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New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York metropolitan area, one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world.[6] The city is referred to as New York City or the City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part. A global power city,[7] New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. The home of the United Nations Headquarters,[8] New York is an important center for international diplomacy[9] and has been described as the cultural capital of the world.[10][11] On one of the world's largest natural harbors,[12] New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a county of New York State.[13] The five boroughs—the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898.[14] With a census-estimated 2013 population of 8,405,837[4] distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km2),[15] New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States.[16] As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York,[17][18] making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world.[19] By 2013 census estimates, the New York Metropolitan Area's population remains by a significant margin the United States' largest Metropolitan Statistical Area, with approximately 19.9 million people,[20] and is also part of the most populous Combined Statistical Area in the United States, containing an estimated 23.4 million people.[21] New York traces its roots to its 1624 founding as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626.[22] The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664[22][23][24] New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790.[25] It has been the country's largest city since 1790.[26] The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to America by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries[27] and is a globally recognized symbol of the United States and its democracy.[28] Many districts and landmarks in New York City have become well known to its approximately 55 million annual visitors.[29] Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world.[30][31][32] Times Square, iconified as "The Crossroads of the World",[33] is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway theatre district,[34] one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections,[35][36] and a major center of the world's entertainment industry.[37] The names of many of the city's bridges, skyscrapers,[38] and parks are known around the world. New York City's financial district, anchored by Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, has been called the world's leading financial center[39][40][41] and is home to the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by total market capitalization of its listed companies.[42] Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world.[43] Manhattan's Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere.[44][45] Providing continuous 24/7 service,[46] the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive rapid transit systems worldwide. Numerous colleges and universities are in New York,[47] including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, which have been ranked among the top 35 in the world.[48] HistoryMain article: History of New York City See also: Timeline of New York City history Early historyIn the precolonial era, the area of present day New York City was inhabited by various bands of Algonquian tribes of Native Americans, including the Lenape, whose homeland, known as Lenapehoking, included Staten Island, the western portion of Long Island (including the area that would become Brooklyn and Queens), Manhattan, and the Lower Hudson Valley, including The Bronx.[49] The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown, who sailed his ship La Dauphine into New York Harbor. He claimed the area for France and named it "Nouvelle Angoulême" (New Angoulême).[50] Peter Minuit is credited with the purchase of the island of Manhattan in 1626.A Spanish expedition led by captain Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 aboard the purpose-built caravel "La Anunciada" and charted the mouth of the Hudson river, which he named Rio de San Antonio. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August. The first scientific map to show the North American East coast continuously, the 1527 world map known as the Padrón Real, was informed by Gomes' expedition, and labeled the Northeast as Tierra de Esteban Gómez in his honor.[51] In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson re-discovered the region when he sailed his ship the Halve Maen ("Half Moon" in Dutch) into New York Harbor while searching for the Northwest Passage to the Orient for his employer the Dutch East India Company. He proceeded to sail up what he named the North River, also called the Mauritis River, and now known as the Hudson River, to the site of the present-day New York State capital of Albany in the belief that it might represent an oceanic tributary. When the river narrowed and was no longer saline, he realized it wasn't a sea passage and sailed back downriver. He made a ten-day exploration of the area and claimed the region for his employer. In 1614 the area between Cape Cod and Delaware Bay would be claimed by the Netherlands and called Nieuw-Nederland (New Netherland). The first recorded non-Native American inhabitant of what would eventually become New York City was Dominican trader Juan Rodriguez (transliterated to Dutch as Jan Rodrigues). Born in Santo Domingo of Portuguese and African descent, he arrived in Manhattan during the winter of 1613–1614, trapping for pelts and trading with the local population as a representative of the Dutch. Broadway, from 159th Street to 218th Street, is named Juan Rodriguez Way in his honor.[52][53] New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year England took control and renamed it "New York".A permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625 construction was started on a citadel and a Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam).[54][55] The colony of New Amsterdam was centered at the site which would eventually become Lower Manhattan. The Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Canarsie, a small band of the Lenape,[56] in 1626 for a value of 60 guilders[57] (about $1000 in 2006);[58] a disproved legend says that Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of glass beads.[59][60] In 1664, Peter Stuyvesant, the Director-General of the colony of New Netherland, surrendered New Amsterdam to the English without bloodshed. The English promptly renamed the fledgling city "New York" after the Duke of York (later King James II).[61] At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the English gained New Amsterdam (New York) in North America in exchange for Dutch control of Run, an Indonesian island. Several intertribal wars among the Native Americans and some epidemics brought on by contact with the Europeans caused sizable population losses for the Lenape between the years 1660 and 1670.[62] By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200.[63] In 1702, the city lost 10% of its population to yellow fever.[64] New York suffered seven major yellow fever epidemics from 1702 to 1800.[65] New York grew in importance as a trading port while under British rule in the early 1700s. It also became a center of slavery, with 42% of households holding slaves by 1730, more than any other city other than Charleston, South Carolina.[66] Most slaveholders held a few or several domestic slaves, but others hired them out to work at labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York's economy through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banks and shipping tied to the South. Discovery of the African Burying Ground in the 1990s during construction of a new federal courthouse near Foley Square revealed that tens of thousands of Africans had been buried in the area in the colonial years. The trial in Manhattan of John Peter Zenger in 1735 helped to establish the freedom of the press in North America. In 1754, Columbia University was founded under charter by King George II as King's College in Lower Manhattan.[67] The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765 as the Sons of Liberty organized in the city, skirmishing over the next ten years with British troops stationed there. The Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolution, took place in Brooklyn in 1776.The Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War, was fought in August 1776 entirely within the modern-day borough of Brooklyn. After the battle, in which the Americans were defeated, leaving subsequent smaller armed engagements following in its wake, the city became the British military and political base of operations in North America. The city was a haven for Loyalist refugees, as well as escaped slaves who joined the British lines for freedom newly promised by the Crown for all fighters. As many as 10,000 escaped slaves crowded into the city during the British occupation. When the British forces evacuated at the close of the war in 1783 they transported 3,000 freedmen for resettlement in Nova Scotia. They resettled other freedmen in England and the Caribbean. The only attempt at a peaceful solution to the war took place at the Conference House on Staten Island between American delegates including Benjamin Franklin, and British general Lord Howe on September 11, 1776. Shortly after the British occupation began the Great Fire of New York occurred, a large conflagration which destroyed about a quarter of the buildings in the city, including Trinity Church.[68] In 1785, the assembly of the Congress of the Confederation made New York the national capital shortly after the war. New York was the last capital of the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation and the first capital under the Constitution of the United States. In 1789 the first President of the United States, George Washington, was inaugurated; the first United States Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States each assembled for the first time, and the United States Bill of Rights was drafted, all at Federal Hall on Wall Street.[69] By 1790, New York had surpassed Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States. Broadway follows the Native American Wickquasgeck Trail through Manhattan.[70]Under New York State's "Gradual Abolition law of 1799", children of slave mothers were born to be eventually liberated but were held in indentured servitude until their mid-to-late twenties.[71] Together with slaves freed by their masters after the Revolutionary War and escaped slaves, gradually a significant free-black population developed in Manhattan. Under such influential United States founders as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay the New York Manumission Society worked for abolition and established the African Free School to educate black children.[72] It was not until 1827 that slavery was completely abolished in the state, and free blacks struggled afterward with discrimination. New York interracial abolitionist activism continued; among its leaders were graduates of the African Free School. The city's black population reached more than 16,000 in 1840.[73] In the 19th century, the city was transformed by development relating to its status as a trading center, as well as by European immigration.[74] The city adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which expanded the city street grid to encompass all of Manhattan. The 1819 opening of the Erie Canal through central New York connected the Atlantic port to the agricultural markets and commodities of the North American interior via the Hudson River and the Great Lakes.[75] Local politics became dominated by Tammany Hall, a political machine supported by Irish and German immigrants.[76] Several prominent American literary figures lived in New York during the 1830s and 1840s, including William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, John Keese, Nathaniel Parker Willis, and Edgar Allan Poe. Public-minded members of the old merchant elite lobbied for the establishment of Central Park, which in 1857 became the first landscaped park in an American city. Modern history Manhattan's Little Italy, Lower East Side, circa 1900.The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, and by 1860, one in four New Yorkers—over 200,000—had been born in Ireland.[77] There was also extensive immigration from the German provinces, where revolutions had disrupted societies, and Germans comprised another 25% of New York's population by 1860.[78] Democratic Party candidates were consistently elected to local office, increasing the city's ties to the South and its dominant party. In 1861 Mayor Fernando Wood called on the aldermen to declare independence from Albany and the United States after the South seceded, but his proposal was not acted on.[72] Anger at new military conscription laws during the American Civil War (1861–1865) led to the Draft Riots of 1863, led by ethnic Irish working class.[72] The situation deteriorated into attacks on black New Yorkers and their property, following fierce competition for a decade between immigrants and blacks for work. Rioters burned the Colored Orphan Asylum to the ground, but its more than 200 children escaped harm.[78] Rioters killed an estimated 100 blacks and attacked many more, especially in the docks area. It was one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history.[79] Because of the violence, many blacks left the city for Williamsburg, Brooklyn and New Jersey; the black population in Manhattan fell below 10,000 by 1865, which it had last been in 1820. The white working class had established dominance.[78] A construction worker on top of the Empire State Building as it was being built in 1930. The Chrysler Building is below and behind him.In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then a separate city), the County of New York (which then included parts of the Bronx), the County of Richmond, and the western portion of the County of Queens.[80] The opening of the subway in 1904, first built as separate private systems, helped bind the new city together. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. In 1904, the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River, killing 1,021 people on board. In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city's worst industrial disaster, took the lives of 146 garment workers and spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and major improvements in factory safety standards.[81] New York's non-white population was 36,620 in 1890.[82] In the 1920s, New York City was a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration from the American South. By 1916, New York City was home to the largest urban African diaspora in North America. The Harlem Renaissance of literary and cultural life flourished during the era of Prohibition. The larger economic boom generated construction of competing skyscrapers that changed the skyline into its identifiable twentieth-century shape. The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, a designated National Historic Landmark as the site of the 1969 Stonewall Riots.[83]New York became the most populous urbanized area in the world in early 1920s, overtaking London. The metropolitan area surpassed the 10 million mark in early 1930s, becoming the first megacity in human history.[84] The difficult years of the Great Depression saw the election of reformer Fiorello La Guardia as mayor and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance.[85] Returning World War II veterans created a postwar economic boom and the development of large housing tracts in eastern Queens. New York emerged from the war unscathed as the leading city of the world, with Wall Street leading America's place as the world's dominant economic power. The United Nations Headquarters (completed in 1950) emphasized New York's political influence, and the rise of abstract expressionism in the city precipitated New York's displacement of Paris as the center of the art world.[86] In the 1960s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City to suffer from economic problems and rising crime rates, which extended into the 1970s.[87] While a resurgence in the financial industry greatly improved the city's economic health in the 1980s, New York's crime rate continued to increase through the decade and into the beginning of the 1990s.[88] By the 1990s, crime rates started to drop dramatically due to revised police strategies, improving economic opportunities, gentrification, and new residents, both American transplants and new immigrants from Asia and Latin America. Important new sectors, such as Silicon Alley, emerged in the city's economy. New York's population reached all-time highs in the 2000 Census and then again in the 2010 Census. United Airlines Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the former World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.The city and surrounding area suffered the bulk of the economic damage and largest loss of human life in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. 2,978 people died as a result of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and many more were injured in the disaster.[89]The rebuilding of the area, has created a new One World Trade Center, and a 9/11 memorial and museum along with other new buildings and infrastructure which are at various stages of construction.[90] The World Trade Center PATH station, which opened on July 19, 1909 as the Hudson Terminal, was also destroyed in the attack. A temporary station was built and opened on November 23, 2003. A permanent station, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, is currently under construction.[91] The new One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere[92] and the fourth-tallest building in the world by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet (541.3 m) in reference to the year of American independence.[93][94][95][96] GeographyMain articles: Geography of New York City and Geography of New York Harbor Satellite imagery illustrating the core of the New York City Metropolitan Area.New York City is in the Northeastern United States, in southeastern New York State, approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston.[97] The location at the mouth of the Hudson River, which feeds into a naturally sheltered harbor and then into the Atlantic Ocean, has helped the city grow in significance as a trading port. Much of New York is built on the three islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and Long Island, making land scarce and encouraging a high population density. The Hudson River flows through the Hudson Valley into New York Bay. Between New York City and Troy, New York, the river is an estuary.[98] The Hudson separates the city from New Jersey. The East River—a tidal strait—flows from Long Island Sound and separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates most of Manhattan from the Bronx. The Bronx River, which flows through the Bronx and Westchester County, is the only entirely fresh water river in the city.[99] The city's land has been altered substantially by human intervention, with considerable land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times. Reclamation is most prominent in Lower Manhattan, with developments such as Battery Park City in the 1970s and 1980s.[100] Some of the natural relief in topography has been evened out, especially in Manhattan.[101] The city's total area is 468.9 square miles (1,214 km2). 164.1 sq mi (425 km2) of this is water and 304.8 sq mi (789 km2) is land.[102][103] The highest point in the city is Todt Hill on Staten Island, which, at 409.8 feet (124.9 m) above sea level, is the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine.[104] The summit of the ridge is mostly covered in woodlands as part of the Staten Island Greenbelt.[105] CityscapeThe view looking south from Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan includes the art deco-styled Empire State and Chrysler Buildings.ArchitectureFurther information: Architecture of New York City and List of tallest buildings in New York City Landmark 19th-century rowhouses on tree-lined Kent Street in Greenpoint Historic District, Brooklyn One World Trade Center, the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere, is located in Lower Manhattan.[92] Modern architecture juxtaposed by historic architecture is seen often in New York City.New York has architecturally noteworthy buildings in a wide range of styles and from distinct time periods, from the saltbox style Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, the oldest section of which dates to 1656, to the modern One World Trade Center, the skyscraper currently under construction at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan and currently the most expensive new office tower in the world.[106] Manhattan's skyline with its many skyscrapers is universally recognized, and the city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world. As of 2011, New York City had 5,937 high-rise buildings, of which 550 completed structures were at least 330 feet (100 m) high, both second in the world after Hong Kong,[107][108] with over 50 completed skyscrapers taller than 656 feet (200 m). These include the Woolworth Building (1913), an early gothic revival skyscraper built with massively scaled gothic detailing. The 1916 Zoning Resolution required setbacks in new buildings, and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below.[109] The Art Deco style of the Chrysler Building (1930) and Empire State Building (1931), with their tapered tops and steel spires, reflected the zoning requirements. The buildings have distinctive ornamentation, such as the eagles at the corners of the 61st floor on the Chrysler Building, and are considered some of the finest examples of the Art Deco style.[110] A highly influential example of the international style in the United States is the Seagram Building (1957), distinctive for its façade using visible bronze-toned I-beams to evoke the building's structure. The Condé Nast Building (2000) is a prominent example of green design in American skyscrapers.[111] The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegant brownstone rowhouses and townhouses and shabby tenements that were built during a period of rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930.[112] In contrast, New York City also has neighborhoods that are less densely populated and feature free-standing dwellings. In neighborhoods such as Riverdale (in the Bronx), Ditmas Park (in Brooklyn), and Douglaston (in Queens), large single-family homes are common in various architectural styles such as Tudor Revival and Victorian.[113][114][115] Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835.[116] A distinctive feature of many of the city's buildings is the wooden roof-mounted water towers. In the 1800s, the city required their installation on buildings higher than six stories to prevent the need for excessively high water pressures at lower elevations, which could break municipal water pipes.[117] Garden apartments became popular during the 1920s in outlying areas, such as Jackson Heights.[118] The Condé Nast Building, officially Four Times Square, is a modern skyscraper in Times Square in Midtown Manhattan and one of the most important examples of green design in skyscrapers in the United States. Environmentally friendly gas-fired absorption chillers, along with a high-performing insulating and shading curtain wall, ensure that the building does not need to be heated or cooled for the majority of the year. Office furniture is made with biodegradable and non-toxic materials. The air-delivery system provides 50% more fresh air than is required by New York City Building Code, and a number of recycling chutes serve the entire building. Being the first project of its size to undertake these features in construction, the building has received an award from the American Institute of Architects, as well as AIA New York State. New York has 56 skyscrapers that are over 200 meters. New York City is located on one of the world's largest natural harbors.[119] The boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island are (primarily) coterminous with islands of the same names, while Queens and Brooklyn are located at the west end of the larger Long Island. This situation led to the development of an extensive infrastructure of bridges and tunnels. Nearly all of the city's major bridges and several of its tunnels have broken or set records. For example, the Holland Tunnel was the world's first vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927.[120] The Queensboro Bridge is an important piece of cantilever architecture. The towers of the Brooklyn Bridge are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. Their architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers. This bridge was also the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge. The Manhattan Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, Triborough Bridge, and Verrazano Bridge are all examples of Structural Expressionism.[121][122] BoroughsFurther information: Borough (New York City) and Neighborhoods in New York City The Five Boroughs of New York City: 1: Manhattan 2: Brooklyn 3: Queens 4: The Bronx 5: Staten Island New York's five boroughs overview Jurisdiction Population Land area Borough County 1 July 2012 Estimates square miles square km Manhattan New York 1,619,090 23 59 The Bronx Bronx 1,408,473 42 109 Brooklyn Kings 2,565,635 71 183 Queens Queens 2,272,771 109 283 Staten Island Richmond 470,728 58 151 City of New York 8,336,697 303 786 State of New York 19,570,261 47,214 122,284 Source: United States Census Bureau[123][16][124] New York City is composed of five boroughs.[125] Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of New York State as shown below. Throughout the boroughs there are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods, many with a definable history and character to call their own. If the boroughs were each independent cities, four of the boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and The Bronx) would be among the ten most populous cities in the United States. Manhattan (New York County) is the most densely populated borough and is home to Central Park and most of the city's skyscrapers. Most of the borough is on Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River. Manhattan is the financial center of the city and contains the headquarters of many major corporations, the UN, a number of important universities, and many cultural attractions. Manhattan is loosely divided into Lower, Midtown, and Uptown regions. Uptown Manhattan is divided by Central Park into the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, and above the park is Harlem. New York City's remaining four boroughs are collectively referred to as the "outer boroughs". The Bronx (Bronx County) is New York City's northernmost borough, the location of Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees, and home to the largest cooperatively owned housing complex in the United States, Co-op City.[126] Except for a small section of Manhattan known as Marble Hill, the Bronx is the only section of the city that is part of the United States' mainland. It is home to the Bronx Zoo, the world's largest metropolitan zoo,[127] which spans 265 acres (1.07 km2) and is home to over 6,000 animals.[128] The Bronx is the birthplace of rap and hip hop culture.[129] Brooklyn (Kings County) on the western tip of Long Island, is the city's most populous borough and was an independent city until 1898. Brooklyn is known for its cultural, social and ethnic diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods and a distinctive architectural heritage. Downtown Brooklyn is the only central core neighborhood in the outer boroughs. The borough has a long beachfront shoreline including Coney Island, established in the 1870s as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country.[130] Queens (Queens County) on Long Island east of Brooklyn, is geographically the largest borough and the most ethnically diverse county in the United States.[131] Historically a collection of small towns and villages founded by the Dutch, the borough has since developed both commercial and residential prominence. Queens County is the only large county in the United States where the median income among African Americans, approximately $52,000 a year, is higher than that of White Americans.[132] Queens is the site of Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, and annually hosts the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Additionally, it is home to two of the three major airports serving the New York metropolitan area, LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport. (The third is Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey.) Staten Island (Richmond County) is the most suburban in character of the five boroughs. Staten Island is connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and to Manhattan by way of the free Staten Island Ferry. The Staten Island Ferry is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York City as it provides unsurpassed views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and lower Manhattan. In central Staten Island, the 2,500 acres (10 km2) Staten Island Greenbelt has some 28 miles (45 km) of walking trails and one of the last undisturbed forests in the city.[133] Designated in 1984 to protect the island's natural lands, the Greenbelt comprises seven city parks. Climate Avenue C in Manhattan after flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012.[134]Under the Köppen climate classification, using the 0 °C (32 °F) coldest month (January) isotherm, New York City itself experiences a humid subtropical climate (Cfa),[135][136] and New York is thus the northernmost major city on the North American continent with this categorization. The suburbs to the immediate north and west lie in the transition zone from a humid subtropical (Cfa) to a humid continental climate (Dfa).[135][136] The area averages 234 days with at least some sunshine annually, and averages 57% of possible sunshine annually,[137] accumulating 2,535 hours of sunshine per annum.[137] The city falls under USDA 7b Plant Hardiness zone.[138] Winters are cold and damp, and prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore minimize the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean; yet the Atlantic and the partial shielding of the Appalachians keep the city warmer in the winter than inland North American cities at similar or lesser latitudes such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. The daily mean temperature in January, the area's coldest month, is 32.6 °F (0.3 °C);[139] however, temperatures usually drop to 10 °F (−12 °C) several times per winter,[139][140] and reach 50 °F (10 °C) several days each winter month.[139] Spring and autumn are unpredictable and can range from chilly to warm, although they are usually mild with low humidity. Summers are typically warm to hot and humid, with July daily mean temperature of 76.5 °F (24.7 °C).[139] Nighttime conditions are often exacerbated by the urban heat island phenomenon, while daytime temperatures exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on average of 17 days each summer and in some years exceed 100 °F (38 °C).[141] Extreme temperatures have ranged from −15 °F (−26 °C), recorded on February 9, 1934, up to 106 °F (41 °C) on July 9, 1936.[142] The city receives 49.9 inches (1,270 mm) of precipitation annually, which is fairly spread throughout the year. Normal winter snowfall for 1981 to 2010 has been 25.8 inches (66 cm), but this varies considerably from year to year.[143] Hurricanes and tropical storms are rare in the New York area, but are not unheard of and always have the potential to strike the area.[144] Hurricane Sandy brought a destructive storm surge to New York City on the evening of October 29, 2012, flooding numerous streets, tunnels, and subway lines in Lower Manhattan and other areas of the city and cutting off electricity in many parts of the city and its suburbs.[145] The storm and its profound impacts have prompted the discussion of constructing seawalls and other coastal barriers around the shorelines of the city and the metropolitan area to minimize the risk of destructive consequences from another such event in the future.[146] [hide]Climate data for New York (Belvedere Castle, Central Park), 1981–2010 normals, extremes 1871–present Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 72 (22) 75 (24) 86 (30) 96 (36) 99 (37) 101 (38) 106 (41) 104 (40) 102 (39) 94 (34) 84 (29) 75 (24) 106 (41) Average high °F (°C) 38.3 (3.5) 41.6 (5.3) 49.7 (9.8) 61.2 (16.2) 70.8 (21.6) 79.3 (26.3) 84.1 (28.9) 82.6 (28.1) 75.2 (24) 63.8 (17.7) 53.8 (12.1) 43.0 (6.1) 62.0 (16.7) Average low °F (°C) 26.9 (−2.8) 28.9 (−1.7) 35.2 (1.8) 44.8 (7.1) 54.0 (12.2) 63.6 (17.6) 68.8 (20.4) 67.8 (19.9) 60.8 (16) 50.0 (10) 41.6 (5.3) 32.0 (0) 47.9 (8.8) Record low °F (°C) −6 (−21) −15 (−26) 3 (−16) 12 (−11) 32 (0) 44 (7) 52 (11) 50 (10) 39 (4) 28 (−2) 7 (−14) −13 (−25) −15 (−26) Precipitation inches (mm) 3.65 (92.7) 3.09 (78.5) 4.36 (110.7) 4.50 (114.3) 4.19 (106.4) 4.41 (112) 4.60 (116.8) 4.44 (112.8) 4.28 (108.7) 4.40 (111.8) 4.02 (102.1) 4.00 (101.6) 49.94 (1,268.5) Snowfall inches (cm) 7.0 (17.8) 9.2 (23.4) 3.9 (9.9) 0.6 (1.5) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0.3 (0.8) 4.8 (12.2) 25.8 (65.5) Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 10.4 9.2 10.9 11.5 11.1 11.2 10.4 9.5 8.7 8.9 9.6 10.6 122.0 Avg. snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 4.0 2.8 1.8 0.3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 2.3 11.4 % humidity 61.5 60.2 58.5 55.3 62.7 65.2 64.2 66.0 67.8 65.6 64.6 64.1 63.0 Mean monthly sunshine hours 162.7 163.1 212.5 225.6 256.6 257.3 268.2 268.2 219.3 211.2 151.0 139.0 2,534.7 Percent possible sunshine 54 55 57 57 57 57 59 63 59 61 51 48 57 Source: NOAA (relative humidity and sun 1961–1990)[143][139][137] See Geography of New York City for additional climate information from the outer boroughs. DemographicsFurther information: Demographics of New York City, New York City ethnic enclaves, and Demographic profile of New York City [show]City compared to State & U.S. 2000 Census[147] NY City NY State U.S. Total population 8,213,839 18,976,457 281,421,906 Population change, 1990 to 2000 +9.4% +5.5% +13.1% Population density 26,403/mi² 402/mi² 80/mi² Median household income (1999) $38,293 $43,393 $41,994 Bachelor's degree or higher 27% 27% 29% Foreign born 36% 20% 11% White (non-Hispanic) 35% 62% 67% Black 28% 16% 12% Hispanic (any race) 27% 15% 11% Asian 10% 6% 4% Historical population Year Pop. ±% 1698 4,937 — 1712 5,840 +18.3% 1723 7,248 +24.1% 1737 10,664 +47.1% 1746 11,717 +9.9% 1756 13,046 +11.3% 1771 21,863 +67.6% 1790 49,401 +126.0% 1800 79,216 +60.4% 1810 119,734 +51.1% 1820 152,056 +27.0% 1830 242,278 +59.3% 1840 391,114 +61.4% 1850 696,115 +78.0% 1860 1,174,779 +68.8% 1870 1,478,103 +25.8% 1880 1,911,698 +29.3% 1890 2,507,414 +31.2% 1900 3,437,202 +37.1% 1910 4,766,883 +38.7% 1920 5,620,048 +17.9% 1930 6,930,446 +23.3% 1940 7,454,995 +7.6% 1950 7,891,957 +5.9% 1960 7,781,984 −1.4% 1970 7,894,862 +1.5% 1980 7,071,639 −10.4% 1990 7,322,564 +3.5% 2000 8,008,288 +9.4% 2010 8,175,133 +2.1% 2013 8,405,837 +2.8% Note: Census figures (1790–2010) cover the present area of all five boroughs, before and after the 1898 consolidation. For New York City itself before annexing part of the Bronx in 1874, see Manhattan#Demographics.[148] Sources: 1698–1771,[149] 1790–1890,[148][150] 1900–1990,[151] 2000 and 2010 Census.[152][153] 2013 Census estimates.[4] Brooklyn's growing Jewish community is the largest in the U.S., with approximately 600,000 individuals.[154]New York City is the most-populous city in the United States,[155][156] with an estimated record high of 8,405,837 residents as of 2013,[4] incorporating more immigration into the city than outmigration since the 2010 United States Census.[157][158] More people live in New York City than in the next two most-populous U.S. cities (Los Angeles and Chicago) combined.[n 1] This amounts to about 40% of the state of New York's population and a similar percentage of the metropolitan regional population. In 2006, demographers estimated that New York's population will reach between 9.2 and 9.5 million by 2030.[161] In 2010, the city had a population density of 27,532 people per square mile (10,630/km²), rendering it the most densely populated of all municipalities housing over 100,000 residents in the United States; however, several small cities (of less than 100,000) in adjacent Hudson County, New Jersey are more dense overall, as per the 2000 Census.[162] Geographically co-extensive with New York County, the borough of Manhattan's population density of 66,940 people per square mile[163] (25,846/km²) makes it the highest of any county in the United States[164] and higher than the density of any individual American city.[165] Chinatown, Manhattan (紐約華埠). New York City is home to the largest population of overseas Chinese outside of Asia.[166]The city's population in 2010 was 44% white (33.3% non-Hispanic white), 25.5% black (23% non-Hispanic black), 0.7% Native American and 12.7% Asian.[4] Hispanics of any race represented 28.6% of the population,[4] while Asians constituted the fastest-growing segment of the city's population between 2000 and 2010; the non-Hispanic white population declined 3 percent, the smallest recorded decline in decades; and for the first time since the Civil War, the number of blacks declined over a decade.[167] Throughout its history, the city has been a major port of entry for immigrants into the United States; more than 12 million European immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924.[168] The term "melting pot" was first coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Side. By 1900, Germans constituted the largest immigrant group, followed by the Irish, Jews, and Italians.[169] In 1940, whites represented 92% of the city's population.[170] Approximately 37% of the city's population is foreign born.[171][172] In New York, no single country or region of origin dominates.[171] The ten largest sources of foreign-born individuals in the city as of 2011 were the Dominican Republic, China, Mexico, Guyana, Jamaica, Ecuador, Haiti, India, Russia, and Trinidad and Tobago,[173] while the Bangladeshi immigrant population has since become one of the fastest growing in the city, counting over 74,000 by 2013.[174] The New York region continues to be by far the leading metropolitan gateway for legal immigrants admitted into the United States, substantially exceeding the combined totals of Los Angeles and Miami, the next most popular gateway regions.[175][176][177][178] The wider New York City metropolitan area is also ethnically diverse.[179] It is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel.[180] The metropolitan area is also home to 20% of the nation's Indian Americans and at least 20 Little India enclaves, as well as 15% of all Korean Americans and four Koreatowns;[181][182] the largest Asian Indian population in the Western Hemisphere; the largest Russian American,[183] Italian American, and African American populations; the largest Dominican American, Puerto Rican American, and South American[183] and second-largest overall Hispanic communities in the United States; and includes 6 Chinatowns in New York City alone[184] with the urban agglomeration comprising as of the 2010 Census a population of 682,265 overseas Chinese,[181] the largest outside of Asia.[166] Multiple satellites of the original Manhattan Chinatown (紐約華埠), in Brooklyn (布鲁克林華埠), and around Flushing, Queens (法拉盛華埠), are thriving as traditionally urban enclaves, as large-scale Chinese immigration continues into New York and neighboring areas.[183][185][186][187] New York City is home to the largest gay and bisexual community in the United States.[188]New York City alone, according to the 2010 Census, has now become home to more than one million Asian Americans, greater than the combined totals of San Francisco and Los Angeles.[189] New York contains the highest total Asian population of any U.S. city proper.[190] In 2010, 6.0% of New York City was of Chinese ethnicity, with about forty percent of them living in the borough of Queens alone. Koreans made up 1.2% of the city's population, and Japanese 0.3%. Filipinos were the largest southeast Asian ethnic group at 0.8%, followed by Vietnamese, who made up 0.2% of New York City's population in 2010. Indians are the largest South Asian group, comprising 2.4% of the city's population, with Bangladeshis and Pakistanis at 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively.[191] New York City has the largest European and non-Hispanic white population of any American city. At 2.7 million in 2012, New York's non-Hispanic white population is larger than the white populations of Los Angeles (1.1 million), Chicago (865,000), and Houston (550,000) combined.[192] The European American population of the city is very diverse. According to 2012 Census estimates, there were roughly 560,000 Italian Americans, 385,000 Irish Americans, 253,000 German Americans, 223,000 Russian Americans, 201,000 Polish Americans, and 137,000 English Americans. Additionally, Greek and French Americans numbered 65,000 each, with those of Hungarian descent clocking in at 60,000 people. Ukrainian and Scottish Americans numbered 55,000 and 35,000, respectively. People of Norwegian and Swedish descent both stood at about 20,000 each. Lastly, people of Czech, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh descent all numbered between 12,000-14,000 people.[193] The New York metropolitan area is home to a self-identifying gay and bisexual community estimated at 568,903 individuals, the largest in the United States.[188] Same-sex marriages in New York were legalized on June 24, 2011 and were authorized to take place beginning 30 days thereafter.[194] New York City has a high degree of income disparity as indicated by its Gini Coefficient of 0.5 for the city overall and 0.6 for Manhattan.[195] In 2005, the median household income in the wealthiest census tract was $188,697, while in the poorest it was $9,320.[196] The disparity is driven by wage growth in high-income brackets, while wages have stagnated for middle and lower-income brackets. In the first quarter of 2013, the average weekly wage in New York County was $2,448, representing the highest total among the largest counties in the United States.[197] New York City is home to the highest number of the world's billionaires, higher than the next five U.S. cities combined,[198][199][200] including former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.[201] Manhattan also experienced a baby boom between 2000 and 2007, during which period the number of children under age 5 living in the borough grew by more than 32%.[202] EconomyMain article: Economy of New York City Top publicly traded companies in New York City for 2012 (ranked by revenues) with City and U.S. ranks NYC corporation US 1 Verizon Communications 16 2 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. 18 3 Citigroup 26 4 American International Group 38 5 INTL FCStone 39 6 MetLife 40 7 Pfizer 48 8 Goldman Sachs Group 68 9 Hess 75 10 New York Life Insurance 89 11 American Express 90 12 News Corporation 91 Financial services firms in green Full table at Economy of New York City Source: Fortune 500[203] New York is a global hub of international business and commerce and is one of three "command centers" for the world economy (along with London and Tokyo).[204] In 2012, New York City topped the first Global Economic Power Index, published by The Atlantic (to be differentiated from a namesake list published by the Martin Prosperity Institute), with cities ranked according to criteria reflecting their presence on similar lists as published by other entities.[205] The city is a major center for banking and finance, retailing, world trade, transportation, tourism, real estate, new media as well as traditional media, advertising, legal services, accountancy, insurance, theater, fashion, and the arts in the United States. The New York metropolitan area had a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of approximately $1.28 trillion in 2010,[206] making it the largest regional economy in the United States. According to Cinco Dias, New York controlled 40% of the world's finances by the end of 2008, making it the largest financial center in the world.[207][208][209] The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, the world's largest stock exchange per total market capitalization of its listed companies.[210]New York City has been ranked first among 120 cities across the globe in attracting capital, business, and tourists.[211] In July 2012, the Manchester United Football Club of the United Kingdom announced plans to list its initial public offering of stock shares on the New York Stock Exchange.[212] Many major corporations are headquartered in New York City, including 45 Fortune 500 companies.[213] New York is also unique among American cities for its large number of foreign corporations. One out of ten private sector jobs in the city is with a foreign company.[214] This ability to attract foreign investment helped New York City top the FDi Magazine American Cities of the Future ranking for 2013.[215] Real estate is a major force in the city's economy, as the total value of all New York City property was assessed at $914.8 billion for the 2015 fiscal year.[216] The Time Warner Center is the property with the highest-listed market value in the city, at $1.1 billion in 2006.[216] New York City is home to some of the nation's—and the world's—most valuable real estate. 450 Park Avenue was sold on July 2, 2007 for $510 million, about $1,589 per square foot ($17,104/m²), breaking the barely month-old record for an American office building of $1,476 per square foot ($15,887/m²) set in the June 2007 sale of 660 Madison Avenue.[217] Creative industries such as new media, advertising, fashion, design and architecture account for a growing share of employment, with New York City possessing a strong competitive advantage in these industries.[218] High-tech industries like biotechnology, software development, game design, and other fields within information technology are also growing, bolstered by New York's position at the terminus of several transatlantic fiber optic trunk lines[219] as well as its growing outdoor wireless connectivity.[220] Other important sectors include medical research and technology, non-profit institutions, and universities. Manufacturing accounts for a large but declining share of employment. Garments, chemicals, metal products, processed foods, and furniture are some of the principal products.[221] The food-processing industry is the most stable major manufacturing sector in the city.[222] Food making is a $5 billion industry that employs more than 19,000 residents. Chocolate is New York City's leading specialty-food export, with $234 million worth of exports each year.[222] Wall StreetMain article: Wall Street Manhattan had approximately 520 million square feet (48.1 million m²) of office space in 2013,[223] making it the largest office market in the United States,[224] while Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the nation.[225] Lower Manhattan is the third largest central business district in the United States and is home to the New York Stock Exchange, on Wall Street, and the NASDAQ, representing the world's largest and second largest stock exchanges, respectively, when measured by average daily trading volume and overall market capitalization.[226] Financial services account for more than 35% of the city's employment income.[227] Wall Street investment banking fees in 2012 totaled approximately $40 billion,[228] while in 2013, senior New York City bank officers who manage risk and compliance functions earned as much as US$324,000 annually.[229] The financial district has sometimes been a scene of conflict such as with the recurrent protests during "Occupy Wall Street", which subsequently sparked an international Occupy Movement. It has also sometimes turned deadly such as with the Wall Street bombing in 1929. In July 2013, NYSE Euronext, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, took over the administration of the London interbank offered rate from the British Bankers Association.[230] Culture and contemporary lifeFurther information: Culture of New York City and List of people from New York City The Metropolitan Museum of Art, part of Museum Mile, is one of the largest museums in the world.[231]New York City has been described as the cultural capital of the world by the diplomatic consulates of Iceland[10] and Latvia[232] and by New York's Baruch College.[233] A book containing a series of essays titled New York, culture capital of the world, 1940–1965 has also been published as showcased by the National Library of Australia.[10] In describing New York, author Tom Wolfe said, "Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather."[234] Numerous major American cultural movements began in the city, such as the Harlem Renaissance, which established the African-American literary canon in the United States.[235][236] The city was a center of jazz[237] in the 1940s, abstract expressionism in the 1950s, and the birthplace of hip hop in the 1970s.[238] The city's punk[239] and hardcore[240] scenes were influential in the 1970s and 1980s, and the city has long had a flourishing scene for Jewish American literature. The city is the birthplace of many 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,[129] punk, salsa, disco, freestyle, Tin Pan Alley, and Jazz in music. New York City has been considered the dance capital of the world.[241][242][243] The city is also widely celebrated in popular lore, frequently the setting for books, movies (see List of films set in New York City), and television programs. New York has also frequently been ranked the top fashion capital of the world on the annual list compiled by the Global Language Monitor;[244] the city's fashion industry provides approximately 180,000 employees with $11 billion in annual wages.[245] Performing artsSee also: Music of New York City The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is home of the New York Philharmonic and other performing arts.New York City has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries of all sizes.[246] The city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts.[246] Wealthy industrialists in the 19th century built a network of major cultural institutions, such as the famed Carnegie Hall and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, that would become internationally established. The advent of electric lighting led to elaborate theater productions, and in the 1880s New York City theaters on Broadway and along 42nd Street began featuring a new stage form that became known as the Broadway musical. Strongly influenced by the city's immigrants, productions such as those of Harrigan and Hart, George M. Cohan, and others used song in narratives that often reflected themes of hope and ambition. Forty of the city's theaters, with more than 500 seats each, are collectively known as "Broadway," after the major thoroughfare that crosses the Times Square Theater District,[247] sometimes referred to as "The Great White Way".[248][249][250] Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is home to 12 influential arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, and New York City Ballet, as well as the Vivian Beaumont Theater, the Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Alice Tully Hall. The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute is in Union Square, and Tisch School of the Arts is based at New York University, while Central Park SummerStage presents performances of free plays and music in Central Park.[251] TourismFurther information: Tourism in New York City and List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City Times Square has the highest annual attendance rate of any tourist attraction in the US,[252] and according to Travel + Leisure magazine's October 2011 survey, the world.[35]Tourism is an important industry in New York City, which has witnessed a growing combined volume of international and domestic tourists - receiving approximately 49 million tourists in 2010,[253][254] 51 million in 2011,[254] and a record 54 million tourists in 2013.[29] Major tourist destinations include the Empire State Building; Statue of Liberty; Ellis Island; Broadway theater productions; museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art; greenspaces such as Central Park and Washington Square Park; Rockefeller Center; Times Square; the Manhattan Chinatown; luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues; and events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village; the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree; the St. Patrick's Day parade; seasonal activities such as ice skating in Central Park in the wintertime; the Tribeca Film Festival; and free performances in Central Park at Summerstage. Special experiences outside the key tourist areas of the city include the Bronx Zoo; Coney Island; Flushing Meadows-Corona Park; and the New York Botanical Garden. Plans were unveiled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on September 27, 2012 for the New York Wheel, the world's tallest ferris wheel, to be built at the northern shore of Staten Island, overlooking the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, and the Lower Manhattan skyline.[255][256] CuisineMain article: Cuisine of New York City Smorgasburg opened in 2011 as an open air food market, and is part of the Brooklyn Flea.[257]New York City's food culture includes a variety of international cuisines influenced by the city's immigrant history. Central European and Italian immigrants have made the city famous for bagels, cheesecake, and New York-style pizza, while Chinese and other Asian restaurants, burger joints, trattorias, diners, and coffee shops are ubiquitous. Some 4,000 mobile food vendors licensed by the city, many immigrant-owned, have made Middle Eastern foods such as falafel and kebabs[258] popular examples of modern New York street food. The city is also home to many of the finest and most diverse haute cuisine restaurants in the United States.[259] The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene assigns letter grades to the city's 24,000 restaurants based upon their inspection results.[260] AccentThe New York area has a distinctive regional speech pattern called the New York dialect, alternatively known as Brooklynese or New Yorkese. It is generally considered one of the most recognizable accents within American English.[261] The classic version of this dialect is centered on middle and working-class people of European descent, and the influx of non-European immigrants in recent decades has led to changes in this distinctive dialect.[262] The traditional New York area accent is non-rhotic, so that the sound [ɹ] does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant; hence the pronunciation of the city name as "New Yawk."[262] There is no [ɹ] in words like park [pɑək] or [pɒək] (with vowel backed and diphthongized due to the low-back chain shift), butter [bʌɾə], or here [hiə]. In another feature called the low back chain shift, the [ɔ] vowel sound of words like talk, law, cross, chocolate, and coffee and the often homophonous [ɔr] in core and more are tensed and usually raised more than in General American. In the most old-fashioned and extreme versions of the New York dialect, the vowel sounds of words like "girl" and of words like "oil" become a diphthong [ɜɪ]. This is often misperceived by speakers of other accents as a reversal of the er and oy sounds, so that girl is pronounced "goil" and oil is pronounced "erl"; this leads to the caricature of New Yorkers saying things like "Joizey" (Jersey), "Toidy-Toid Street" (33rd St.) and "terlet" (toilet).[262] The character Archie Bunker from the 1970s sitcom All in the Family (played by Carroll O'Connor) was a good example of such a speaker. This speech pattern is no longer prevalent.[262] Sports The New York Marathon is the largest marathon in the world.[263] The US Open Tennis Championships are held every August and September in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. Citi Field, also in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, has been home to the New York Mets since 2009.Main article: Sports in New York City New York City is home to the headquarters of the National Football League,[264] Major League Baseball,[265] the National Basketball Association,[266] the National Hockey League,[267] and Major League Soccer.[268] Four of the ten most expensive stadiums ever built worldwide (MetLife Stadium, the new Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Citi Field) are in the New York metropolitan area.[269] The New York metropolitan area has the most professional sports teams in these five leagues. New York has been described as the "Capital of Baseball".[270] There have been 35 Major League Baseball World Series and 73 pennants won by New York teams. It is one of only five metro areas (Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore–Washington, and the San Francisco Bay Area being the others) to have two baseball teams. Additionally, there have been 14 World Series in which two New York City teams played each other, known as a Subway Series and occurring most recently in 2000. No other metropolitan area has had this happen more than once (Chicago in 1906, St. Louis in 1944, and the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989). The city's two current Major League Baseball teams are the New York Mets[271] and the New York Yankees,[272] who compete in six games of interleague play every regular season that has also come to be called the Subway Series. The Yankees have won a record 27 championships,[273] while the Mets have won the World Series twice.[274] The city also was once home to the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers), who won the World Series once,[275] and the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants), who won the World Series five times. Both teams moved to California in 1958.[276] There are also two Minor League Baseball teams in the city, the Brooklyn Cyclones[277] and Staten Island Yankees.[278] The city is represented in the National Football League by the New York Giants and the New York Jets, although both teams play their home games at MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey,[279] which hosted Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.[280] The New York Rangers represent the city in the National Hockey League.[281] The New York Islanders, who currently play in Nassau County on Long Island,[282] will become the second team in the city after their move to Brooklyn in 2015.[283] Also within the metropolitan area are the New Jersey Devils, who play in nearby Newark, New Jersey.[284] The city's National Basketball Association teams include the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks, while the city's Women's National Basketball Association team is the New York Liberty. The first national college-level basketball championship, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938 and remains in the city.[285] In soccer, New York is represented by the Major League Soccer side, New York Red Bulls. The Red Bulls play their home games at Red Bull Arena in nearby Harrison, New Jersey.[286] The New York area's second Major League Soccer club, to be called New York City FC, is planned to start play in the 2015 season, to be majority-owned by Manchester City F.C. owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, partnering with the New York Yankees baseball organization.[287] Queens is host of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, one of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments.[288] The New York Marathon is one of the world's largest, and the 2004–2006 events hold the top three places in the marathons with the largest number of finishers, including 37,866 finishers in 2006.[263] The Millrose Games is an annual track and field meet whose featured event is the Wanamaker Mile. Boxing is also a prominent part of the city's sporting scene, with events like the Amateur Boxing Golden Gloves being held at Madison Square Garden each year.[289] Many sports are associated with New York's immigrant communities. Stickball, a street version of baseball, was popularized by youths in the 1930s. A street in the Bronx has been renamed Stickball Blvd, as tribute to New York's most known street sport.[290] ParksThe City of New York has a complex park system, with various lands operated by the National Park Service, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. In its 2013 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land reported that New York City had the 2nd best park system among the 50 most populous U.S. cities.[291] ParkScore ranks urban park systems by a formula that analyzes median park size, park acres as percent of city area, the percent of city residents within a half-mile of a park, spending of park services per resident, and the number of playgrounds per 10,000 residents. National Park System units within city limitsMain article: National Park Service New York Harbor's Statue of Liberty National Monument, in May 2001, with the former Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan in the background.Gateway National Recreation Area contains over 26,000 acres (10,521.83 ha) in total, most of it surrounded by New York City;[292] the New York State portion includes the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Brooklyn and Queens, over 9,000 acres (36 km2) of salt marsh, islands and water that includes most of Jamaica Bay. Also in Queens the park includes a significant portion of the western Rockaway Peninsula, most notably Jacob Riis Park and Fort Tilden. In Staten Island, the park includes Fort Wadsworth, with historic pre-Civil War era Battery Weed and Fort Tompkins, and Great Kills Park, with beaches, trails, and a marina. The Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum are managed by the National Park Service and are in |
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