New York
New York , named by jazz musicians in 1920s „Big Apple“, is the largest city of the USA with 14 million inhabitants. It was
founded in 1625 and it is situated at the junction of the Hudson River with the and East River, and between Long Island and the Atlantic Ocean.
Begining 1892, millions of immigrants paased trough Ellis Island in the NY Harbor , where the their first imagine of America
was Statue of Liberty: a national monument and a symbol of NY. “The Lady“ as the Statue of Liberty is also called was a gift from
France in 1886 to celebrate an alliance of two nations in achieving the independence of the USA and it is one of the most visited country’s
monument. Lady’s statue was designed by french historian Laboulaye and sculptor Bartholdi and
it’s interrior was designed by Gustave Eiffel.
New York is composed of five sections: Manhattan, the
Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staton Island also called Richmond.
Manhattan is the heart of the
city and because over one million and half people is crowded there into Manhattan Island, the city offers many parks – the famous Central
Park and other smaller parks and places to enjoy free time. Manhattan is divided to East Side and West Side
by best known Fifth Avenue, which extends from Washigton Square to Harlem River.
Manhattan can be also
divided into:
1) Downtown: there is financial district, where we could find World Trade Center
which was destroyed by terrorist attacks 11th Septemeber 2001. These buildings called also as „Twins“ were the tallest buildings in the world, now
it is Empire State Building again, which is the most visited building in the world. The skyline of the city is marked by high
business buildings known as „skycrapers“. Here we can find also Financial District, Chinatown, Little Italy,
SoHo = South of Houston -> features art galleries, Greenwich Village = home of playwrights and artists -> high
rent district;TriBeCa, Wall Street, East Village West Village.
2) Midtown: in this part of
Manhattan there are most popular atractions of NY: Empire State Building, office of United Nations, the
Chrysler Building, Times Square famous with New Year’s celebration and Theathre District which
offer variety of dramatic plays and musical productions (MTV), Broadway a centre of cultural life
is one of the most popular streets in the world and Rockefeller Centre = 19 building complex, the centre houses Radio City
music Hall, TV Headquarters of NBC, publishing companies etc.
3) Uptown = area round Central park which is said to be the
largest and finest urban park in the United States.; divided into:
Upper west side which is known for its
cultural landmarks, there is plenty of museums: American museum of natural history, Lincoln’s center for the
Performing arts etc. There also elite residences of Madonna, Mias Farrow, Yoko Ono etc.
Upper east side: four stars
restaurants : Le Cirque, Madison Avenue -> art galleries, fashionable shops and many of New York’s finest museusm including
Museum Mile etc.
4)Northern Manhattan – northern part of Manhattan is called
Harlem. In 1920s became a centre of arts and entertainment = era of Harlem Renaissance. But through the
years it became a slum, so it was revived by families and groups interested in preserving area’s black anf African history.
Half of
New York’s population is foreign born or has foreign born parent. It’s because of coming of many immigrants trough second WW. With a few
exceptions the street in New York are not named but numbered. Most New Yorkers and tourists use for travelling trough the city the subway systems or
very famous yellow taxis. In New York there are three airports: 2 in Queens: the biggest
Kennedy’s airport and Laguardia airport and the last one is in New Jersey – Newark
airport.
New York is the center of the financial world, of the art, media and fashion world. On the other side New York is
notorious for its crime. There are drug battles, gang wars and homeless people living in the streets. Many people believe New York is no longer a
healthy place for living and lots of them, mainly young families with children are moving away.
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