largest Jewish community outside Israel; Tel Aviv
proper (non-metro/within municipal limits) has a
smaller population than the Jewish population of New
York City proper, making New York the largest Jewish
community in the world. About 12% of New Yorkers are
Jewish or of Jewish descent and roots.[137] It is
also home to nearly a quarter of the nation's Indian
Americans,[138] and the largest African American
community of any city in the United States.
The five largest ethnic groups as of the 2005 census
estimates are: Puerto Ricans, Italians, West
Indians, Dominicans and Chinese.[139] The Puerto
Rican population of New York City is the largest
outside of Puerto Rico.[140] Italians emigrated to
the city in large numbers in the early twentieth
century. The Irish, the sixth largest ethnic group,
also have a notable presence; one in 50 New Yorkers
of European origin carry a distinctive genetic
signature on their Y chromosomes inherited from
Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish high king of
the fifth century A.D.[141]
As of the 2005-2007 American Community Survey
conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, White Americans
made up 44.1% of New York City's population; of
which 35.1% were non-Hispanic whites. Blacks or
African Americans made up 25.2% of New York City's
population; of which 23.7% were non-Hispanic blacks.
American Indians made up 0.4% of the city's
population; of which 0.2% were non-Hispanic. Asian
Americans made up 11.6% of the city's population; of
which 11.5% were non-Hispanic. Pacific Islander
Americans made up less than 0.1% of the city's
population. Individuals from some other race made up
16.8% of the city's population; of which 1.0% were
non-Hispanic. Individuals from two or more races
made up 1.9% of the city's population; of which 1.0%
were non-Hispanic. In addition, Hispanics and
Latinos made up 27.4% of New York City's
population.[142][143]
New York City has a high degree of income disparity.
In 2005 the median household income in the
wealthiest census tract was $188,697, while in the
poorest it was $9,320.[144] The disparity is driven
by wage growth in high income brackets, while wages
have stagnated for middle and lower income brackets.
In 2006 the average weekly wage in Manhattan was
$1,453, the highest and fastest growing among the
largest counties in the United States.[145] The
borough is also experiencing a baby boom that is
unique among American cities. Since 2000, the number
of children under age 5 living in Manhattan grew by
more than 32%.[146]
Home ownership in New York City is about 33%, much
lower than the national average of 69%.[citation
needed] Rental vacancy is usually between 3% and
4.5%, well below the 5% threshold defined to be a
housing emergency and used to justify the
continuation of rent control and rent stabilization.
About 33% of rental units are rent-stabilized.
Finding housing, particularly affordable housing, in
New York City can be more than challenging.[147]
Government
Main article: Government of New York City
The Manhattan Municipal Building, a 40-story
building built to accommodate increased governmental
space demands after the 1898 consolidation of New
York City.
Since its consolidation in 1898, New York City has
been a metropolitan municipality with a "strong"
mayor-council form of government. The government of
New York is more centralized than that of most other
U.S. cities. In New York City, the central
government is responsible for public education,
correctional institutions, libraries, public safety,
recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply
and welfare services. The mayor and councillors are
elected to four-year terms. The New York City
Council is a unicameral body consisting of 51
Council members whose districts are defined by
geographic population boundaries.[148] The mayor and
councilors are limited to two four-year terms.
The mayor is Michael Bloomberg, a former Democrat
and current independent elected as a Republican in
2001 and re-elected in 2005 with 59% of the
vote.[149] He is known for taking control of the
city's education system from the state, rezoning and
economic development, sound fiscal management, and
aggressive public health policy. In his second term
he has made school reform, poverty reduction, and
strict gun control central priorities of his
administration.[150] Together with Boston mayor
Thomas Menino, in 2006 he founded the Mayors Against
Illegal Guns Coalition, an organization with the
goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal
guns off the streets."[151] The Democratic Party
holds the majority of public offices. As of November
2008, 67% of registered voters in the city are
Democrats.[152] New York City has not been carried
by a Republican in a statewide or presidential
election since 1924. Party platforms center on
affordable housing, education and economic
development, and labor politics are of importance in
the city.
New York City Hall is the oldest City Hall in the
United States that still houses its original
governmental functions.
New York is the most important source of political
fundraising in the United States, as four of the top
five ZIP codes in the nation for political
contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code,
10021 on the Upper East Side, generated the most
money for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both
George W. Bush and John Kerry.[153] The city has a
strong imbalance of payments with the national and
state governments. It receives 83 cents in services
for every $1 it sends to the federal government in
taxes (or annually sends $11.4 billion more than it
receives back). The city also sends an additional
$11 billion more each year to the state of New York
than it receives back.[154]
Each borough is coextensive with a judicial district
of the New York Supreme Court and hosts other state
and city courts. Manhattan also hosts the Supreme
Court Appellate Division, First Department, while
Brooklyn hosts the Appellate Division, Second
Department. Federal courts located near City Hall
include the United States District Court for the
Southern District of New York, the United States
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the
Court of International Trade. Brooklyn hosts the
United States District Court for the Eastern
District of New York.
Crime
Main article: Crime in New York City
See also: Law enforcement in New York City
Since 2005 the city has had the lowest crime rate
among the 25 largest U.S. cities, having become
significantly safer after a spike in crime in the
1980s and early 1990s from the crack epidemic that
impacted many neighborhoods. By 2002, New York City
had about the same crime rate as Provo, Utah and was
ranked 197th in overall crime among the 216 U.S.
cities with populations greater than 100,000.
Violent crime in New York City decreased more than
75% from 1993 to 2005 and continued decreasing
during periods when the nation as a whole saw
increases.[155] In 2005 the homicide rate was at its
lowest level since 1966,[156] and in 2007 the city
recorded fewer than 500 homicides for the first time
ever since crime statistics were first published in
1963.[157]
Sociologists and criminologists have not reached
consensus on what explains the dramatic decrease in
the city's crime rate. Some attribute the phenomenon
to new tactics used by the New York City Police
Department, including its use of CompStat and the
broken windows theory. Others cite the end of the
crack epidemic and demographic changes.[158]
Organized crime has long been associated with New
York City, beginning with the Forty Thieves and the
Roach Guards in the Five Points in the 1820s. The
20th century saw a rise in the Mafia dominated by
the Five Families. Gangs including the Black Spades
also grew in the late 20th century.[159]
Education
Main article: Education in New York City
Fordham University's Keating Hall in The Bronx
The city's public school system, managed by the New
York City Department of Education, is the largest in
the United States. About 1.1 million students are
taught in more than 1,200 separate primary and
secondary schools.[160] There are approximately 900
additional privately run secular and religious
schools in the city, including some of the most
prestigious private schools in the United
States.[161] Though it is not often thought of as a
college town, there are about 594,000 university
students in New York City, the highest number of any
city in the United States.[162] In 2005, three out
of five Manhattan residents were college graduates
and one out of four had advanced degrees, forming
one of the highest concentrations of highly educated
people in any American city.[163] Public
postsecondary education is provided by the City
University of New York, the nation's third-largest
public university system, and the Fashion Institute
of Technology, part of the State University of New
York. New York City is also home to such notable
private universities as Barnard College, Columbia
University, Cooper Union, Fordham University, New
York University, The New School, and Yeshiva
University. The city has dozens of other smaller
private colleges and universities, including many
religious and special-purpose institutions, such as
St. John's University, The Juilliard School and The
School of Visual Arts.
Columbia University's Low Memorial Library
Much of the scientific research in the city is done
in medicine and the life sciences. New York City has
the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded
annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed
physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in
local institutions.[164] The city receives the
second-highest amount of annual funding from the
National Institutes of Health among all U.S.
cities.[165] Major biomedical research institutions
include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,
Rockefeller University, SUNY Downstate Medical
Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Mount
Sinai School of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical
College.
The New York Public Library, which has the largest
collection of any public library system in the
country, serves Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten
Island.[166] Queens is served by the Queens Borough
Public Library, which is the nation's second largest
public library system, and Brooklyn Public Library
serves Brooklyn.[166] The New York Public Library
has several research libraries, including the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
New York City also features many of the most elite
and exclusive private schools in the country. These
schools include Brearley School, Dalton School,
Spence School, Browning School, The Chapin School,
Nightingale-Bamford School, and Convent of the
Sacred Heart on the Upper East Side of Manhattan;
Collegiate School and Trinity School on the Upper
West Side of Manhattan; Horace Mann School, Ethical
Culture Fieldston School, and Riverdale Country
School in Riverdale, Bronx; and The Packer
Collegiate Institute and Saint Ann's School in
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn.
Some of New York City's renowned public secondary
schools, often considered the best in the nation,
include: Hunter College High School, Stuyvesant High
School, The Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn
Technical High School, Bard High School Early
College, Townsend Harris High School, and LaGuardia
High School. The city is home to the largest Roman
Catholic high school in the U.S., St. Francis
Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, Queens, and the
only official Italian-American school in the
country, La Scuola d'Italia on the Upper East Side
of Manhattan.
Transportation
New York City is home to the two busiest rail
stations in the US, including Grand Central
Terminal, which is seen here.
Main article: Transportation in New York City
Unlike every other major city in the United States,
public transit is the most popular mode of transit.
54.6% of New Yorkers commuted to work in 2005 using
mass transit.[167] About one in every three users of
mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of
the nation's rail riders live in New York and its
suburbs.[168][169] This is in contrast to the rest
of the country, where about 90% of commuters drive
automobiles to their workplace.[170] New York is the
only city in the United States where more than half
of all households do not own a car[not in citation
given] (in Manhattan, more than 75% of residents do
not own a car;[not in citation given] nationally,
the percentage is 8%).[170] According to the US
Census Bureau, New York City residents spend an
average of 38.4 minutes per day getting to work, the
longest commute time in the nation among large
cities.[171]
New York City is served by Amtrak, which uses
Pennsylvania Station. Amtrak provides connections to
Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. along the
Northeast Corridor as well as long-distance train
service to cities such as Chicago, New Orleans,
Miami, Toronto and Montreal. The Port Authority Bus
Terminal, the main intercity bus terminal of the
city, serves 7,000 buses and 200,000 commuters
daily, making it the busiest bus station in the
world.[172]
The New York City Subway is the largest rapid
transit system in the world when measured by the
number of stations in operation, with 468. It is the
third-largest when measured by annual ridership (1.5
billion passenger trips in 2006).[168] New York's
subway is also notable because nearly all of the
system remains open 24 hours per day, in contrast to
the overnight shutdown common to systems in most
cities, including London, Paris, Washington, Madrid
and Tokyo. The transportation system in New York
City is extensive and complex. It includes the
longest suspension bridge in North America,[173] the
world's first mechanically ventilated vehicular
tunnel,[174] more than 12,000 yellow cabs,[175] an
aerial tramway that transports commuters between
Roosevelt Island and Manhattan, and a ferry system
connecting Manhattan to various locales within and
outside the city. The busiest ferry in the United
States is the Staten Island Ferry, which annually
carries over 19 million passengers on the 5.2-mile
(8.4 km) run between Staten Island and Lower
Manhattan. The Staten Island Railway rapid transit
system solely serves Staten Island. The "PATH" train
(short for Port Authority Trans-Hudson) links the
New York City subway to points in northeast New
Jersey.
New York City's public bus fleet and commuter rail
network are the largest in North America.[168] The
rail network, connecting the suburbs in the
tri-state region to the city, consists of the Long
Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and New
Jersey Transit. The combined systems converge at
Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station and
contain more than 250 stations and 20 rail
lines.[168][176]
The TWA Flight Center Building at John F. Kennedy
International Airport
New York City is the top international air passenger
gateway to the United States.[177] The area is
served by three major airports, John F. Kennedy
International, Newark Liberty International and
LaGuardia, with plans for a fourth airport, Stewart
International Airport near Newburgh, NY, to be taken
over and enlarged by the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey (which administers the other three
airports), as a "reliever" airport to help cope with
increasing passenger volume. 100 million travelers
used the three airports in 2005 and the city's
airspace is the busiest in the nation.[178] Outbound
international travel from JFK and Newark accounted
for about a quarter of all U.S. travelers who went
overseas in 2004.[179]
The New York City Subway is the world's largest mass
transit system by number of stations and length of
track.
New York's high rate of public transit use, 120,000
daily cyclists[180] and many pedestrian commuters
makes it the most energy-efficient major city in the
United States.[48] Walk and bicycle modes of travel
account for 21% of all modes for trips in the city;
nationally the rate for metro regions is about
8%.[181]
To complement New York's vast mass transit network,
the city also has an extensive web of expressways
and parkways, that link New York City to northern
New Jersey, Westchester County, Long Island, and
southwest Connecticut through various bridges and
tunnels. Because these highways serve millions of
suburban residents who commute into New York, it is
quite common for motorists to be stranded for hours
in traffic jams that are a daily occurrence,
particularly during rush hour. The George Washington
Bridge is considered one of the world's busiest
bridges in terms of vehicle traffic.[182]
Despite New York's reliance on public transit, roads
are a defining feature of the city. Manhattan's
street grid plan greatly influenced the city's
physical development. Several of the city's streets
and avenues, like Broadway, Wall Street and Madison
Avenue are also used as shorthand in the American
vernacular for national industries located there:
the theater, finance, and advertising organizations,
respectively.
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