Contents

Introduction..................................................................................................2
Chapter I : Famous cities from ,, The Big Apple ......................................4
I.1 Most popular attractions................................................................4
I.2 Most popular streets.....................................................................10
I.3 Famous parks and squares...........................................................13
Chapter II : The history of New York City................................................17
II.1 New York City in the 18th century.............................................18
II.2 New York City in the 19th century.............................................18
II.3 New York City in the 20th century..............................................19
II.4 New York City in the new millennium.......................................20
Precise......................................................................................................21
Bibliography...............................................................................................22

Introduction

New York City

New York, the largest city in the U.S., is an architectural marvel with
plenty of historic monuments, magnificent buildings and countless dazzling
skyscrapers. Besides the architectural delights, New York is an urban jungle that
has everything to offer to visitors. The city is home to numerous museums, parks,
trendy neighborhoods and shopping streets. New York City, city and port located at
the mouth of the Hudson River, southeastern New York state, northeastern U.S.
It is the largest and most influential American metropolis, encompassing
Manhattan and Staten islands, the western sections of Long Island, and a small
portion of the New York state mainland to the north of Manhattan. New York City
is in reality a collection of many neighborhoods scattered among the citys five
boroughs like Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Each
exhibiting its own lifestyle. Moving from one city neighborhood to the next may
be like passing from one country to another. New York is the most populous and
the most international city in the country. Its urban area extends into adjoining
parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Located where the Hudson and East rivers empty into one of the worlds
premier harbours, New York is both the gateway to the North American continent
and its preferred exit to the oceans of the globe. New York is the most ethnically
diverse, religiously varied, commercially driven, famously congested, and, in the
eyes of many, the most attractive urban center in the country. No other city has
contributed more images to the collective consciousness of Americans: Wall Street
means finance, Broadway is synonymous with theatre, Fifth Avenue is
automatically paired with shopping, Madison Avenue means the advertising
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industry, Greenwich Village connotes bohemian lifestyles, Seventh Avenue

signifies fashion, Tammany Hall defines machine politics, and Harlem evokes
images of the Jazz Age.

Chapter I : Famous cities from ,,The Big Apple

I.1 Most popular attractions

The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 103-story skyscraper located in Midtown
Manhattan, New York City, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th
Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (381 meters), and with its antenna spire
included, it stands a total of 1,454 feet (443 m) high. At the time when it was built
in the early 1930s on Fifth Avenue, the Empire State Building broke all records and
was dubbed 'the 8th world wonder'.
The building had 64 elevators (now 73) and was constructed in only 1 year and 45
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days. The skyscraper towered over the neighborhood with its height of 381 meters
(1250 ft). As the Empire State Building was one of the last skyscrapers built before
the Great Depression hit the real estate market, it wouldn't be topped until 1972,
when the twin World Trade Towers dethroned the Empire State Building as the
world's tallest building. The Empire State Building is built on a full city block.
Much of it was
occupied by the
Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel, which opened
in November 1897 as
the city's largest hotel
with 1050 rooms. It
was one the most
prestigious in New
York and attracted an
upper-class clientele.
The Empire State
Building was designed
by William Frederick Lamb of the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb, and
Harmon.

Statue of Liberty
The statue was designed by a young French sculptor, Frdric-Auguste
Bartholdi, who was striving to build a statue like the great Colossus that once stood
at the Greek island Rhodes. The statue's face was modeled after his mother's and
the story goes that the body was modeled after a prostitute. The crown of Lady
Liberty, as the statue is often affectionately called, has seven spikes, symbolizing
the Seven Seas across which liberty should be spread. In her left hand she holds a
tablet with the Declaration of Independence and in her right hand a torch,
symbolizing Enlightenment. The Statue of Liberty is 46,5 meters (151ft) tall and
together with the pedestal it reaches a height of 93 meters (305ft).The Statue of
Liberty was constructed in Paris, France. It took nine years before it was completed
in 1884 after which it was sent to the USA in 214 crates. It is
a colossal neoclassical sculpture and it is located on Liberty Island in the middle
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of New York Harbor, in Manhattan.

Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge ranks as one of

the greatest engineering feats of the 19th century and remains one of New York's
most popular and well known landmarks. The impressive bridge spans the East
river between Brooklyn and Manhattan and stretches for a length of 5989 ft, about
1.8 km. The span between the large towers measures 1595.5 ft. (486 meters). This
made the Brooklyn Bridge the world's largest suspension bridge. The construction
of the Brooklyn Bridge started in 1869 and took 14 years to complete. At the time
many saw the construction of such a large bridge as a folly. An elevated pedestrian
path not only gives you the opportunity to cross the river without being bothered
by the traffic that rushes past a level below, but it also offers a great view of the
bridge's towers as well as downtown Manhattan's skyline. The views alone attract
millions of visitors to this bridge each year. The Brooklyn Bridge was initially
designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who had previously
designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges. The Brooklyn Bridge was
opened for use on May 24, 1883. The opening ceremony was attended by several
thousand people and many ships were present in the East Bay for the occasion.

The Flatiron Building

The Flatiron Building is one of the most
famous historic landmarks in New York. The
iconic 21 story building, best known for its
triangular shape, was one of the early spectacular
high-rises that have come to define Manhattan.
The Flatiron Building was constructed between
1901 and 1903 at the intersection of Broadway
and Fifth Avenue, at the time one of the most
prominent locations in New York City. It is
situated near Madison Square at the end of the
Ladies' Mile, one of Manhattan's most important
shopping districts at the turn of the 19th century.
The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago's
Daniel Burnham as a steel-frame skyscraper clad
in white terra-cotta. At 21 stories and 307 ft. (93
meters), it was one of the city's tallest
buildings. Built as the headquarters of the Fuller Construction company, the
skyscraper was meant to be named Fuller Building. But the building was soon
dubbed 'Flatiron' after its unusual shape, caused by the triangular plot. The building
was called "One of the world's most iconic skyscrapers, and a quintessential
symbol of New York City". The Flatiron Building was given another nickname:
"Burnham's Folly". Many people at the time thought Daniel Burnham's triangular
design combined with the building's exceptional height would not withstand strong
winds. Some were even speculating how far the building's debris would spread
after falling over. But Burnham was an experienced architect who knew what he
was doing and his skyscraper withstood the test of time.

Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal is one of two magnificent train stations that were
built in New York in the heyday of railway transportation. The other, Penn Station,
was demolished in the 1960s.The monumental railway station was constructed in
1903-1913 for the New York and Harlem Railroad company. It is a grand Beaux-Arts
building which serves as a transportation hub connecting train, metro, car and
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pedestrian traffic in an efficient way. It has 67 train tracks on two different

levels. Built by and named for the New York Central Railroad in the heyday of
American long-distance passenger rail travel, it is the largest such facility in the
world by number of platforms with 44 serving 67 tracks along them. They are on two
levels, both below ground, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower,
though the total number of tracks along platforms and in rail yards exceeds 100. The
terminal covers an area of 48
acres (19 ha).Although the
terminal has been properly
called Grand Central
Terminal since 1913, many
people continue to refer to it
wrongly as Grand Central
Station, the name of the
previous rail station on the
same site. Featuring
monumental spaces and
meticulously crafted detail, Grand Central Terminal has been described as "the
world's loveliest station" and was rated the sixth-most-visited tourist attraction for its
roughly 21.6 million annual visitors.

Chrysler Building
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the race for the world's tallest
building started in earnest with several developers in New York vying for the coveted
title. The Chrysler Building was the first building to top the tallest structure, then
the Eiffel Tower in Paris. For Walter P. Chrysler, from the car manufacturer, building
the tallest building in the world was a status symbol. The Chrysler Building was in a
race with the Bank of Manhattan (now40 Wall Street) for obtaining the title of tallest
building in the world. It looked like the Bank of Manhattan would win the race, with
an expected height of 282 meters (927ft) to around 230 meters for the Chrysler
Building. But the spire of the Chrysler Building was constructed in secret inside the
tower. Just one week after the Bank of Manhattan had topped out, the spire of the
Chrysler Building was put in place, making it 318 meters (1045ft) tall, thus beating
the Bank of Manhattan as the tallest building in the world. It would not keep this title
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for long: one year later the Empire State

Building was erected. The Chrysler building
is one of the last skyscrapers in the Art Deco
style. The gargoyles depict Chrysler car
ornaments and the spire is modeled on a
radiator grille. Since it was restored in 1996
it glitters again like it must have in the
1930s. It is still the tallest brick building in
the world, albeit with an internal steel
skeleton. After the destruction of the World
Trade Center, it was again the second-tallest
building in New York City until December
2007, when the spire was raised on the
1,200-foot (365.8 m) Bank of America
Tower, pushing the Chrysler Building into
third position.

I.2 Most popular streets

Wall Street
Wall Street is one of the world's most famous streets. Historically
known as the center of New York's financial district, Wall Street is often associated
with wealth and ambition in America. Wall Street is a 0.7 miles (1.1 km), eight-blocklong, street running west to east from Broadway to South Street on the East
River in Lower Manhattan in the financial district of New York City. Over time, the
term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a
whole, the American financial sector, even if financial firms are not physically
located there, or signifying New York-based financial interests. By the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, Wall Street was "the place" to be if you were a large financial
institution or other big business. So many buildings sprung up on this tip of
Manhattan that the Wall Street district began to boast its own distinct skyline,
separate from the buildings in Midtown. Wall Street is the home of the New York
Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its
listed companies. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall
Street area, including NASDAQ, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York
Board of Trade, and the former American Stock Exchange. Anchored by Wall Street,
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New York City has been called the world's principal financial center. Other notable
buildings include the columned Federal Hall, originally built to house City Hall and
its offices. Equally as notable is the ornate40 Wall Street, once home to the Bank of
Manhattan .One of the Financial District's most famous symbols is the 'Charging
Bull' Statue (The bull represents a bull market, a constantly rising market).

Fifth Avenue

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New York's Fifth Avenue is best known as an unrivaled shopping street. Almost any
upscale retailer has a prestigious store located at this street. However not all of Fifth
Avenue is shopping - centre. Along Central Park Fifth Avenue becomes a more
residential street with a large number of interesting museums. Fifth Avenue starts just
north of Washington Square and goes all the way north up to 143rd street in Harlem.
It is one of the world's most expensive streets, especially the area between 49th and
59th street where some of the most prestigious stores can be found. The "most
expensive street in the world" moniker changes depending on currency fluctuations
and local economic conditions from year to year. For several years starting in the
mid-1990s, the shopping district between 49th and 57th Streets was ranked as having
the world's most expensive retail spaces on a cost per square foot basis. In 2008,
Forbes magazine ranked Fifth Avenue as being the most expensive street in the
world. Some of the most coveted real estate on Fifth Avenue are the penthouses
perched atop the buildings. The American Planning Association (APA) compiled a
list of 2012 Great Places in America and declared Fifth Avenue to be one of the
greatest streets to visit in America. This historic street is home to extraordinary
museums, businesses and stores, parks, luxury apartments, and historical landmarks
that are reminiscent of its history and vision for the future. There are enough overthe-top shopping opportunities on Fifth Avenue to satisfy everyone's taste. Women
will love browsing and buying at stores like the famous Saks Fifth Avenue, BergdorfGoodman, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Emanuel Ungaro, Gucci, Ferragamo, and Versace.
Men can check out Bergdorf Men, the NBA Store as well as the famous Apple Store.
Fifth Avenue is not just a shopping street. Along Central Park, which borders Fifth
Avenue, the street becomes more residential. Here you'll find palatial homes, grand
churches and other historic buildings. You'll also come across numerous museums. In
fact, there are so many of them that the area between 82nd and 104th Streets is
known as the 'Museum Mile'. During the 19th and early 20 century many wealthy
industrials settled here along Fifth Avenue. They built fabulous mansions with views
of Central Park. Many of these magnificent buildings are now home to museums.

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I.3 Famous parks and squares

Central Park
Central Park is one of those places that make New York such a great place
to live. The huge park, 341 hectare large (843 acres), is located in the center of
Manhattan. Its design has served as an
example for city parks around the
world. The park was initially opened
in 1857.The park boasts several lakes,
theaters, ice rinks, fountains, tennis
courts, baseball fields, many
playgrounds and other facilities. It is
also home to the Central Park Zoo and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Especially during the weekends, when cars are not allowed into the park, Central
Park is a welcome oasis in this hectic city. When the terrain for Central Park was
bought by the City of New York in 1853, it was faraway from civilization,
somewhere between the City of New York and the village Harlem. The area
contained sheds from colonists, quarries, pig farms and swamps. In 1857, the city of
New York organized a competition for the design of this new park, which had to rival
with the great parks in London
and Paris. A design by Frederic
Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux,
named 'the Greensward Plan' was
chosen. There's plenty to see and
do in Central Park. Sports facilities
can be found all over the park but
most of the interesting sights are
found in the lower half of Central
Park. You'll come across historical
buildings, statues, monuments,
beautiful bridges, and of course
plenty of nature. Some of it is quite rugged like the forest-like Ramble while other
parts of the park are more manicured and feature beautiful flowers and shrubs. There
are eighteen gated entrances to the park. Each of them has its own name. Several of
these gates are ornate such as the Vanderbilt Gate, Engineers' Gate and in particular
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Merchants' Gate at Columbus Circle.

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Washington Square Park

Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public
parks. At 9.75 acres (39,500 m2), it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood
of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. It is
operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The Park is an
open space, dominated by Washington Arch (1892), with a tradition of celebrating
nonconformity. The Park's fountain area has long been one of the city's popular spots
for residents and tourists. Most of the buildings surrounding the park now belong
to New York University, but many have at one time served as homes and studios for
artists. Some of the buildings
have been built by NYU,
others have been converted
from their former uses into
academic and residential
buildings. Located at the foot
of Fifth Avenue, the park is
bordered by Washington
Square North (Waverly
Place east and west of the
park), Washington Square
East (University Place north of the park), Washington Square South (West 4th
Street east and west of the park), and Washington Square West (MacDougal
Street north and south of the park).While the Park contains many flower beds and
trees, little of the park is used for plantings due to the paving. The two prominent
features are Washington's Arch and a large fountain. It includes children's play areas,
trees and gardens, paths to stroll on, a chess and scrabble playing area, park benches,
picnic tables, commemorative statuary and two dog runs.
Times Square
Times Square, the most bustling square of New York is known for its many
Broadway theatres, cinemas and electronic billboards. It is one of those places that
make New York a city that never sleeps. At the end of the 19th century, New York
City had expanded up to 42nd street and the area was becoming the center of the
city's social scene. In 1904, the New York Times built the Times Tower on 43rd street
just off Broadway to replace its downtown premises. The square in front of the
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building was called Longacre square, but was soon renamed Times Square. The name
is now used for the area between 40th and 53rd street and 6th and 9th avenue. Times
Square, iconified as "The Crossroads of the World", "The Center of the Universe" and
the "The Great White Way", is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater
District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections and a major center of the
world's entertainment industry. According
to Travel + Leisure magazine's October
2011 survey, Times Square is the world's
most visited tourist attraction, hosting over
39 million visitors annually. Approximately
330,000 people pass through Times Square
daily, many of whom are either tourists or
people working in the area. Many people
come to Times Square for the ambiance and
the billboards spectacle, but there are also many restaurants and shops - well over 100
- in the area including some crowd-pullers such as the Disney Store and a large
Toys"R"Us. But Times Square is best known for its entertainment, and plenty of
visitors come here to attend a Broadway show. Times Square is also home to MTV's
headquarters.

Chapter II : The history of New York City

The first native New Yorkers were the Lenape, an Algonquin people who
hunted, fished and farmed in the area between the Delaware and Hudson rivers.
Europeans began to explore the region at the beginning of the 16th centuryamong
the first was Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian who sailed up and down the Atlantic
15

coast in search of a route to Asiabut none settled there until 1624. That year, the
Dutch West India Company sent some 30 families to live and work in a tiny
settlement on Nutten Island (todays Governors Island) that they called New
Amsterdam. In 1626, the settlements governor general, Peter Minuit, purchased the
much larger Manhattan Island from the natives for 60 guilders in trade goods such as
tools, farming equipment, cloth and wampum (shell beads). Fewer than 300 people
lived in New Amsterdam when the settlement moved to Manhattan. But it grew
quickly, and in 1760 the city (now called New York City; population 18,000)
surpassed Boston to become the second-largest city in the American colonies. Fifty
years later, with a population 202,589, it became the largest city in the Western
hemisphere. Today, more than 8 million people live in the citys five boroughs.

II.1 New York City in the 18th century

In 1664, the British seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch and gave it a
new name: New York City. For the next century, the population of New York City
grew larger and more diverse: It included immigrants from the Netherlands, England,
France and Germany; indentured servants; and African slaves. During the 1760s and
1770s, the city was a center of anti-British activityfor instance, after the British
Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, New Yorkers closed their businesses in
protest and burned the royal governor in effigy. However, the city was also
strategically important, and the British tried to seize it almost as soon as the
Revolutionary War began. In August 1776, despite the best efforts of George
Washingtons Continental Army in Brooklyn and Harlem Heights, New York City fell
to the British. It served as a British military base until 1783.

II.2 New York City in the 19thcentury

The city recovered quickly from the war, and by 1810 it was one of the
nations most important ports. It played a particularly significant role in the cotton
economy: Southern planters sent their crop to the East River docks, where it was
shipped to the mills of Manchester and other English industrial cities. Then, textile
manufacturers shipped their finished goods back to New York. But there was no easy
way to carry goods back and forth from the growing agricultural hinterlands to the
north and west until 1817, when work began on a 363-mile canal from the Hudson
River to Lake Erie. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825. At last, New York City
16

was the trading capital of the nation. As the city grew, it made other infrastructural
improvements. In 1811, the Commissioners Plan established an orderly grid of
streets and avenues for the undeveloped parts of Manhattan north of Houston Street.
In 1837, construction began on the Croton Aqueduct, which provided clean water for
the citys growing population. Eight years after that, the city established its first
municipal agency: the New York City Police Department.
Meanwhile, increasing number of immigrants, first from Germany and
Ireland during the 1840s and 50s and then from Southern and Eastern Europe,
changed the face of the city. They settled in distinct ethnic neighborhoods, started
businesses, joined trade unions and political organizations and built churches and
social clubs. For example, the predominantly Irish-American Democratic club known
as Tammany Hall became the citys most powerful political machine by trading
favors such as jobs, services and other kinds of aid for votes.

II.3 New York City in the 20thcentury

At the turn of the 20th century, New York City became the city we know
today. In 1895, residents of Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and Brooklynall
independent cities at that timevoted to consolidate with Manhattan to form a fiveborough Greater New York. As a result, on December 31, 1897, New York City had
an area of 60 square miles and a population of a little more than 2 million people; on
January 1, 1898, when the consolidation plan took effect, New York City had an area
of 360 square miles and a population of about 3,350,000 people.
The 20th century was an era of great struggle for American cities, and New
York was no exception. The construction of interstate highways and suburbs after
World War II encouraged affluent people to leave the city, which combined with
deindustrialization and other economic changes to lower the tax base and diminish
public services. This, in turn, led to more out-migration and white flight. However,
the Hart-Cellar Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 made it possible for
immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America to come to the
United States. Many of these newcomers settled in New York City, revitalizing many
neighborhoods.

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II.4 New York City in the new millennium

On September 11, 2001, New York City suffered the deadliest terrorist attack
in the history of the United States when a group of terrorists crashed two hijacked jets
into the citys tallest buildings: the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The
buildings were destroyed and nearly 3,000 people were killed. In the wake of the
disaster, the city remained a major financial capital and tourist magnet, with over 40
million tourists visiting the city each year.
Today, more than 8
million New Yorkers live in the five
boroughsmore than one-third of
whom were born outside the United

States. Thanks to the citys diversity and vibrant

intellectual life, it remains the cultural capital of the United States.

Precise
18

First of all I would like to speak a little bit about the reason for my
choice. Since I was a little child I liked the metropolises and their specific
atmosphere. And why I chose the city of New York among all the cities around the
world? The answer is very simple, nowhere in this world cant find the authentic
American lifestyle like in New York City. Of course each city or country has its
specific particularities more or less beautiful but from my point of view the city of
New York is one of the most beautiful and influential metropolis of the world.
My project is structured in two main chapters which are divided in three
respective four subsections. The first chapter includes the most popular attractions of
the city and the second one presents the history of it starting from the 18th century.
Before the chapters, a little introduction of New York is the start of my project.
In conclusion I can say that while I was searching for information
necessary to my work I was pleased I had the chance to read and learn about some
historical events that were crucial to the American nation and also a little about the
culture of their state. In my opinion this project was beneficial, culturally speaking,
for me.

Bibliography
Eisenstadt, Peter, ed. (2005). The Encyclopedia of New York State.
Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press;
Brodhead, John Romeyn. History of the State of New York. New
York City: Harper & Brothers, 1874;
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 Kammen, Michael. Colonial New York: a History. New York City:

Oxford University Press; 1975, 1996;
www.Wikipedia.com;
www.aviewoncities.com.

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