New York CityNY is the largest city in the USA and one of the largest and most fascinating cities ofthe world. More than 8 million people live in the central area and if the whole metropolitan area is counted, there is about 18 million people counted.
It is an important seaport, with a good connection with inland; the largest business, industrial and cultural centre of the USA and it is also the centre of the art world, the media world, the theatre world, and the fashion world.
There are 5 parts in NY which are called boroughs:
1. Manhattan – the real centre of NY
2. Staten Island – there are a lot of lakes and trees, not many people live there
3. Brooklyn – has a famous beach – Coney Beach and a famous shipyard
4. Queens – is the largest borough and a lot of visitors arrive there if they fly because there is the most important airport (one of 3 airports in NY) – the John F.Kennedy International Airport
5. The Bronx – is the only borough on the mainland, all others are on islands; there are a lot of parks and the Bronx ZOO – one of the largest in America
NY is a city of international importance. There is the United Nations Headquarters.
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 Harbor. The statue is 46 m high, 92 m high. It weighs 225 tons. It was a gift to America from France in 1886.
Boats take visitors from Manhattan Island to the Statue of Liberty. There are stairs inside the Statue. It is hard to get a ticket to get inside the Statue of Liberty people pre-order weeks before visiting
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 harbor.
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. It is easy to orient in Manhattan because they have avenues and streets.
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 centre’s, 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 eighth wonder of the world”.
Another famous place is Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue. It is a large business and entertainment complex of 21 buildings. There are about 30 restaurants, a lot of shops, TV studios and 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.
For shopping the best stores are between 34 and 58 Streets. The most famous and largest department store in NY is MACY´ S on 34 Street. Equally famous is Broadway, an old Indian road. It is famous for its theatres (there are more than 40).
The most famous are : The Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall.
Opera, ballet and concerts are performed at Lincoln Center.
Times Square is the centre of the theatre district and there are also fashionable restaurants.
It is one of the leading attractions for tourists. An important evening in Times Square is New Year´s Eve- December 31. Crowds of people stand there and wait for midnight.
Greenwich Village (Broadway) was inhabited by intellectuals, writers, and artists (actors and musicians); it is now a respectable residential area with old low but also modern apartment blocks.
In Madison Square Garden a lot of different sports events take place.
There are a lot of museums in NY. The most famous is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has great collections from all over the world, it has also a concert hall. Other well-known museums are: Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, The American Museum of Natural History and Museum of the City of New York is very interesting, as well.
There is the second largest library in the USA – The New York Public Library.
There are the headquarters of most US publishing houses, for example – New York Times.
NY has more than 50 universities and Colleges
NY has a lot of parks. The most famous and the largest is Central Park, lying in the centre of Manhattan. It offers both summer and winter attractions (a ZOO, an ice-skating rink, an open-air theatre, tennis courts, biking paths, children´s playgrounds etc.) In summer, lots of people go out in boats on the Lake. Horses pull carriages through the Park. However, it is dangerous to go after dark.
There are thousands of restaurants in NY. They serve every kind of food in the world. I personally have visited NY 5 times already and it is a wonderful place but it is more of a tourist city than a place to live in.
