New York

NY city is the biggest city in the USA. It belongs to the largest in the world. Half of New Your City’s population is either foreign born or has a foreign born parent. It´s situated on the eastern coast of the USA at the mouth of the Hudson and the East River. It is an important sea port. NY is divided into 5 sections: The island of Manhattan is the heart of the city. Manhattan is divided into the East side and West Side by Fifth Avenue. The other are Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Richmond. The northern part of Manhattan is Harlem, where many black families live. In the 20s it became a centre of arts and entertainment – black poets, painters and musicians lived and worked there. (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holida performed in famous Cotton Club.)
Little Italy is just north of Chinatown and has the sights, smells, and sounds of other Italian cities. There is also a large Puerto Rican population. Another famous New Your neighbourhood is Greenwich Village, which became a home to struggling playwrights and artists. The original inhabitants of NY were Indians, which is resembled by the name of the oldest part – Manhattan Island. Indians sold it to the Dutch for 24 dollars. The original name was New Amsterdam. In 1644 the British captured the city and renamed it NY. Because of its advantageous position it soon became an important trading port. In southern part of Manhattan island there used to be a wall against Indians, now there is Wall Street - the centre of financial life with the most important stock-exchange in the world. The modern town was built on a grid plan of streets and avanues. The streets go from west to east and the avenues from north to south. The streets and avenues have no names, they are indicated by numbers. Broadway is a very famous centre of theatres. Originally is was an old Indian way also called „The Great White Way“. NY is famous for its Manhattan skyline – a large number of skyscropers on a small area. They started to build skyscropers here because of the lock of space and the high price of land on the island. One of the most famous skyscropers is called the Empire State Building. It has about 102 floors. At teh top there is a TV tower and a restaurant. It was built in NY but also all over the world for a long time. Now the highest building in NY is the World Trade Centre so called Twin Towers. Rockefeller Center is 21 buildings on 5th Avenue. It is an office center having beautiful garden and skating rink.

One of those buildings is Radio City Music Hall. Not far from there, there is St. Patrick´s Cathedral - the biggest cathedral in NY.
The New Yorkers like spending free time on Coney Island and in Central Park on the Manhattan Island. There are some lakes there. Rock concerts in the open air take place there. NYC is nicknamed The Big Apple and is the center of the financial, art, media, theatre and fashion world. Typical symbol of the USA is the Statue of Liberty. It stands on the Liberty Island. It is a statue of a woman who szmboliyed the freedom and friendship between the French and American people during the American revolution. She holds a burning torch in her right hand and a law book in her left one. There is an inscription „July 4th, 1776“ what means the birth date of the USA. The statue was constructed in France according to project of the architect Frederick August Bartholdi. In was a gift of the French people to the Americans. The designer of the framework was Eiffel – the famous creator of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The hight of the statue is 46 m. It stands on a pedestal. the total height amounds to 93 m. It was brought to America by a ship and erected there in honour of the 110th anniversary of the birth of the USA. NY has several airports - JFK and Newark airport. NY has the largest subway system in the world. It´s not nice, but dirty and dangerous. Other means of transport are taxis - drivers are mostly black people and there are some single buses. NY cab is a bit more expensive. New Your cabbies are notorious for their wild driving. Madison Square Garden is the place to go to see basketball and hockey games, rock concerts, rodeos. Bronx Zoo is one of the best. NY was the capital of the USA for 4 years at the end of the 18th century.
Central Park is Manhattan is full of people every day. It can be a bit dangerous at night. There is a ZOO, ice-skating rink and many possibilities for sports and rest. The most famous museums are The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum and American Museum of Natural History. The Madison Square Garden was built in 1968 and offers many sports facilities.
NY Public Library - it is the largest public library in the USA. On pleasant days people, especially students sit on steps and read. As there are statues of 2 lions on the sides of the steps, this activity is often called "reading between the lions".