How many times has New York City popped up in the news, movies, and magazines and we wondered what that dream city is all about?‘The city that never sleeps’, is the term used to describe the rushed population. The lights all around that make it a sleepless city.To start off, New York City/NYC or simply New York is not New York State! It is one of the most populous cities in the US, it covers approximately 8,804,190 people in 300.46 sq mi (778.2 sq km) of the area, according to 2020. It is located go the southern edge of New York State. New York is also photographed more than any other city in the world that has it all; be it commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports influenced by its culture, wealth, and media.The city is the headquarters of the UN, thus has been called the capital of the world. The city comprises five boroughs; Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island. Its bordering states are Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.Some of the most famous landmarks in New York city are Wall Street, the Office of the United Nations, New York Bay, Ellis Island, Hudson River, Adirondack Park, New York Harbor, The Federal Hall, Empire State Building, Mohawk valley, and several others.The Erie Canal, which runs across central New York and connects the Atlantic ocean port to the agricultural markets and commodities of the interior of North America through the Hudson River, was completed in 1825.New Yorkers are some of the hardest-working people in the country that enjoys beautiful views such as that of Lake Ontario. The Empire State Building has become the global standard by which other skyscrapers’ height and length are measured. The Empire State Building Structure, with its setbacks, Art Deco embellishments, and spire, was the world’s tallest building from 1931 until 1972; the Chrysler Building was erected in 1930, this York has great lakes such as Lake Ontario.Times Square, Broadway theater productions, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the United Nations Headquarters, the World Trade Center, including the National September 11 Museum and One World Trade Center, museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Long Island, green spaces such as Central Park, New York Harbor, and Washington Square Park, great lakes such as Lake Ontario, and many more are all popular tourist attractions near Manhattan island.Be its sports teams or economic indexes, the former Dutch Colony leads the country in most parameters.After reading about some interesting facts about New York, also check facts about Grand Canyon history and Arizona facts and history.New York City Gang HistoryThe first two of street gangs in New York City featured the Irish and non-Irish people respectively in Lower Manhattan. The Five Points district, which comprised Center Street to the west, Canal Street to the north, the Bowery to the east, and Park Row to the south, had distinguished gangs with their uniforms.Since the area of the Five Points had the majority of poor people, it captured only a little attention from the authorities, leading to bloodshed and violence between the gangs. The violence affected the locals as well as the gangs themselves. One of the worst rivalries was the blood rivalry between the native Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits that had Irish immigrants.The arch rivalry between both the gangs led to a city-wide war in July 1857 that had over a thousand people on the streets; leaving eight individuals dead and 100 as severely wounded. Make no mistake, this was the most violent gang war as compared other mini incidents that happened from time to time.However, after 1890 when the photographer Jacob Riis exposed the Five Point District to the world, it caught the necessary attention from the authorities. The entire city got revamped with the establishment of missionary houses throughout the area. One of the famous revamping policies was the setting up of the Bowery Mission. In the later years, the city slowly got rid of the unorganized and unethical gangs making it a stable ground for working immigrants leading to the setting up of places like Little Italy, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side.In the ’20s, the other street-level infamous gangs organized and lied low. But soon the Mafia gang emerged, a criminal organization with a large number of members. Mafia was notorious and more organized than other gangs with Sicilian and Italian immigrants as its members. In the ’50s, gangs like Brooklyn’s Thrill Kill embroiled New York in violence. As more immigrants from Puerto Rico and the Caribbean joined these gangs, it created rifts within the gangs due to ethnic differences.By 1950 the federal government prioritized the city and started wiping these gangs out, which made the gang activities fade in the ’60s. In the ’70s, the gangs that persisted in the South Bronx and Harlem had African-American or Latino individuals who were discriminated against by society, especially by white people. The gangs that were active at this time included Savage Skulls, Reapers, the Dragons, the Black Spades, the Tomahawks and, and the Javelins.New York Times Subway HistoryA rapid transit system, the New York City Subway, is used by all the boroughs except Staten Island, which has New York City Transit Authority as its operator. Being the seventh busiest subway in the world, New York City Subway is on average used by 5.66 million people on a daily basis, according to a report published in 2016.The first underground line opened on October 27, 1904, and was known as the IRT Ninth Avenue Line. When the first subway opened, the lines parted ways to two privately owned systems; the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) now, Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation(BMT), and the Interborough Rapid Transit System (IRT). After 1913 all IRT tracks and most BRT lines were leased out. In 1932 the first city-owned and operated Independent Subway System was opened as competition to private systems and to eliminate some of the elevated railways.NYCTA, created in 1953, took control over the subway, bus, and streetcar services of the city, which was then controlled by the state level MTA in 1968 and led to its fiscal crisis. Graffiti and crime caught up; station, and equipment started worsening. In order to make the necessary amends, the railway services were halted for restoration with an $18 billion budget in the ’80s.Unfortunately, the September 11 attacks caused the services to halt again, mainly on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line that runs under the World Trade Centre, in addition to 10 other nearby stations. Three of the stations and the others except for Cortlandt Street on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line were reopened on September 15, 2002. From the ’00s, seven subway extensions have been made that were opened in 2015, and further Second Avenue Subway was opened in 2017.Museums Of New York CityHere’s a list of eight museums you should visit in upstate New York City.The Metropolitan Museum of Art: established in 1880, the museum in Central Park has 5000 years old Old Master paintings, the Ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur, and the museum’s famous period rooms.MOMA (Museum Of Modern Art): the museum technically is filled with art that isn’t ancient but of the latest artists. You’re going to see a museum established for today than typical historical museums.Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: opened at Guggenheim in 1959, the museum has a spectacular collection of artworks, famous among them being the spiraling rotunda.Whitney Museum of American Art: the architecture is done by the world-famous architect Renzo Piano; the museum is at Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, displaying lesser-known amazing exhibitions.Brooklyn Museum: the 1897 Beaux-Art building includes period rooms, Ancient Egyptian and African Art, a vast collection of modern and contemporary paintings that make it the third-largest museum of the five boroughs.The Jewish Museum: located in 1908 Warburg Mansion, the museum is inhabited by a collection of more than 28,000 artworks, artifacts and media installations.The Fotografiska: coming as a branch to the Fotografiska Gallery in Stockholm, the gallery exhibits great temporary works from time to time.Merchant’s House Museum: this is an 18th-century family home with decorations dating back to the timeline of hardware tycoon Seabury Treadwell, who lived there between 1835 and 1933.New York Colony HistoryBefore 1609 the land was under Native American groups of Iroquois and Algonquian people. The Iroquois joined houses with Five Nations comprising Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, and the Seneca, later becoming Six Nations with an additional tribe of Tuscarora.In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson came to the land, followed by Dutch people who claimed the land as their own and started settling by trading beaver fur to the natives. By 1669 the whole of the city was colonized by the English and was renamed New York. Later in 1775, the natives of 13 colonies unified for a war to capture back their land.Several such wars took place, the Battle of the Long Island being the largest. But what changed history was the Battle of Saratoga that made the British surrender. Finally, on July 26, 1788, New York had declared the new U.S. Constitution and became the 11th state. New York was the country’s capital till 1790. Betsy Ross was the first person to sew the stars and stripes in the U.S flag in 1776.New York Stock Exchange HistoryNew York Stock & Exchange Board (NYSE) was registered in the year 1817 to become one of the largest stock exchanges on Wall Street. This has been a fairly big achievement considering the stock exchange finds its origins from the buttonwood tree 24 stockbroker’s meeting held in 1792.When the commercial activities in the US witnessed a boom after the year 1812, there was considerable growth in the investments made in railroads after the American Revolution. This contributed to a growth in the demand as well as the value of shares listed on the exchange. Since 1868, the only way members can be admitted to NYSE is by obtaining a seat from an existing member.Moreover, companies are required to publicly publish their finances to be eligible for offering stocks. Companies also need to comply with the specified guidelines to register with NYSE. The stock market crisis in 1929 marked the start of the Great Economic Depression prompting an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. NYSE Group Inc became a public company after a merger with Archipelago Holdings in the year 2006.In expectations of a considerable change, seats on the exchange were put up for sale in December 2005 and existing seat holders in NYSE became shareholders after going public. After a merger with Euronext N.V. in the year 2007, NYSE Euronext came into existence as a holding company which subsequently acquired the American Stock Exchange naming it NYSE Amex Equities.After the year 2011, Intercontinental Exchange acquired NYSE Euronext, selling Euronext but retaining NYSE that subsequently acquired National Stock Exchange of New Jersey.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for historical facts about new york then why not take a look at Viking history for kids, or Hagia Sophia history.
How many times has New York City popped up in the news, movies, and magazines and we wondered what that dream city is all about?
