New York is the most populous and most densely populated major city in the United States. A global power city, New York City exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world.

 

 

HISTORICAL ORIGIN

In the precolonial era, the area of present-day New York City was inhabited by various tribes of Native Americans. 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 the New York Harbor. He claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême (New Angoulême).

After changing hands from French to Dutch to English, the Stamp Act Congress met in New York 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 1776 entirely within the modern-day borough of Brooklyn. 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 at Federal Hall on Wall Street.

THE CITY OF MUSEUMS

New York City features 113 museums- over 22 of which are officially considered "world renowned". With over a hundred museums, the city captures millions and millions of pieces of art and history.

Just one of these cultural gems is the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the largest art museum in the United States and one of the most visited art museums in the world. Its permanent collection contains over two million works and has been open since 1872.

CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

The 250-acre New York Botanical Garden supports over one million living plants in extensive collections. Each year over one million visitors visit the garden's remarkable diversity of tropical, temperate, and desert flora. Another popular sight is the city's Noguchi Museum featuring a beautiful sculpture garden.

Another notable museum is The Cloisters, specializing in European medieval architecture, sculpture and decorative arts as an extension of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Perhaps after a beautiful walk through the castle-like structure you'll enjoy visiting Grand Central's Whispering Gallery, an old room in the Grand Central subway station built so whispers from one corner of the room can be perfectly heard in the other corners- a beautiful and mystifying location.