NY is a city of international importance. There is the United Nations Headquartes by the East River.
There is one flag for each member of the UN (about 150) . Visitors can take an interesting tour through the buildings, they can also get tickets for a meeting of the General Assembly, the Security Council and other organs.
Everyone coming to NY from the sea can see the Statue of Liberty standing on Liberty Island, in the NY City Harbour. The statue is 46 m high, 92 m high including its pedestal. It weighs 225 tons.
It was a gift to the American people from the French in 1886 to commemorate the alliance between the USA and France during the American revolution. The Statue symbolises freedom and democracy and since then it has been the first sight for immigrants who have come to the USA.
Boats take visitors from Manhattan Island to the Statue of Liberty.
There are stairs inside the Statue (167 steps in the base and a spiral staircase of 171 steps in the statue).
Visitors can walk up the stairs to the head of the Statue (but most of them prefer the elevator) and look out from there at the harbour.
There is also the Museum of Immigration in the base. The Statue was the first object to greet immigrants sailing to the New World and thus became a symbol of the American ideal.

MANHATTAN is the real centre of New York. It is a long island washed by two rivers: The Hudson River on the west and The East River on the other side. The Harlem River is between Manhattan and The Bronx. NY has more than 65 bridges; The Brooklyn Bridge is the longest in the world; The George Washington Bridge is the only bridge over the Hudson River.

The city was built on a modern plan of streets and avenues which follow a geometry shape and are numbered, they do not have names except the old ones – Wall Street and Broadway. Streets run east-west and avenues north-south

One of the most impressive views of NY City is the typical Manhattan skyline – a large number of skyscrapers on a small area. They started to build skyscrapers because of the lack of space and the high price of land on the island. Skyscrapers are also an interesting sociological phenomenon as the building is a small city itself: it offers residential quarters, office spaces, parking lots, restaurants, shopping facilities, fitness centres, swimming pools etc., but living in a skyscraper is very expensive.
The most famous are:
Empire State Building – it has 102 stories and a TV tower at the top. It was the highest building in the world until 1954 and it was also called ”the eight wonder of the world”. World Trade Center – called also The Twin Towers – the two buildings have 110 stories.
Visitors can see the city and the harbour from the top of both of the mentioned buildings.
Another famous place is Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue. It is a large business and entertainment complex of 21 buildings; the largest skyscraper city in the world. There are about 30 restaurants, a lot of shops, TV studios, exhibition halls. Visitors can admire its garden and skating rink.
One well-known building is The Radio City Music Hall – 6 000 people can see a show on the big stage.
Other famous skyscrapers are: Chrysler, PAN AM Bldgs, Citicorp Center, Trump Tower, IBM Tower.

Across the Fifth Avenue from Rockefeller Center is St. Patrick Cathedral – the largest Roman Catholic Church and the seat of the Archbishop of NY which has become the centre of the Easter Parade.

Another interesting place for visitors of NY is the Fifth Avenue, famous for its luxury shops, banks, airline offices, jewelries (Tiffany, Cartier), hotels (The Plaza Hotel), and office buildings.
It runs 6 miles through the city and divides Manhattan into eastern and western parts.