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City population:
7,420,166 (1998)
Size New York City total area in square miles: 301 Area of Manhattan in square miles: 22.7 13.4 miles (21.5 km) long 2.3 miles (3.7 km) at widest point .8 miles (1.3 km) at narrowest point
Climate Average temperatures: January Low 26 degrees F, -3.33 degrees C High 38 degrees F; 3.33 degrees C July Low 67 degrees F; 19.44 degrees C High 84 degrees F; 28.89 degrees C
Average rainfall: January 3.11 inches July 3.67 inches
Average snowfall: January 7 inches July 0 inches
Important Phone Numbers
Area Codes
Weird
facts
Transportation Airports John F. Kennedy Int'l (JFK) LaGuardia (LGA) Newark Int'l (EWR) Buses Number of buses: 3,867 Number of routes: Local 203 Express 31 Miles of MTA bus routes: 1,671 Average weekday MTA bus riders (1998): 1.2 million Yearly MTA bus riders (1998): 600 million
Subway Subway cars: 5,799 Subway stations: 468 Average daily trips: 7,000 Average weekday riders (1998): 4.0 million Yearly riders (1998): 1.2 billion Miles of track: 656 Underground 443 Elevated 156
Taxis Flat fare from JFK International to any point in Manhattan: $30 plus tolls & tip
Ferry
Eating
Out Average cost of a dinner in 1999 (drink, tax, tip included - Zagat Survey): $30.69 New restaurants in 1999 (Zagat Survey): 277
Theaters The League of American Theatres & Producers, 212/764-1222, www.broadway.org Broadway theaters: 38 New Broadway productions (June 1997 - 1998 Season): 33 Total Broadway ticket sales for June 1997 - June 1998 Season: $557 million Total Broadway attendance for June 1997 - June 1998 Season: 11.5 million Average Broadway admission price: $48.58
Off-Broadway Off-Broadway performance spaces: 125 Annual Off and Off-Off Broadway productions: 1,000 Estimated audience for Off- and Off-Off Broadway shows in 1998: 8 million
Other Interesting Statistics Largest: The world's largest gothic cathedral is the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine (212/316-7540) and it's still under construction. Its first stone was laid in 1892.
The nation's largest public Halloween parade is the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade (914/758-5519, www.halloween-nyc.com).
The New York Mercantile Exchange (212/299-2000) is world's largest physical commodity futures exchange.
Macy's, the world's largest store, covers 2.1 million square feet of space and stocks over 500,000 different items.
The New York Botanical Garden (718/817-8700) is home to the nation's largest Victorian glasshouse, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a New York City landmark that has showcased NYBG's distinguished tropical, Mediterranean, and desert plant collections since 1902.
The Panorama of the City of New York in the Queens Museum of Art is the world's largest architectural model, containing 895,000 individual structures at a scale of 1 inch equals 100 feet.
Oldest: The Sandy Ground Historical Society (718/317-5796) offers a look at the oldest continuously inhabited free black settlement in the nation.
The oldest schoolhouse still standing, built in 1695, is situated in Historic Richmond Town (718/351-1611).
The country's oldest municipal golf course, opened in 1939, is in Van Courtlandt Park in the Bronx.
First in the Field: The first children's gardening program ever established at a botanic garden was begun at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (718/622-4433) in 1914.
The Brooklyn Children's Museum (718/735-4402) is the world's first museum for kids.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (212/875-5000), America's first performing arts center, held its first performance on September 23, 1962.
Babe Ruth hit his first home run in Yankee Stadium in the first game ever played there.
Only in New York City: The nation's only night parade is the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade (914/758-5519, www.halloween-nyc.com).
The Cloisters (212/923-3700), a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the only museum in America dedicated exclusively to medieval art.
The Caribbean Cultural Center (212/307-7420) is the only cultural organization in the U.S. that represents all of the diverse artistic expressions and traditions of the African diaspora.
New York City History: In 1898, the five boroughs The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island were incorporated into a single entity, known as Greater New York.
Ellis Island Immigration Station officially opened its doors to the world on Friday, January 1, 1892. Annie Moore, a 15-year-old Irish girl, was the first to be questioned in the immigration station's second-floor Registry Room. (Source: "Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty," Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island, 212/363-7620).
The Titanic was scheduled to arrive at Chelsea Piers on April 16, 1912 at the conclusion of her maiden voyage. Fate intervened, and the "unsinkable" ship struck an iceberg and sank on April 14, 1912. Of the 2,200 passengers aboard, 675 were rescued by the Cunard liner Carpathia, which arrived at the Chelsea Piers on April 20th. (Source: Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex, 212/212/336-6666, www.chelseapiers.com).
Did you know: There are 6,374.6 miles of streets in New York City.
The Times Square Business Improvement District (212/768-1560, www.timessquarebid.org) plans to drop a ball designed and crafted by Waterford Crystal for New Year's Eve 1999.
The Statue of Liberty's index finger is eight feet long.
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is so long (4,260 feet) that the towers are a few inches out of parallel to accommodate the curvature of the earth.
New York City has 578 miles of waterfront.
Some of the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island and went on to illustrious careers are: Irving Berlin, musician, arrived in 1893 from Russia; Marcus Garvey, politician, arrived 1916 from Jamaica; Bob Hope, comedian, arrived in 1908 from England; Knute Rockne, football coach, arrived in 1893 from Norway; and the von Trapp family of "Sound of Music" fame, arrived in 1938 from Austria. (Source: "Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty," Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island, 212/363-7620).
The Consolidated Edison electrical substation, built in 1975, has an illusionistic mural of the Brooklyn Bridge by Richard Haas on one side to help it blend in with its historic neighbor.
The Bronx is the only New York borough connected to the mainland.
Since the 1920's, Queens has been the 'home of jazz,' the residence of choice for hundreds of jazz musicians, including such notables as Louis Armstrong, Fats Walker, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzie Gillespie (source: The Queens Jazz Trail Committee, 718/463-7700).
Built circa 1680, the Conference House (also known as the Billop House) was the site of a fateful meeting in 1776. The British, represented by Admiral Lord Richard Howe, and the Continental Congress, represented by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge, engaged in an attempt to forestall the American Revolution.
The 2½ mile boardwalk at Brooklyn's South Beach (718/390-8000) is the fourth longest in the world.
John Hertz, who founded the Yellow Cab Company in 1907, chose yellow because he read a survey by the University of Chicago that found yellow was the easiest color to spot.
The triangular shape of the Flatiron Building (an early skyscraper on 23rd Street) produced wind currents that made women's skirts billow and caused police to create the term '23 skiddoo' to shoo gapers from the area. New York City was briefly the U.S. capital from 1789 to 1790 The Dutch supposedly bought Manhattan from its Native American inhabitants for about $24 worth of trinkets. Broadway, originating from Lower Manhattan at Bowling Green and ending in Albany, is one of the world's longest streets at 150 mi (241 km). The official name of this street is Highway 9. Manhattan's downtown southern tip area is predominantly landfill. The actual "natural" Manhattan makes up only 75% of the total area in the downtown region. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine will be the largest Gothic cathedral in the world when it is completed. However, it was originally (1892) begun as a Romanesque design and converted later to Gothic (1911). Central Park in the middle of Manhattan covers a larger area than the principality of Monaco. Staten Island residents voted to secede from the city in 1993, but such a move would require state approval. New York City is located on the Eastern Atlantic coast of the United States, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The city center resides at the exact location of 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds N latitude, and 74 degrees, 0 minutes 23 seconds W longitude. New York City is made of five boroughs separated by various waterways. Brooklyn and Queens occupy the western portion of Long Island, while Staten Island and Manhattan are compeletely on their own land mass. Bronx, to the north, remains attached to the New York State mainland. New York was briefly (1789-90) the U.S. capital and was state capital until 1797. By 1790 it was the largest U.S. city, and the opening (1825) of the ERIE CANAL, linking New York with the GREAT LAKES, led to even greater expansion. In 1898 a new charter was adopted, making the city Greater New York, a metropolis of five boroughs. Massive IMMIGRATION, mainly from Europe, swelled the city's population in the late 19th and early 20th cent. After World War II, many African Americans from the South, Puerto Ricans, and Latin Americans migrated to the city in search of jobs. |
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