History UsefulNotes / NewYorkCity

* '''Manhattan''' (New York County): Geographically smallest but third most populated and most densely urbanized of the five boroughs; its population density (66,940 people per square mile) is higher than any other county in the US. The home of most of the city's most famous landmarks, including Times Square, Wall Street, Platform/{{Broadway}}, Madison Square Garden (home to the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague Rangers]] and [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation Knicks]], arguably the world's most iconic skyline, and more museums, theaters, and restaurants than you can shake a stick at. The hub of the world's financial engine, and the site of some of the most expensive real estate on the planet; the few remaining working-class and middle-class neighborhoods are largely clustered at the north and south ends of the island, respectively. Before 1874, this was all New York City was, and when you hear a local say "The City" (or an out-of-towner say "New York City"), they're referring to Manhattan. Even the U.S. Postal Service regards "New York, NY" as synonymous with the borough, and prefers that people who send letters to Manhattan addresses write "New York" as the destination instead of "Manhattan".[[note]]Except for the previously noted Marble Hill neighborhood, part of Manhattan but physically connected to The Bronx. It has a Bronx ZIP code; the USPS accepts both "New York, NY" and "Bronx, NY" as addresses for that ZIP code.[[/note]] Fun trivia: for all that it's thought of as "the Big City", Manhattan is a small sliver of land. At its widest it's just about 2.3 miles wide (and is less than a mile wide at some of its narrower points), and is about 13.4 miles long. Though it sure doesn't feel that way if you've ever been caught in gridlock...

* '''Manhattan''' (New York County): Geographically smallest but third most populated and most densely urbanized of the five boroughs; its population density (66,940 people per square mile) is higher than any other county in the US. The home of most of the city's most famous landmarks, including Times Square, Wall Street, Platform/{{Broadway}}, arguably the world's most iconic skyline, and more museums, theaters, and restaurants than you can shake a stick at. The hub of the world's financial engine, and the site of some of the most expensive real estate on the planet; the few remaining working-class and middle-class neighborhoods are largely clustered at the north and south ends of the island, respectively. Before 1874, this was all New York City was, and when you hear a local say "The City" (or an out-of-towner say "New York City"), they're referring to Manhattan. Even the U.S. Postal Service regards "New York, NY" as synonymous with the borough, and prefers that people who send letters to Manhattan addresses write "New York" as the destination instead of "Manhattan".[[note]]Except for the previously noted Marble Hill neighborhood, part of Manhattan but physically connected to The Bronx. It has a Bronx ZIP code; the USPS accepts both "New York, NY" and "Bronx, NY" as addresses for that ZIP code.[[/note]] Fun trivia: for all that it's thought of as "the Big City", Manhattan is a small sliver of land. At its widest it's just about 2.3 miles wide (and is less than a mile wide at some of its narrower points), and is about 13.4 miles long. Though it sure doesn't feel that way if you've ever been caught in gridlock...
* '''Queens''' (Queens County): The home of the two NYC airports, [=LaGuardia=] (named after the city's [[TheGreatDepression Depression]]-era mayor) and [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy JFK]] (originally Idlewild), two World's Fairs, underdog baseball team New York Mets, New York City FC in the coming years, the site of UsefulNotes/{{tennis}}' US Open, and lots and ''lots'' of graveyards (Manhattan hasn't had room for burials since the 1850s, so most New Yorkers who opt to be buried wind up resting in Queens). The second most populous borough, with a mix of working-class neighborhoods in the west and {{suburbia}} in the east. Fun trivia: it is the most ethnically and linguistically diverse area in the world, with native speakers of at least 140 different languages living within its 178 square miles. You can find a family-owned restaurant that represents virtually every ethnicity. It's home to nearly half the city's Asian population, and is also one of the few counties in the US where African-Americans (who make up one in five residents) make more money on average than whites. Fun fact: due to "New York City" only absorbing Brooklyn and Queens in the late 1800's, plus local political factors, the "New York Public Library system" covers the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, but ''not'' Queens and Brooklyn, which have their own independent library systems. Queens is also home to Jamaica station, the main train hub for all east-west travel going into Manhattan - all of the rail lines heading west on Long Island converge at Jamaica, which is also on the subway grid. For travelers heading in to NYC via JFK airport (the bigger of the two airports), a direct train line runs from the airport to Jamaica station, where you then either take an LIRR train or the subway to continue west into Manhattan.

* With the construction of a new group of World Trade Center buildings surrounding the memorial and museum, most notably the 1,776 foot skyscraper One World Trade Center, this location has been appearing in movies and TV shows since 2010.

We stopped calling it that in 1834, [[CanadaEh eh]]? We call it UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} now. But some parts of town still have it in the name, and [[CaliforniaDoubling it works for the Big Apple if you're on a budget]].

TheGreatDepression started in New York with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and the ensuing economic collapse led to the election of Fiorello La Guardia as mayor in 1933. A progressive social reformer and supporter of [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt the New Deal]], La Guardia is sometimes considered to be New York's greatest mayor. He abolished the corrupt "ward" system, broke the power of Tammany Hall (the organization stuck around InNameOnly until 1968), heavily expanded the subways, brought down [[TheMafia Lucky Luciano]], and instituted massive public works projects to build bridges, parks, airports (including the one that now bears his name, though rendered as [=LaGuardia=]) and highways. Parts of his legacy, however, are rather controversial, particularly those related to his chief planner, Robert Moses (who served long after La Guardia's retirement). Moses' critics have accused him of destroying neighborhoods (particularly the [[WretchedHive South Bronx]] and Coney Island) and uprooting thousands through the construction of highways, causing the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants baseball teams for UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco respectively, and facilitating the growth of the {{suburbia}} that now blankets Long Island. Supporters, meanwhile, claim that he had built valuable infrastructure that allowed New York to avoid the fate of many Rust Belt cities and thrive into the present day and beyond.\\\

* '''Staten Island''' (Richmond County): Known by other New Yorkers for the Ferry to Manhattan, high tolls, and relative suburbanity (in that order). Third-largest in geographic size but least populous by far with a population of 480,000, it is the least dense borough and the only one not connected to the subway (though it has its own local train that uses the same fare system). As a result, Staten Islanders are more likely to own cars than other New Yorkers. Combined with the fact that it stands at a bit of a remove from the rest of the city geographically but is only separated by a narrow channel from New Jersey (specifically Hudson, Union, and Middlesex Counties), this different character has led to occasional grumblings from New Jerseyans that the island should really be part of NJ, and frequent jokes from other New Yorkers that it basically already is. Its four road bridges are tolled at $14-16, rising from time to time.[[note]]Though discounts exist for residents. Take that, everyone else![[/note]] If this article was written two decades ago, Fresh Kills Landfill would've replaced "high tolls" in this entry's first sentence. It's now being turned into a park three times the size of Central Park. Incidentally, a ''third'' of Staten Island is protected parkland, including beaches, wildlife refuges, and dense woodlands. Two large hills straddle a ridge spanning most of the island; Todt Hill is the highest natural point along the Eastern Seaboard. Numerous historical sights, some [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies pre-Revolution]], dot the island. Richmondtown in particular is a preserved colonial village, a subject of many field trips for New York schoolkids. If you're into urban exploration, the island's brownfield areas have much to offer. According to census records and exit polls, Staten Island is the most consistently conservative of the five boroughs, usually voting Republican while the other four usually vote Democrat. Staten Island has occasionally elected Democrats in congressional races, but there have been only two since 1981, both of whom were given the boot after one term. After years of general cultural neglect, Staten Island is gradually acquiring a new pop culture cachet for being very weird—the whole island competes with Manhattan's Washington Square for the title of "most reputably haunted place in New York State" and the television version of ''Series/WhatWeDoInTheShadows2019'' has its main cast of vampire roommates sharing an old house there. Maybe it's best to let SI natives Creator/PeteDavidson, [[Music/WuTangClan Method Man]] and Music/BigWet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W62Vmju18Vw tell you the rest]].

New York, New York: [[Music/DuranDuran the city so nice they named it twice]]. AKA The Big Apple, Gotham, and The City That Never Sleeps.

Officially, the City of New York, within the State of New York (although the greater metro area spills over into [[HollywoodNewEngland Connecticut]] and UsefulNotes/NewJersey -- hence the oft-mentioned Tri-State area -- and even a county in UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}[[note]]Several more in PA if you consider the New York-Newark Combined Statistical Area[[/note]]).

* '''Manhattan''' (New York County): Geographically smallest but third most populated and most densely urbanized of the five boroughs; its population density (66,940 people per square mile) is higher than any other county in the US. The home of most of the city's most famous landmarks, including Times Square, Wall Street, UsefulNotes/{{Broadway}}, arguably the world's most iconic skyline, and more museums, theaters, and restaurants than you can shake a stick at. The hub of the world's financial engine, and the site of some of the most expensive real estate on the planet; the few remaining working-class and middle-class neighborhoods are largely clustered at the north and south ends of the island, respectively. Before 1874, this was all New York City was, and when you hear a local say "The City" (or an out-of-towner say "New York City"), they're referring to Manhattan. Even the U.S. Postal Service regards "New York, NY" as synonymous with the borough, and prefers that people who send letters to Manhattan addresses write "New York" as the destination instead of "Manhattan".[[note]]Except for the previously noted Marble Hill neighborhood, part of Manhattan but physically connected to The Bronx. It has a Bronx ZIP code; the USPS accepts both "New York, NY" and "Bronx, NY" as addresses for that ZIP code.[[/note]] Fun trivia: for all that it's thought of as "the Big City", Manhattan is a small sliver of land. At its widest it's just about 2.3 miles wide (and is less than a mile wide at some of its narrower points), and is about 13.4 miles long. Though it sure doesn't feel that way if you've ever been caught in gridlock...

* UsefulNotes/{{Broadway}}. The street itself is an avenue that runs mostly north-south through the entire island of Manhattan, and up into the Bronx and beyond--one of the few to cut diagonally across the Manhattan grid. However, unless you're giving directions, "Broadway" means the stretch near Times Square that serves as the epicenter of [[{{Theater}} live theater]] in America. "Broadway" has become so synonymous with big-scale theatrical productions that the terms "Broadway" and "Off-Broadway" are now used generically to refer to big and small-scale productions, respectively, no matter where the theater physically resides. (Not yet.)

As a result of the UsefulNotes/AngloDutchWars, Dutch rule over the Nieuw Nederland colony ended in 1664, when the British landed in present-day Brooklyn and captured Nieuw Amsterdam without a fight. They renamed both the city and the colony New York, after the king's brother James, Duke of York. Despite this, the Dutch decisvely defeated the British and formally relinquished the territory in 1667 in exchange for the far more profitable UsefulNotes/{{Suriname}}. The Dutch briefly regained control in 1673 when ''another'' war broke out between the two countries, but they were quickly thrown out. However, Dutch influence remains in the city to this day in the form of various place names, including Coney Island (Konijnen Eiland -- Dutch for "Rabbit Island"), Brooklyn (Breukelen), Harlem (Nieuw Haarlem), Greenwich Village (Greenwijck), and Staten Island (Staaten Eylandt).\\\

As a result of the UsefulNotes/AngloDutchWars, Dutch rule over the Nieuw Nederland colony ended in 1664, when the British landed in present-day Brooklyn and captured Nieuw Amsterdam without a fight. They renamed both the city and the colony New York, after the king's brother James, Duke of York. Despite this, the Dutch defeated the British and formally relinquished the territory in 1667 in exchange for the far more profitable UsefulNotes/{{Suriname}}. The Dutch briefly regained control in 1673 when ''another'' war broke out between the two countries, but they were quickly thrown out. However, Dutch influence remains in the city to this day in the form of various place names, including Coney Island (Konijnen Eiland -- Dutch for "Rabbit Island"), Brooklyn (Breukelen), Harlem (Nieuw Haarlem), Greenwich Village (Greenwijck), and Staten Island (Staaten Eylandt).\\\

Dutch rule over the Nieuw Nederland colony ended in 1664, when the British landed in present-day Brooklyn and captured Nieuw Amsterdam without a fight. They renamed both the city and the colony New York, after the king's brother James, Duke of York. The Dutch briefly regained control in 1673, but they were quickly thrown out. However, Dutch influence remains in the city to this day in the form of various place names, including Coney Island (Konijnen Eiland -- Dutch for "Rabbit Island"), Brooklyn (Breukelen), Harlem (Nieuw Haarlem), Greenwich Village (Greenwijck), and Staten Island (Staaten Eylandt).\\\