New york fact file for kids

New York is known for supplying construction materials such as limestone, salt, sand, and gravel. And New York is the only state that mines wollastonite, used for manufacturing ceramics and paints.

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Native Americans. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 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 Revolutionary War , was fought in August entirely within the modern-day borough of Brooklyn. After the battle, in which the Americans were defeated, the British made the city their military and political base of operations in North America. The city was a haven for Loyalist refugees and escaped slaves who joined the British lines for freedom newly promised by the Crown for all fighters.

As many as 10, escaped slaves crowded into the city during the British occupation. When the British forces evacuated at the close of the war in , they transported 3, 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, Shortly after the British occupation began, the Great Fire of New York occurred, a large conflagration on the West Side of Lower Manhattan, which destroyed about a quarter of the buildings in the city, including Trinity Church.

In , 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. Under New York State's gradual abolition act of , children of slave mothers were to be eventually liberated but to be held in indentured servitude until their mid-to-late twenties.

Together with slaves freed by their masters after the Revolutionary War and escaped slaves, a significant free-black population gradually developed in Manhattan. It was not until 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, in In the 19th century, the city was transformed by development relating to its status as a trading center, as well as by European immigration. The city adopted the Commissioners' Plan of , which expanded the city street grid to encompass all of Manhattan. The completion 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.

Local politics became dominated by Tammany Hall , a political machine supported by Irish and German immigrants. Public-minded members of the contemporaneous business elite lobbied for the establishment of Central Park , which in became the first landscaped park in an American city. The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants. Over , were living in New York by , upwards of a quarter of the city's population.

Democratic Party candidates were consistently elected to local office, increasing the city's ties to the South and its dominant party. In , 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. The situation deteriorated into attacks on New York's elite, followed by attacks on black New Yorkers and their property after fierce competition for a decade between Irish immigrants and black people for work.

Rioters burned the Colored Orphan Asylum to the ground, with more than children escaping harm due to efforts of the New York City Police Department , which was mainly made up of Irish immigrants. According to historian James M. McPherson , at least people were killed. In all, eleven black men were lynched over five days, and the riots forced hundreds of blacks to flee the city for Williamsburg , Brooklyn, and New Jersey; the black population in Manhattan fell below 10, by , which it had last been in The white working class had established dominance.

Violence by longshoremen against black men was especially fierce in the docks area. It was one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history. In , 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.

The opening of the subway in , 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 , the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River , killing 1, people on board. In , the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city's worst industrial disaster, took the lives of garment workers and spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and major improvements in factory safety standards.

New York's non-white population was 36, in The Harlem Renaissance of literary and cultural life flourished during the era of Prohibition. The larger economic boom generated construction of skyscrapers competing in height and creating an identifiable skyline. New York became the most populous urbanized area in the world in the early s, overtaking London. The metropolitan area surpassed the 10 million mark in the early s, becoming the first megacity in human history.

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. Returning World War II veterans created a post-war 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 was completed in , solidifying New York's global geopolitical influence, and the rise of abstract expressionism in the city precipitated New York's displacement of Paris as the center of the art world.

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, , at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan.

They are widely considered to constitute the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. In the s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City to suffer from economic problems and rising crime rates. While a resurgence in the financial industry greatly improved the city's economic health in the s, New York's crime rate continued to increase through that decade and into the beginning of the s.

By the mid s, 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 Census and then again in the Census. 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, attacks when 10 of the 19 terrorists associated with Al-Qaeda piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center and United Airlines Flight into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, and later destroyed them, killing 2, civilians , firefighters , and 71 law enforcement officers who were in the towers and in the surrounding area.

A temporary station was built and opened on November 23, An ,square-foot 74, m 2 permanent station designed by Santiago Calatrava , the World Trade Center Transportation Hub , the city's third-largest hub, was completed in The new One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth-tallest building in the world by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1, feet The Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan began on September 17, , receiving global attention and spawning the Occupy movement against social and economic inequality worldwide.

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.

The Hudson River separates the city from the U. The Bronx River , which flows through the Bronx and Westchester County , is the only entirely fresh water river in the city. 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 s and s.

Some of the natural relief in topography has been evened out, especially in Manhattan. The city's total area is The highest point in the city is Todt Hill on Staten Island, which, at The summit of the ridge is mostly covered in woodlands as part of the Staten Island Greenbelt.

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 , to the modern One World Trade Center , the skyscraper at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan and the most expensive office tower in the world by construction cost. 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 [update] , New York City had 5, high-rise buildings, of which completed structures were at least feet m high, both second in the world after Hong Kong , with over 50 completed skyscrapers taller than feet m.

These include the Woolworth Building , an early example of Gothic Revival architecture in skyscraper design, built with massively scaled Gothic detailing; completed in , for 17 years it was the world's tallest building. The 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.

The Art Deco style of the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building , 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. 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 to 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.

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 A distinctive feature of many of the city's buildings is the wooden roof-mounted water towers. In the s, 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.

Garden apartments became popular during the s in outlying areas, such as Jackson Heights. According to the United States Geological Survey , an updated analysis of seismic hazard in July revealed a "slightly lower hazard for tall buildings" in New York City than previously assessed.

Scientists estimated this lessened risk based upon a lower likelihood than previously thought of slow shaking near the city, which would be more likely to cause damage to taller structures from an earthquake in the vicinity of the city. New York City is often referred to collectively as the five boroughs , and in turn, there are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods throughout the boroughs, 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 Staten island would be ranked 37th ; these same boroughs are coterminous with the four most densely populated counties in the United States New York [Manhattan], Kings [Brooklyn], Bronx, and Queens.

The suburbs to the immediate north and west lie in the transitional zone between humid subtropical and humid continental climates Dfa. The city lies in the USDA 7b plant hardiness zone. 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 from colder air by 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 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 a daily mean temperature of The city receives Average winter snowfall between and has been Hurricanes and tropical storms are rare in the New York area, but they are not unheard of and always have the potential to strike the area.

Hurricane Sandy brought a destructive storm surge to New York City on the evening of October 29, , 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. 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.

In its ParkScore ranking, the Trust for Public Land reported that the park system in New York City was the second best park system among the 50 most populous US cities, behind the park system of Minneapolis. 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, residents.

Gateway National Recreation Area contains over 26, acres 10, In Brooklyn and Queens, the park contains over 9, acres 36 km 2 of salt marsh , wetlands , islands, and water, including most of Jamaica Bay.

Hundreds of private properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places or as a National Historic Landmark such as, for example, the Stonewall Inn , part of the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village , as the catalyst of the modern gay rights movement. There are seven state parks within the confines of New York City, including Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve , a natural area that includes extensive riding trails, and Riverbank State Park , a acre , m 2 facility that rises 69 feet 21 m over the Hudson River.

New York City has over 28, acres km 2 of municipal parkland and 14 miles 23 km of public beaches. The largest municipal park in the city is Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, with 2, acres 1, ha. Established in in Brooklyn on the site of a small battery utilized during the American Revolution , it is one of America's longest serving military forts. It also houses the th Transportation Brigade, the nd Aeromedical Staging Squadron, and a military entrance processing station.

Other formerly active military reservations still utilized for National Guard and military training or reserve operations in the city include Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island and Fort Totten in Queens. New York City is the most-populous city in the United States, with an estimated record high of 8,, residents as of [update] , incorporating more immigration into the city than outmigration since the United States Census. More than twice as many people live in New York City as in the second-most populous U.

Hispanics of any race represented Throughout its history, the city has been a major port of entry for immigrants into the United States; more than 12 million European immigrants were received at Ellis Island between and The term " melting pot " was first coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Side.

By , Germans constituted the largest immigrant group, followed by the Irish , Jews , and Italians. In New York, no single country or region of origin dominates. The ten largest sources of foreign-born individuals in the city as of [update] were the Dominican Republic , China, Mexico , Guyana , Jamaica , Ecuador , Haiti , India, Russia, and Trinidad and Tobago, while the Bangladeshi immigrant population has since become one of the fastest growing in the city, counting over 74, by New York contains the highest total Asian population of any U.

The New York City borough of Queens is home to the state's largest Asian American population and the largest Andean Colombian , Ecuadorian , Peruvian , and Bolivian populations in the United States, and is also the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.

The Chinese population constitutes the fastest-growing nationality in New York State; multiple satellites of the original Manhattan Chinatown , in Brooklyn, and around Flushing, Queens, are thriving as traditionally urban enclaves, while also expanding rapidly eastward into suburban Nassau County on Long Island , as the New York metropolitan region and New York State have become the top destinations for new Chinese immigrants, respectively, and large-scale Chinese immigration continues into New York City and surrounding areas.

In , 6. Koreans made up 1. Filipinos were the largest Southeast Asian ethnic group at 0. Indians are the largest South Asian group, comprising 2. Queens is the preferred borough of settlement for Asian Indians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Malaysians and other Southeast Asians; while Brooklyn is receiving large numbers of both West Indian and Asian Indian immigrants. The non-Hispanic white population was 6.

The non-Hispanic white population has begun to increase since The European diaspora residing in the city is very diverse. Additionally, Greek and French Americans numbered 65, each, with those of Hungarian descent estimated at 60, people. Ukrainian and Scottish Americans numbered 55, and 35,, respectively. People identifying ancestry from Spain numbered 30, total in People of Norwegian and Swedish descent both stood at about 20, each, while people of Czech , Lithuanian , Portuguese , Scotch-Irish , and Welsh descent all numbered between 12,—14, people.

Central Asians, primarily Uzbek Americans, are a rapidly growing segment of the city's non-Hispanic white population, enumerating over 30,, and including over half of all Central Asian immigrants to the United States, most settling in Queens or Brooklyn. Albanian Americans are most highly concentrated in the Bronx. 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.

It is home to the largest Jewish and Israeli communities outside Israel , with the Jewish population in the region numbering over 1. Amidst a resurgence of Puerto Rican migration to New York City, this population had increased to approximately 1. The city's public school system includes nine specialized high schools to serve academically and artistically gifted students.

The city government pays the Pelham Public Schools to educate a very small, detached section of the Bronx. There are approximately additional privately run secular and religious schools in the city. Over , students are enrolled in New York City's over higher education institutions, the highest number of any city in the United States, including over half million in the City University of New York CUNY system alone in In , three out of five Manhattan residents were college graduates, and one out of four had a postgraduate degree , forming one of the highest concentrations of highly educated people in any American city.

The city also has other smaller private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as St. Much of the scientific research in the city is done in medicine and the life sciences. New York City has the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, with Nobel laureates having roots in local institutions as of [update] ; while in , 43, licensed physicians were practicing in New York City.

Members of the NYPD are frequently referred to by politicians, the media, and their own police cars by the nickname, New York's Finest. The New York City Fire Department FDNY , provides fire protection, technical rescue, primary response to biological, chemical, and radioactive hazards, and emergency medical services for the five boroughs of New York City.

In addition to responding to building types that range from wood-frame single family homes to high-rise structures , there are many secluded bridges and tunnels, as well as large parks and wooded areas that can give rise to brush fires. New York is also home to one of the largest subway systems in the world, consisting of hundreds of miles of tunnel with electrified track.

There are three Bureau of Fire Communications alarm offices which receive and dispatch alarms to appropriate units. The Bronx and Queens offices are in separate buildings. New York City has been described as the cultural capital of the world by the diplomatic consulates of Iceland and Latvia and by New York's Baruch College.

A book containing a series of essays titled New York, Culture Capital of the World, — has also been published as showcased by the National Library of Australia. In describing New York, author Tom Wolfe said, "Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather.

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. The city was a center of jazz in the s, abstract expressionism in the s, and the birthplace of hip hop in the s. The city's punk and hardcore scenes were influential in the s and s.

New York 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 , punk , salsa, disco , freestyle , Tin Pan Alley , and jazz in music. New York City has been considered the dance capital of the world.

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 Fashion Week is one of the world's preeminent fashion events and is afforded extensive coverage by the media. New York has also frequently been ranked the top fashion capital of the world on the annual list compiled by the Global Language Monitor. New York City has more than 2, arts and cultural organizations and more than art galleries of all sizes. The city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts.

Wealthy business magnates 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 s, 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. Broadway theatre is one of the premier forms of English-language theatre in the world, named after Broadway , the major thoroughfare that crosses Times Square , also sometimes referred to as " The Great White Way ". Forty-one venues in Midtown Manhattan's Theatre District , each with at least seats, are classified as Broadway theatres.

Attendance in — stood at In April , New York hosted the annual Cardistry-Con, a three-day cardistry convention and interactive conference for cardists all over the world. New York City is home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites, many of which are internationally known. The Mile, which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world, is actually three blocks longer than one mile 1. Ten museums occupy the length of this section of Fifth Avenue.

The tenth museum, the Museum for African Art , joined the ensemble in , although its museum at th Street, the first new museum constructed on the Mile since the Guggenheim in , opened in late In addition to other programming, the museums collaborate for the annual Museum Mile Festival, held each year in June, to promote the museums and increase visitation. Many of the world's most lucrative art auctions are held in New York City. New York City's food culture includes a variety of international cuisines influenced by the city's immigrant history.