Manhattan New York by midweekpost

Manhattan (coterminous with New York County) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. With a 2007 population of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.47 km²), it is the most densely populated county in the United States at 70,595 residents per square mile (27,267/km²). It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 personal per capita income above $100,000. The borough consists of Manhattan Island, Roosevelt Island, Randalls Island, almost one-tenth of Ellis Island the above-water portion of Liberty Island, several much smaller islands, and a small section on the mainland of New York State adjacent to the Bronx.

Manhattan is a major commercial, financial, and cultural center of the United States and the world. Most major radio, television, and telecommunications companies in the United States are based here, as well as many news, magazine, book, and other media publishers. Manhattan has many famous landmarks, tourist attractions, museums, and universities. It is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations. Manhattan has the largest central business district in the United States, is the site of both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and is the home to the largest number of corporate headquarters in the nation. It is indisputably the center of New York City and the New York metropolitan region, holding the seat of city government, and the largest fraction of employment, business, and recreational activities.

The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Henry Hudson’s yacht Halve Maen (Half Moon). A 1610 map depicts the name Manahata twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River (later named the Hudson River). The word “Manhattan” has been translated as “island of many hills” from the Lenape language. The Encyclopedia of New York City offers other derivations, including from the Munsee dialect of Lenape: manahachtanienk (”place of general inebriation”), manahatouh (”place where timber is procured for bows and arrows”), or menatay (”island”).

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Central Park New York by esparta

Central Park is a large public, urban park (843 acres, 3.41 km², 1.32 mi²; a rectangle 2.6 statute miles by 0.5 statute mile, or 4.1 km × 830 m) in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, almost 4/5 of the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park and just over 1/3 of the size of London’s Richmond Park. With about twenty-five million visitors annually, Central Park is the most visited city park in the United States and its appearance in many movies and television shows has made it famous.

The park is maintained by the Central Park Conservancy, a private, not-for-profit organization that manages the park under a contract with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation in which the president of the Conservancy is ex officio Administrator of Central Park.

Central Park is bordered on the north by West 110th Street, on the south by West 59th Street, on the west by Eighth Avenue. Along the park’s borders however, these are known as Central Park North, Central Park South, and Central Park West respectively. Fifth Avenue retains its name along the eastern border of the park. Most of the areas immediately adjacent to the park are known for impressive buildings and valuable real estate.

The park was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux, who went on to collaborate on Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Central Park has been a National Historic Landmark since 1963.

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Statue of Liberty by jeffpearce

Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island, ☎ ”+1 866” 782 8834 (within USA) or ”+1 212” 269 5755 (international). 8:30am-5:15pm (hours adjusted seasonally). Take the ferry from Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan or from Liberty State Park in New Jersey (see Statue Cruises Ferry below). Be prepared for airport like security screening with similar restrictions (no food or open liquids, no knives, etc.) before boarding the boat. No entry ticket is required to visit the island. After closure since 9/11 (2001), the Statue pedestal reopened to visitors in 2004. A free, timed ticket is required for entry to the statue pedestal. Tickets are limited in number and can be obtained on the day from the ferry company or in advance (for $1.75) by calling the ticket office on the phone number above (8am-7pm) or online.

Signs on the Island state that you should obtain your tickets 1 week in advance to guarantee that you will be able to enter the pedestal. The Promenade Tour (which requires a second security check) consists of a tour through the monument lobby and museum (20-30 minutes) and then outside to the promenade and Fort Wood. The Observatory Tour additionally includes a trip in the elevator to the pedestal observation deck (not up into the statue itself). Security checks are rigorous so travel as light as possible. Backpacks and other large bags are not permitted on the tours but can be stored in lockers for a fee.

On busy days there may be long waits. If leaving from Manhattan, you may need to arrive at Battery Park 2 hours before your timed tour to allow for security screening and ferry travel. Best to arrive at Battery Park early in the morning. From the Manhattan ferry the Statue of Liberty will be located on the right side of the boat. Admission to the Island is free – but you need to pay for the ferry. Ferry Fees Audio tour $6.

Liberty Enlightening the World (French: La liberté éclairant le monde), commonly known as the Statue of Liberty (French: Statue de la Liberté), was presented to the United States by the people of France in 1886. Standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, it welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans.The copper-clad statue, dedicated on October 28, 1886, commemorates the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and is a gesture of friendship from France to the United States. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue and obtained a U.S. patent for its structure.Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) engineered the internal structure. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for the choice of copper in the statue’s construction and adoption of the repoussé technique, where a malleable metal is hammered on the reverse side.

The statue is of a robed woman holding a torch, and is made of a sheeting of pure copper, hung on a framework of steel (originally puddled iron) with the exception of the flame of the torch, which is coated in gold leaf (originally made of copper and later altered to hold glass panes.) It stands atop a rectangular stonework pedestal with a foundation in the shape of an irregular eleven-pointed star. The statue is 151 ft (46 m) tall, but with the pedestal and foundation, it is 305 ft (93 m) tall.

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Greenwich Village New York by sethw

Greenwich Village (pronounced /ˌgrɛnɪtʃ ˈvɪlɪdʒ/), often simply called the Village, is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern) Manhattan in New York City named seemingly after Greenwich, London, England. However, it was called Noortwijck or Greenwijck by the Dutch founders before the British takeover, so Greenwich is probably a mispronunciation of the older name. A large majority of this district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village was historically noted as the internationally reputed bohemian capital, and the birthplace of the Beat Movement. Ironically, what provided the initial attractive character of the community eventually contributed to its gentrification and excessive commercialization.

Location

The neighborhood is bounded by Broadway on the east, the Hudson River on the west, Houston Street on the south, and 14th Street on the north. The neighborhoods surrounding it are the East Village to the east, SoHo to the south, and Chelsea to the north. The East Village was formerly considered part of the Lower East Side and never associated with Greenwich Village. The West Village is the part of Greenwich Village west of 6th Avenue.

Greenwich Village was better known as Washington Square – based on the major landmark Washington Square Park or Empire Ward in the 19th century.

It should be noted that Encyclopedia Britannica’s 1956 article on “New York (City)” (subheading “Greenwich Village”) states that the southern border of the Village is Spring Street. But currently, according to Landmark Preservation maps of New York City, the Village’s erratic borders go no farther south than 4th Street or St. Luke’s Place, and no farther east than Washington Square East or University Place. Consequently, the newer historic districts of SoHo and NoHo encroach on the Village’s historic borders.

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Chinatown New York by sayheypatrick

The Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan — (Chinese: 紐約華埠) a borough of New York City — is an ethnic enclave with a large population of Chinese immigrants, similar to Chinatown districts in other American cities. It is the second most populous Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere (after San Francisco’s Chinatown), and third in area size (San Francisco, Vancouver).

Location

Until the 1970s, the traditional borders of Chinatown were:

* Canal Street in the North (bordering Little Italy)
* The Bowery in the East (bordering the Lower East Side)
* Worth Street in the South
* Baxter Street in the West

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The iconic scene of King Kong battling an airplane on top of the Empire State Building.

Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Avenue (Fifth Avenue at 34th Street), ☎ +1-212-736-3100. Hours: Daily: 8:00 - 24:00 with summer hours normally being extended.. Once again the tallest building in New York, since the destruction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers on 11 September 2001. Between its completion in 1930 and the building of the Twin Towers, the New York icon also held the record as the tallest building in the world. Admission: Adults: $16.00, Youth (12 - 17): $14.00, Children (6 - 11): $10.00, Seniors (62+) or Military with ID: $14.00, Military in uniform or toddlers (Under 5): Free; 102nd floor Observatory tickets are only sold at the Observatory ticket office, located on the 2nd floor of the building, which cost an additional $14.00 to regular tickets.

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world’s tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center’s North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.

The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List of America’s Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. The building is owned and managed by W&H Properties.

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Broadway Theater Playbill by SeanLucas

Broadway theater, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the theater District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Broadway theater is the best known form of professional theater to the general public in the United States and the most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows. Along with London’s West End theater, Broadway theater is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theater in the English-speaking world.

The shows that reach Broadway and thrive there have historically been perceived as generally mainstream and less likely to be cutting edge than some produced Off- and Off-Off-Broadway or in regional non-profit theaters.

The Broadway theater district is a key tourist attraction in New York City. According to The Broadway League, Broadway shows sell over one and a half billion dollars worth of tickets annually.

History
18th and 19th centuries

New York (and so, America) did not have a significant theater presence until about 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theater company at the theater on Nassau Street, which held about 280 people. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar’s Opera. In 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theater in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist. The company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theater in New York, but thereafter theater resumed, and in 1798, the 2,000-seat Park theater was built on Chatham Street (now called Park Row). The Bowery theater opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, and especially so with the arrival of the Virginia Minstrels in the 1840s.

By the 1840s, P.T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblo’s Garden opened and soon became one of New York’s premiere night spots. The 3,000-seat theater presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. The Astor Place theater opened in 1847. A riot broke out in 1849 when the lower-class patrons of the Bowery objected to what they perceived as snobbery by the upper class audiences at Astor Place:

“After the Astor Place Riot of 1849 entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for the middle class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle class.

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New York City (officially The City of New York) is the largest city in the United States, with its metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world. Founded as a commercial trading post by the Dutch in 1624, it served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, and has been the nation’s largest city since 1790. Located on a natural harbor, New York exerts global influence in commerce and finance as well as arts and entertainment. The city is an important center for international affairs, hosting the headquarters of the United Nations.

The city has many renowned landmarks. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan, has been a dominant global financial center since World War II and is home to the New York Stock Exchange. The city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the Empire State Building and the twin towers of the former World Trade Center.

New York is the birthplace of cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art, abstract expressionism (also known as the New York School) in painting, and hip hop punk salsa, and Tin Pan Alley in music. It is also the home of Broadway theater.

In 2005, nearly 170 languages were spoken in the city and 36% of its population was born outside the United States. With its 24-hour subway and constant bustling of traffic and people, New York is sometimes called “The City That Never Sleeps”. Other nicknames include Gotham and the “Big Apple.”

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