A permanent Dutch settlement was established at Fort Orange (now Albany) in 1624. The following year Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island from the Indians in exchange for some objects worth about 60 Dutch guilders and founded the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City). It is difficult to calculate how much this would be worth in modern times and estimates vary between $1000 and $19000 but in any case it was extremely cheap. The Indians had no concept of property ownership at that time and did not fully understand what it was to own land.
New York City is famous for its skyscrapers which are concentrated in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. There are 5,845 high-rises, 98 of which are higher than 600 feet or 183 m. The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which is 1,776 feet or 541 m. One of the most famous skyscrapers is the Empire State Building 1,250 feet or 380 m. It was the tallest building in New York between 1931 and 1970.
In 2014 the population New York City was almost 20 million. There are more than 26,000 people living in each square mile. 51.6% of New Yorkers are women and 17.4% are black. On average there is a birth every 4.4. minutes and a death every 9.1 minutes. New York was the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been largest city in the USA since 1790.
The terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 shocked the world when American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Within two hours, both of the 110-story towers collapsed. The attacks killed 2,996 people (including 19 hijackers) and caused at least $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage. The cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002 and in 2006 construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site. The building was officially opened in November 2014
Since the 1920s the nickname for New York City has been the “Big Apple”. The city of New York will pay for a one-way plane ticket for any homeless person if they have a guaranteed place to stay. The “New York Post” established in 1803 by Alexander Hamilton is the oldest running newspaper in the United States. Times Square is named after the New York Times.
Tourism in New York City is a major industry and there are over 54 million foreign and American tourists each year including day-trippers. One of the big tourist attraction of New York city is the Statue of Liberty which is a giant statue given to America in 1886 by the French. It is visited by 4m people each year. The Statue of Liberty was designed by Gustave Eiffel who also designed the Eiffel Tower. In high winds of 50mph Lady Liberty can sway by up to 3 inches, while her torch can move 5 inches. From the ground to the top of the torch the statue measures 93 metres, and weighs 204 metric tonnes.
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