Albany is the capital of New York State, but New York City is the “Big Apple”.
New York is called The “Big Apple”, because in the 1920’s and 1930’s jazz musicians said that the city was the best and most attractive place.
Eight million people live in New York City
New York has five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island
Manhattan is the most famous borough and it’s where the tourists go!
Four hundred years ago, the Algonquin Indians owned the island of Manhattan. In 1626, a Dutchman called Peter Minuit gave the Indians 24 dollars to buy the island. In about 1650, five hundred people lived there and it was called New Amsterdam.
In 1664 the British took the town from the Dutch and changed its name to New York. At the end of the eighteenth century, many immigrants started to come to America.. They first came from Germany and Ireland, later from Italy, Poland, Russia, Africa and China.
In Manhattan you can travel on subway trains…..
…on buses or in a taxi. Here taxis are called “cabs”.
You can take the Water Taxi around the island of Manhattan… …or take the free ferry from Battery Park to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Ellis Island the Statue of Liberty
Ellis Island was an immigration station in the past; it was the first stop for nearly 17 million immigrants
Many famous people came through Ellis Island, for example Sigmund Freud, Charlie Chaplin and Walt Disney.
The Statue of Liberty is the first thing many immigrants see.
It was a gift from the French people in It is 93 meters high and it’s arm is 14 meters long.
People from the same origin often live in the same area and create their own communities. The Chinese community is in “CHINATOWN”
Little Italy is the Italian community
Most of the theatres in New York are near Times Square…
…and on Broadway, between 41st and 53rd streets. There are more than thirty theatres on Broadway.
The Brooklyn Bridge connects Manhattan to Brooklyn. When it opened in 1883, it was the world’s longest bridge.
Central Park is 6% of Manhattan.
It has a big lake, hundreds of trees and beautiful gardens
The Empire State Building is NY’s tallest skyscraper. It’s 381 meters tall and it has 102 floors
The Chrysler building was built by the famous car maker. It was finished in 1930.
The Rockefeller Center includes many buildings, but it is most visited in winter.
A huge Christmas tree and a crowded skating rink attract New Yorkers and tourists.
But on the 11 th of September 2001, (9/11) for Americans, radical Islamists crashed two planes into the towers. Today this site is called “Ground Zero”.