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160-599: Morris was born into a wealthy landowning family in what is now New York City . After attending King's College (now Columbia University ) he studied law under Judge William Smith and earned admission to the bar. He was elected to the New York Provincial Congress before serving in the Continental Congress . After losing re-election to Congress, he moved to Philadelphia and became the assistant U.S. Superintendent of Finance . He represented Pennsylvania at

320-573: A Huguenot family that had first moved to Holland and then to New Amsterdam . In both Dutch and French , Gouverneur means "Governor". Morris's half-brother Lewis Morris was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Another half-brother, Staats Long Morris , was a Loyalist major-general in the British Army during the American Revolution, and Morris's grandfather, Lewis Morris , was

480-574: A 1981 article in Rolling Stone magazine calling the stretch of West 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues the "sleaziest block in America". By the late 1990s, led by efforts by the city and the Walt Disney Company , the area had been revived as a center of tourism to the point where it was described by The New York Times as "arguably the most sought-after 13 acres of commercial property in

640-506: A day celebrated as Evacuation Day , marking when the last British forces left the city. From January 11, 1785, until 1789, New York City was the fifth of five capitals of the United States under the Articles of Confederation , with the Continental Congress meeting at New York City Hall (then at Fraunces Tavern ). New York was the first capital under the newly enacted Constitution of

800-612: A decade between Irish immigrants and Black people for work. Rioters burned the Colored Orphan Asylum to the ground. At least 120 people were killed. Eleven Black men were lynched over five days, and the riots forced hundreds of Blacks to flee. The Black population in Manhattan fell below 10,000 by 1865. The White working class had established dominance. It was one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history . In 1886,

960-548: A growing number of Indian restaurants and spice shops along a stretch of Lexington Avenue between 25th and 30th Streets which has become known as Curry Hill . Washington Heights in Uptown Manhattan is home to the largest Dominican immigrant community in the United States. Harlem , also in Upper Manhattan, is the historical epicenter of African American culture. Since 2010, a Little Australia has emerged and

1120-428: A housekeeper for Morris, whom she had known previously. They soon decided to marry; Morris was apparently undisturbed by the rumors that had caused Nancy to leave Virginia. By all accounts, their marriage was a happy one; they had a son, Gouverneur Morris Jr. , who went on to a long career as a railroad executive. Morris died on November 6, 1816, after he had caused himself internal injuries and an infection while using

1280-872: A language other than English at home. Points of interest on Manhattan Island include the American Museum of Natural History ; the Battery ; Broadway and the Theater District ; Bryant Park ; Central Park , Chinatown ; the Chrysler Building ; The Cloisters ; Columbia University ; Curry Hill ; the Empire State Building ; Flatiron Building ; the Financial District (including the New York Stock Exchange Building ; Wall Street ; and

1440-468: A laudable horror, so nefarious a practice. Morris went to France on business in 1789 and served as Minister Plenipotentiary to France from 1792 to 1794. His diaries during that time have become a valuable chronicle of the French Revolution and capture much of that era's turbulence and violence and document his affairs with women there. Compared to Thomas Jefferson , Morris was far more critical of

1600-527: A limb fighting for liberty," upon which "[t]he mob's suspicions melted into enthusiastic cheers" (even though, as noted above, Morris had in fact lost his leg as a result of a carriage accident). While Morris was minister, the Marquis de Lafayette , who had been an important participant in the American Revolution , was exiled from France and his family imprisoned, and Thomas Paine , another important figure,

1760-507: A multibillion-dollar rebuilding plan was unveiled to restore the historic grandeur of Penn Station, in the process of upgrading the landmark's status as a critical transportation hub . The 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m ) Moynihan Train Hall , developed as a $ 1.6 billion renovation and expansion of Penn Station into the James A. Farley Building , the city's former main post office building,

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1920-510: A part of the colony of New York . It became a center of slavery , with 42% of households enslaving Africans by 1730. Most were domestic slaves ; others were hired out as labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York's economy through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banking and shipping industries trading with the American South . During construction in Foley Square in

2080-450: A piece of whale baleen as a catheter in an attempt to clear a blockage in his urinary tract . He died at the family estate, Morrisania, and was buried at St. Ann's Church in The Bronx . Morris's great-grandson, also named Gouverneur Morris (1876–1953), was an author of pulp novels and short stories in the early 20th century. Several of his works were adapted into films, including

2240-634: A plantation called Bizarre . In April 1793, Richard Randolph and Nancy were accused of murdering a newborn baby who was said to be Nancy's; presumably, she had been having an affair with Richard. Richard stood trial and was defended by Patrick Henry and John Marshall , who obtained an acquittal. Richard Randolph died suddenly in 1796; both sisters were suspected, but nothing was proven. Nancy remained at Bizarre after her brother-in-law's death but Judith asked her to leave in 1805. Nancy traveled north and lived in Connecticut before she agreed in 1809 to work as

2400-511: A republican form of government would not suit the French character." Morris was "the only foreign representative who remained in his post throughout the worst days of the Terror ." On one occasion, when Morris "found himself the center of a hostile mob in favor of hanging him on the nearest lamppost, he unfastened his wooden leg, brandished it above his head, and proclaimed himself an American who had lost

2560-510: A reputation as a despotic leader. He instituted regulations on liquor sales, attempted to assert control over the Dutch Reformed Church , and blocked other religious groups from establishing houses of worship. In 1664, unable to summon any significant resistance, Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to English troops, led by Colonel Richard Nicolls , without bloodshed. The terms of the surrender permitted Dutch residents to remain in

2720-524: A result of Sandy, and the economic losses in New York City were estimated to be roughly $ 19 billion. The disaster spawned long-term efforts towards infrastructural projects to counter climate change and rising seas, with $ 15 billion in federal funding received through 2022 towards those resiliency efforts. In March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in the city was confirmed. With its population density and its extensive exposure to global travelers,

2880-562: A series of affairs. His lovers included the French novelist Adelaide Filleul and the American poet and novelist Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton . In 1809, at age 57, he married 35-year-old Ann Cary Randolph (1774–1837), nicknamed "Nancy," who was the daughter of Ann Cary and Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. and the sister of Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. was the husband of Thomas Jefferson 's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph . Nancy lived near Farmville, Virginia , with her sister Judith and Judith's husband, Richard Randolph, on

3040-520: A series of spontaneous, violent protests by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, 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

3200-526: A special "briefs" club for the protection of New York City, a forerunner of the modern New York Guard . In Philadelphia, he was appointed assistant superintendent of finance of the United States and served under Robert Morris . He was selected as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. During the Convention, he was a friend and ally of Washington and others who favored

3360-476: A speech denying the request, which was paraphrased on the front page of the New York Daily News as "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." The Municipal Assistance Corporation was formed and granted oversight authority over the city's finances. 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 that decade and into

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3520-527: A strong central government was at odds with the decentralist views prevalent in New York . Defeated in his home state, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , to work as a lawyer and merchant. In 1780, Morris had a carriage accident in Philadelphia, and his left leg was amputated below the knee. Despite an automatic exemption from military duty because of his handicap and his service in the legislature, he joined

3680-559: A strong central government. Morris was elected to serve on the Committee of Style and Arrangement, a committee of five (chaired by William Samuel Johnson ), which drafted the final language of the proposed constitution. Morris has been credited by most historians with authorship of the final version of the preamble, including changing the opening line "We, the People of the States" to "We, the People of

3840-467: A wildlife sanctuary, and several lawns and sporting areas, as well as 21 playgrounds, and a 6-mile (9.7 km) road from which automobile traffic has been banned since 2018. While much of the park looks natural, it is almost entirely landscaped; the construction of Central Park in the 1850s was one of the era's most massive public works projects, with some 20,000 workers moving 5 million cubic yards (3.8 million cubic meters) of material to shape

4000-552: A year. In 1961, the struggling Pennsylvania Railroad unveiled plans to tear down the old Penn Station and replace it with a new Madison Square Garden and office building complex. Organized protests were aimed at preserving the McKim, Mead & White -designed structure completed in 1910, widely considered a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the architectural jewels of New York City. Despite these efforts, demolition of

4160-476: Is a global center of finance and commerce , culture , technology , entertainment and media , academics and scientific output , the arts and fashion , and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations , international diplomacy . With an estimated population in 2023 of 8,258,035 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km ), the city is the most densely populated major city in

4320-581: Is a name from the Dutch colonial era after Haarlem , a city in the Netherlands. Some have simple folkloric names, such as Hell's Kitchen , alongside their more official but lesser used title (in this case, Clinton). Some neighborhoods, such as SoHo , which is mixed use, are known for upscale shopping as well as residential use. Others, such as Greenwich Village , the Lower East Side , Alphabet City and

4480-564: Is also alleged that he thought that common people were incapable of self-government because he feared that the poor would sell their votes to the rich and that voting should be restricted to property owners. Duff Cooper wrote of Morris that although he "had warmly espoused the cause of the colonists in the American War of Independence, he retained a cynically aristocratic view of life and a profound contempt for democratic theories." Morris opposed admitting new western states on an equal basis with

4640-467: Is an established safe haven for global investors. As of 2023 , New York City is the most expensive city in the world for expatriates and has by a wide margin the highest U.S. city residential rents; and Fifth Avenue is the most expensive shopping street in the world. New York City is home by a significant margin to the highest number of billionaires , individuals of ultra-high net worth (greater than US$ 30 million), and millionaires of any city in

4800-732: Is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and the East River to the east. To the north, the Harlem River divides Manhattan Island from the Bronx and the mainland United States. Early in the 19th century, land reclamation was used to expand Lower Manhattan from the natural Hudson shoreline at Greenwich Street to West Street . When building the World Trade Center in 1968, 1.2 million cubic yards (920,000 m ) of material excavated from

4960-504: Is growing in Nolita, Lower Manhattan. Manhattan has two central business districts, the Financial District at the southern tip of the island, and Midtown Manhattan . The term uptown also refers to the northern part of Manhattan above 72nd Street and downtown to the southern portion below 14th Street , with Midtown covering the area in between, though definitions can be fluid. Fifth Avenue roughly bisects Manhattan Island and acts as

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5120-552: Is land and 10.8 square miles (28 km ) (32%) is water. The northern segment of Upper Manhattan represents a geographic panhandle . Manhattan Island is 22.7 square miles (59 km ) in area, 13.4 miles (21.6 km) long and 2.3 miles (3.7 km) wide, at its widest point, near 14th Street . The borough consists primarily of Manhattan Island, along with the Marble Hill neighborhood and several small islands, including Randalls Island and Wards Island and Roosevelt Island in

5280-651: Is relatively evenly spread throughout the year. Average winter snowfall between 1981 and 2010 has been 25.8 inches (66 cm); this varies considerably from year to year. Manhattan's many neighborhoods are not named according to any particular convention, nor do they have official boundaries. Some are geographical (the Upper East Side ), or ethnically descriptive ( Little Italy ). Others are acronyms , such as TriBeCa (for "TRIangle BElow CAnal Street") or SoHo ("SOuth of HOuston"), NoLIta ("NOrth of Little ITAly"), and NoMad ("NOrth of MADison Square Park"). Harlem

5440-492: Is the most populous city in the United States , located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors . The city comprises five boroughs , each coextensive with a respective county . The city is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area , the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area . New York

5600-902: Is the world's seventh-tallest building (as of 2023) . The Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan began on September 17, 2011, receiving global attention and spawning the Occupy movement against social and economic inequality worldwide. On October 29 and 30, 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused extensive destruction in the borough, ravaging portions of Lower Manhattan with record-high storm surge from New York Harbor, severe flooding, and high winds, causing power outages for hundreds of thousands of city residents and leading to gasoline shortages and disruption of mass transit systems. The storm and its profound impacts have prompted discussion of constructing seawalls and other coastal barriers around

5760-408: Is the economic engine of New York City , with its 2.45 million workers drawn from the entire New York metropolitan area accounting for almost more than half of all jobs in New York City. Manhattan's workforce is overwhelmingly focused on white collar professions. In 2010, Manhattan's daytime population was swelling to 3.94 million, with commuters adding a net 1.48 million people to

5920-618: Is the most expensive shopping street in the world. The borough hosts many prominent bridges , tunnels , and skyscrapers including the Empire State Building , Chrysler Building , and One World Trade Center . It is also home to the National Basketball Association 's New York Knicks and the National Hockey League 's New York Rangers . Manhattan was historically part of the Lenapehoking territory inhabited by

6080-690: Is well suited for the foundations of Manhattan's skyscrapers . It is part of the Manhattan Prong physiographic region. Under the Köppen climate classification , New York City features both a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) and a humid continental climate ( Dfa ); it is the northernmost major city on the North American continent with a humid subtropical climate. The city averages 234 days with at least some sunshine annually. Winters are cold and damp, and prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore temper

6240-712: The American Revolutionary War . The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British military and political center of operations in North America for the remainder of the war. British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan,

6400-780: 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 . In 1831, New York University was founded. 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 . Members of

6560-506: The Battle of Long Island in August 1776, the British seized New York City. Morris's mother, a Loyalist , gave his family's estate, which was across the Harlem River from Manhattan , to the British for military use. Morris was appointed as a delegate to the Continental Congress and took his seat in Congress on 28 January 1778. He was selected to a committee in charge of coordinating reforms of

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6720-631: The Conway Cabal was at its peak, some members of the Continental Congress attempted a no-confidence vote against George Washington. If it had succeeded, Washington would have been court-martialed and dismissed as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Gouverneur Morris cast the decisive tie-breaking vote in favor of keeping Washington as Commander-in-Chief. In 1779, he was defeated for re-election to Congress, largely because his advocacy of

6880-826: The Crown , with as many as 10,000 escaped slaves crowded into the city during the British occupation, the largest such community on the continent. When the British forces evacuated New York at the close of the war in 1783, they transported thousands of freedmen for resettlement in Nova Scotia , England, and the Caribbean . The 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

7040-553: The East Village , have long been associated with the Bohemian subculture. Chelsea is one of several Manhattan neighborhoods with large gay populations and has become a center of both the international art industry and New York's nightlife. Chinatown has the highest concentration of people of Chinese descent outside of Asia . Koreatown is roughly centered on 32nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Rose Hill features

7200-873: The FBI as "something of a deadly dress rehearsal for 9/11", was a terrorist attack in which six people were killed when a van bomb filled with explosives was detonated in a parking lot below the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex . On September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers of the original World Trade Center were struck by hijacked aircraft and collapsed in the September 11 attacks launched by al-Qaeda terrorists. The collapse caused extensive damage to surrounding buildings and skyscrapers in Lower Manhattan, and resulted in

7360-572: The Harlem and Hudson rivers, separated it from the remainder of Manhattan. Before World War I, the section of the original Harlem River channel separating Marble Hill from the Bronx was filled in, and Marble Hill became part of the mainland. After a May 1984 court ruling that Marble Hill was simultaneously part of the Borough of Manhattan (not the Borough of the Bronx) and part of Bronx County (not New York County),

7520-584: The Hearst Tower , the rebuilt 7 World Trade Center , and the Bank of America Tower —the first skyscraper designed to attain a Platinum LEED Certification. The skyscraper , which has shaped Manhattan's distinctive skyline , has been closely associated with New York City's identity since the end of the 19th century. Structures such as the Equitable Building of 1915, which rises vertically forty stories from

7680-422: The Munsee , Lenape , and Wappinger tribes . There were several Lenape settlements in the area including Sapohanikan , Nechtanc , and Konaande Kongh , which were interconnected by a series of trails. The primary trail on the island, which would later become Broadway , ran from what is now Inwood in the north to Battery Park in the south. There were various sites for fishing and planting established by

7840-428: The New York City Fire Department and 71 law enforcement officers. The area was rebuilt with a new World Trade Center , the National September 11 Memorial and Museum , and other new buildings and infrastructure, including the World Trade Center Transportation Hub , the city's third-largest hub. The new One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere and the seventh-tallest building in

8000-445: The New York Provincial Congress . As a member of the congress, he, along with most of his fellow delegates, concentrated on turning the colony into an independent state. However, his advocacy of independence brought him into conflict with his family, as well as with his mentor, William Smith , who had abandoned the Patriot cause when it pressed toward independence. Morris was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1777–78 . After

8160-499: The Northwest Passage to the Orient for the Dutch East India Company . He sailed up what the Dutch called North River (now the Hudson River), named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange . Hudson claimed the region for the Dutch East India Company. In 1614, the area between Cape Cod and Delaware Bay was claimed by the Netherlands and called Nieuw-Nederland (' New Netherland '). The first non–Native American inhabitant of what became New York City

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8320-497: The South Street Seaport ); Grand Central Terminal ; Greenwich Village (including New York University ; Washington Square Arch ; and Stonewall Inn ); Harlem and Spanish Harlem ; the High Line ; Koreatown ; Lincoln Center ; Little Australia ; Little Italy ; Madison Square Garden ; Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art ); Penn Station , Port Authority Bus Terminal ; Rockefeller Center (including Radio City Music Hall ); Times Square ; and

8480-408: The Statue of Liberty , a gift from France , was dedicated in New York Harbor. The statue welcomed 14 million immigrants as they came to the U.S. via Ellis Island by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a symbol of the United States and American ideals of liberty and peace. In 1898, the City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then a separate city),

8640-465: The Stonewall riots were a series of violent protests by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village . They are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights . Wayne R. Dynes , author of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality , wrote that drag queens were

8800-496: The U.S. mainland . Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each cutting across the borough's long axis: Lower Manhattan, Midtown , and Upper Manhattan. Manhattan is one of the most densely populated locations in the world, with a 2020 census population of 1,694,250 living in a land area of 22.66 square miles (58.69 km ), or 72,918 residents per square mile (28,154 residents/km ), and coextensive with New York County, its residential property has

8960-469: The War of 1812 . He even pushed for secession to create a separate New York-New England Confederation because he saw the war as a result of slaveholders, who wanted to expand their territory. In the words of the biographer Richard Brookhiser "The man who wrote the Constitution judged it to be a failure and was willing to scrap it." Morris was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814. Until he married late in life, Morris's diary tells of

9120-454: The World Trade Center (including the National September 11 Museum and One World Trade Center ). There are also numerous iconic bridges across rivers that connect to Manhattan Island, as well as an emerging number of supertall skyscrapers . The Statue of Liberty rests on Liberty Island , an exclave of Manhattan, and part of Ellis Island is also an exclave of Manhattan. The borough has many energy-efficient office buildings, such as

9280-466: The citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam ( Nieuw Amsterdam ), in what is now Lower Manhattan. The establishment of Fort Amsterdam is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony. New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653. In 1664, English forces conquered New Netherland and renamed it "New York" after

9440-409: The deaths of 2,606 of the 17,400 who had been in the buildings when the planes hit, in addition to those on the planes. Since 2001, most of Lower Manhattan has been restored, although there has been controversy surrounding the rebuilding. In 2014, the new One World Trade Center , at 1,776 feet (541 m) measured to the top of its spire, became the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and

9600-466: The five boroughs of New York City . Coextensive with New York County , Manhattan is the smallest county by geographical area in the U.S. state of New York . Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area . Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as

9760-403: The steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River , killing 1,021 people. In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire , the city's worst industrial disaster, killed 146 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 36,620 in 1890. New York City

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9920-433: The topography and create the English-style pastoral landscape that Olmsted and Vaux sought. The remaining 70% of Manhattan's parkland includes 204 playgrounds, 251 Greenstreets, 371 basketball courts , and many other amenities. The next-largest park in Manhattan, the Hudson River Park , stretches 4.5 miles (7.2 km) along the Hudson River and comprises 550 acres (220 ha). Other major parks include: Manhattan

10080-437: 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. Some of the natural relief in topography has been evened out, especially in Manhattan. Manhattan Manhattan ( / m æ n ˈ h æ t ən , m ə n -/ man- HAT -ən, mən- ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of

10240-447: The world's tallest building . Manhattan's majority white ethnic group declined from 98.7% in 1900 to 58.3% by 1990. On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village killed 146 garment workers , leading to overhauls of the city's fire department, building codes , and workplace safety regulations. In 1912, about 20,000 workers, a quarter of them women, marched upon Washington Square Park to commemorate

10400-686: The 1,537,195 counted in the 2000 census . In 2010, the largest organized religious group in Manhattan was the Archdiocese of New York , with 323,325 Catholics worshiping at 109 parishes, followed by 64,000 Orthodox Jews with 77 congregations, an estimated 42,545 Muslims with 21 congregations, 42,502 non-denominational adherents with 54 congregations, 26,178 TEC Episcopalians with 46 congregations, 25,048 ABC-USA Baptists with 41 congregations, 24,536 Reform Jews with 10 congregations, 23,982 Mahayana Buddhists with 35 congregations, 10,503 PC-USA Presbyterians with 30 congregations, and 10,268 RCA Presbyterians with 10 congregations. Altogether, 44.0% of

10560-421: The 1787 Constitutional Convention in which he advocated a strong central government. He served on the committee that wrote the final draft of the United States Constitution. After the ratification of the Constitution, Morris served as Minister Plenipotentiary to France. He criticized the French Revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette . Morris returned to the United States in 1798 and won election to

10720-452: The 1920s, Manhattan experienced large arrivals of African-Americans as part of the Great Migration from the southern United States, and the Harlem Renaissance , part of a larger boom time in the Prohibition era that included new skyscrapers competing for the skyline, with the Woolworth Building (1913), 40 Wall Street (1930), Chrysler Building (1930) and the Empire State Building (1931) leapfrogging each other to take their place as

10880-440: The 1970s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City, including Manhattan, 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 1980s, New York's crime rate continued to increase through the decade and into the beginning of the 1990s. The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street , and Manhattan reclaimed its role as

11040-416: The 1990s, the African Burying Ground was discovered; the cemetery included 10,000 to 20,000 graves of colonial-era Africans, some enslaved and some free. The 1735 trial and acquittal in Manhattan of John Peter Zenger , who had been accused of seditious libel after criticizing colonial governor William Cosby , helped to establish freedom of the press in North America . In 1754, Columbia University

11200-418: The 19th century, the city was transformed by both commercial and residential development relating to its status as a national and international trading center , as well as by European immigration, respectively. The city adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 , which expanded the city street grid to encompass almost all of Manhattan. The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal through central New York connected

11360-417: The 19th century, the island was named so for a grove of hickory trees at its southern end that was considered ideal for the making of bows. In April 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano , sailing in service of Francis I of France , became the first documented European to visit the area that would become New York City. Verrazzano entered the tidal strait now known as The Narrows and named

11520-552: The Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the Midwestern United States and Canada . Tammany Hall , a Democratic Party political machine , began to grow in influence with the support of many of the immigrant Irish , culminating in the election of the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood , in 1854. Covering 840 acres (340 ha) in the center of the island, Central Park , which opened its first portions to

11680-569: The British occupation began, the Great Fire of New York destroyed nearly 500 buildings, about a quarter of the structures in the city, including Trinity Church . In January 1785, the assembly of the Congress of the Confederation made New York City the national capital. New York was the last capital of the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation and the first capital under the Constitution of

11840-410: The Bronx , and Staten Island . Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District, Manhattan , New York City has been called both the world's premier financial and fintech center and the most economically powerful city in the world. As of 2022 , the New York metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan economy in the world , with a gross metropolitan product of over US$ 2.16 trillion. If

12000-593: The Constitution. During the Convention Gouverneur Morris boarded at Miss Dally's boarding house, along with Alexander Hamilton and Elbridge Gerry. Based on this discovery, an application was submitted to the State of Pennsylvania to install a historic marker on Market and 3rd Street in Philadelphia to honor Miss Dally and the location where the "Penman of the Constitution" boarded. Researchers have theorized that

12160-472: The Convention, Morris spoke openly against slavery on 8 August 1787 and stated that it was incongruous to say that a slave was both a man and property at the same time: He [Morris] never would concur in upholding domestic slavery. It was a nefarious institution. It was the curse of heaven on the states where it prevailed. Compare the free regions of the Middle States, where a rich & noble cultivation marks

12320-510: 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 New York City 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,

12480-585: The Dutch West India Company relinquished its monopoly over the fur trade, leading to growth in the production and trade of food, timber, tobacco, and slaves (particularly with the Dutch West Indies ). In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant began his tenure as the last Director-General of New Netherland. During his tenure, the population of New Netherland grew from 2,000 to 8,000. Stuyvesant has been credited with improving law and order; however, he earned

12640-529: The Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit , as charged by the Dutch West India Company , purchased the island of Manhattan from the Canarsie , a small Lenape band, for "the value of 60 guilders " (about $ 900 in 2018). A frequently told but disproved legend claims that Manhattan was purchased for $ 24 worth of glass beads. Following the purchase, New Amsterdam grew slowly. To attract settlers,

12800-597: The Dutch instituted the patroon system in 1628, whereby wealthy Dutchmen ( patroons , or patrons) who brought 50 colonists to New Netherland would be awarded land, local political autonomy, and rights to participate in the lucrative fur trade. This program had little success. Since 1621, the Dutch West India Company had operated as a monopoly in New Netherland, on authority granted by the Dutch States General . In 1639–1640, in an effort to bolster economic growth,

12960-558: The East River; and Governors Island and Liberty Island to the south in New York Harbor . The Island is about 13.4 miles (21.6 km) from north to south, and at its widest, 2.3 miles (3.7 km). Manhattan Island is loosely divided into Downtown ( Lower Manhattan ), Midtown ( Midtown Manhattan ), and Uptown ( Upper Manhattan ), with Fifth Avenue dividing Manhattan lengthwise into its East Side and West Side . Manhattan Island

13120-677: The English Duke of York and Albany , the future King James II. In August 1673, the Dutch reconquered the colony, renaming it "New Orange", but permanently relinquished it back to England the following year under the terms of the Treaty of Westminster that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War . Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign , a series of major battles in the early stages of

13280-465: The French Revolution and considerably more sympathetic to the deposed queen consort, Marie Antoinette . Commenting on her grandfather's sometimes Tory -minded outlook of the world, Anne Cary Morris stated, "His creed was rather to form the government to suit the condition, character, manners, and habits of the people. In France this opinion led him to take the monarchical view, firmly believing that

13440-528: The Lenape throughout Manhattan. The name Manhattan originated from the Lenape 's language, Munsee , manaháhtaan (where manah- means "gather", -aht- means " bow ", and -aan is an abstract element used to form verb stems ). The Lenape word has been translated as "the place where we get bows" or "place for gathering the (wood to make) bows". According to a Munsee tradition recorded by Albert Seqaqkind Anthony in

13600-531: The Native Americans and epidemics brought on by contact with the Europeans caused sizeable population losses for the Lenape between 1660 and 1670. By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200. New York experienced several yellow fever epidemics in the 18th century, losing ten percent of its population in 1702 alone. In the early 18th century, New York grew in importance as a trading port while as

13760-470: The New York metropolitan area were its own country , it would have the tenth-largest economy in the world . Despite having a 24/7 rapid transit system , New York also leads the world in urban automobile traffic congestion . The city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by market capitalization of their listed companies: the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq . New York City

13920-581: The Representation when fairly explained comes to this: that the inhabitant of Georgia and S. C. who goes to the Coast of Africa, and in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity tears away his fellow creatures from their dearest connections & damns them to the most cruel bondages, shall have more votes in a Govt. instituted for protection of the rights of mankind, than the Citizen of Pa. or N. Jersey who views with

14080-699: The Revolutionary War and escaped slaves, a significant free-Black population gradually developed in Manhattan. The New York Manumission Society worked for abolition and established the African Free School to educate Black children. It was not until 1827 that slavery was completely abolished in the state . Free Blacks struggled with discrimination and interracial abolitionist activism continued. New York City's population jumped from 123,706 in 1820 (10,886 of whom were Black and of which 518 were enslaved) to 312,710 by 1840 (16,358 of whom were Black). Also in

14240-627: The Senate in 1800. Affiliating with the Federalist Party , he lost re-election in 1803. After leaving the Senate, he served as chairman of the Erie Canal Commission , which constructed the Erie Canal . Morris was born on January 31, 1752, the son of Lewis Morris Jr. (1698–1762) and his second wife, Sarah Gouverneur (1714–1786). Morris's first name derived from his mother's surname; she was from

14400-592: The United Nations is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan. Manhattan hosts three of the world's top 10 most-visited tourist attractions: Times Square , Central Park , and Grand Central Terminal . Penn Station is the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere . Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. Fifth Avenue

14560-687: The United States , from March 4, 1789, to August 12, 1790, at Federal Hall . Federal Hall was where the United States Supreme Court met for the first time, the United States Bill of Rights were drafted and ratified, and where the Northwest Ordinance was adopted, establishing measures for admission to the Union of new states. New York grew as an economic center, first as a result of Alexander Hamilton 's policies and practices as

14720-461: The United States . As the U.S. capital, New York City hosted the inauguration of the first President, George Washington , and the first Congress , at Federal Hall on Wall Street . Congress drafted the Bill of Rights there. The Supreme Court held its first organizational sessions in New York in 1790. In 1790, for the first time, New York City surpassed Philadelphia as the nation's largest city. At

14880-436: The United States . As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. In 2021, the city was home to nearly 3.1 million residents born outside the U.S., the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world. New York City traces its origins to Fort Amsterdam and a trading post founded on Manhattan Island by Dutch colonists around 1624. The settlement

15040-416: The United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles , the nation's second-most populous city. With more than 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York City is one of the world's most populous megacities . The city and its metropolitan area are the premier gateway for legal immigration to

15200-408: The United States." Catherine Drinker Bowen , in her 1966 book Miracle at Philadelphia , called Morris the committee's " amanuensis ," meaning that it was his pen that was responsible for most of the draft and its final polished form. It is said by some that Morris was "an aristocrat to the core," who believed that "there never was, nor ever will be a civilized Society without an Aristocracy." It

15360-460: The West was a strategic move designed to limit the power of slaveholding states because Morris believed that slavery would predominate in new Western states. At the Convention, he gave more speeches than any other delegate, a total of 173. As a matter of principle, he often vigorously defended the right of anyone to practice his chosen religion without interference, and he argued to include such language in

15520-453: The administration of our common interests." His reason given for that was regional: "The Busy haunts of men not the remote wilderness, was the proper School of political Talents. If the Western people get the power into their hands they will ruin the Atlantic interests." In that fear, Morris turned out to be in the minority. Jon Elster has suggested that Morris's attempt to limit the future power of

15680-698: The area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême (New Angoulême ). A Spanish expedition, led by the Portuguese captain Estêvão Gomes sailing for Emperor Charles V , arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River , which he named Río de San Antonio ('Saint Anthony's River'). In 1609, the English explorer Henry Hudson rediscovered New York Harbor while searching for

15840-493: The beginning of the 1990s. By the mid-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. New York City's population exceeded 8 million for the first time in the 2000 United States census ; further records were set in 2010 , and 2020 U.S. censuses. Important new sectors, such as Silicon Alley , emerged in

16000-583: The business elite lobbied for the establishment of Central Park , which in 1857 became the first landscaped park in an American city. The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, of whom more than 200,000 were living in New York by 1860, representing over a quarter of the city's population. Extensive immigration from the German provinces meant that Germans comprised another 25% of New York's population by 1860. Democratic Party candidates were consistently elected to local office, increasing

16160-605: The chief justice of New York and British governor of New Jersey . His nephew, Lewis Richard Morris , served in the Vermont Legislature and in the United States Congress. His grandnephew was William M. Meredith , who was United States Secretary of the Treasury under Zachary Taylor . Morris's father, Lewis Morris, was a wealthy landowner and judge. Gouverneur Morris was born on the family estate, Morrisania, on

16320-523: The city became a hotbed of revolution (including anarchists and communists among others), syndicalism , racketeering , and unionization . In 1883, the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge across the East River established a road connection to Brooklyn and the rest of Long Island . In 1898, New York City consolidated with three neighboring counties to form "the City of Greater New York ", and Manhattan

16480-557: 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 freshwater river in the city. The city's land has been altered substantially by human intervention, with considerable land reclamation along

16640-439: The city rapidly replaced Wuhan , China as the global epicenter of the pandemic during the early phase, straining the city's healthcare infrastructure. Through March 2023, New York City recorded more than 80,000 deaths from COVID-19-related complications. New York City is situated in the northeastern United States , in southeastern New York State, approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston . Its location at

16800-501: The city's economy. The advent of Y2K was celebrated with fanfare in Times Square . New York City suffered the bulk of the economic damage and largest loss of human life in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks . Two of the four airliners hijacked that day were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, resulting in the collapse of both buildings and the deaths of 2,753 people, including 343 first responders from

16960-561: The city's skyline, most notably the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and 30 Rockefeller Plaza . A postwar economic boom led to the development of huge housing developments targeted at returning veterans, the largest being Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village , which opened in 1947. The United Nations relocated to a new headquarters that was completed in 1952 along the East River. The Stonewall riots were

17120-776: 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. Anger at new military conscription laws during the American Civil War (1861–1865), which spared wealthier men who could afford to hire a substitute, led to the Draft Riots of 1863 , whose most visible participants were ethnic Irish working class. The draft riots deteriorated into attacks on New York's elite, followed by attacks on Black New Yorkers after fierce competition for

17280-1046: The coldest winter month. 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 76.5 °F (24.7 °C) in July. Nighttime conditions are often exacerbated by the urban heat island phenomenon, which causes heat absorbed during the day to be radiated back at night, raising temperatures by as much as 7 °F (4 °C) when winds are slow. Daytime temperatures exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on average of 17 days each summer and in some years exceed 100 °F (38 °C). Extreme temperatures have ranged from −15 °F (−26 °C), recorded on February 9, 1934, up to 106 °F (41 °C) on July 9, 1936. Manhattan lies in USDA plant hardiness zone 7b (5 to 10 °F/-15 to -12.2 °C). Manhattan receives 49.9 inches (1,270 mm) of precipitation annually, which

17440-567: The colony and allowed for religious freedom. In 1667, during negotiations leading to the Treaty of Breda after the Second Anglo-Dutch War , the victorious Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of what is now Suriname , which they had gained from the English, and in return the English kept New Amsterdam. The settlement was promptly renamed "New York" after the Duke of York (the future King James II and VII). The duke gave part of

17600-541: The colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley . On August 24, 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War , Anthony Colve of the Dutch navy seized New York at the behest of Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and rechristened it "New Orange" after William III , the Prince of Orange . The Dutch soon returned the island to England under the Treaty of Westminster of November 1674. Several intertribal wars among

17760-458: The cultural, financial, media , and entertainment capital of the world. Present-day Manhattan was originally part of Lenape territory. European settlement began with the establishment of a trading post by Dutch colonists in 1624 on southern Manhattan Island; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The territory and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted

17920-472: The decade to 1,694,250, representing 19.2% of New York City's population of 8,804,194 and 8.4% of New York State's population of 20,201,230. The population density of New York County was 70,450.8 inhabitants per square mile (27,201.2/km ) in 2022, the highest population density of any county in the United States and higher than the density of any individual U.S. city . At the 2010 census , there were 1,585,873 people living in Manhattan, an increase of 3.2% from

18080-407: The demarcation line for east/west designations. South of Waverly Place , Fifth Avenue terminates and Broadway becomes the east/west demarcation line. In Manhattan, uptown means north and downtown means south. This usage differs from that of most American cities, where downtown refers to the central business district. As of the 2020 census , Manhattan's population had increased by 6.8% over

18240-417: The development of large housing tracts in eastern Queens and Nassau County , with Wall Street leading America's place as the world's dominant economic power. The United Nations headquarters was completed in 1952, 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. In 1969,

18400-406: The end of 1790, the national capital was moved to Philadelphia . During the 19th century, New York City's population grew from 60,000 to 3.43 million. Under New York State's gradual emancipation act of 1799, 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

18560-458: The existing eastern states for fear that the interior “wilderness” could not furnish "enlightened" national statesmen. Madison's summary of Morris's speech at the Convention on 11 July 1787 stated that his view "relative to the Western Country had not changed his opinion on that head. Among other objections it must be apparent they would not be able to furnish men equally enlightened, to share in

18720-680: The famous Lon Chaney film The Penalty in 1920 . Morris established himself as an important landowner in northern New York, where the Town of Gouverneur , Village of Gouverneur , and Village of Morristown in St. Lawrence County are named after him. In 1943, a United States Liberty ship , the SS Gouverneur Morris , was launched. She was scrapped in 1974. (*) elected but declined; (**) elected but died before taking office New York City New York , often called New York City or NYC ,

18880-503: The fire. Many of the women wore fitted tucked-front blouses like those manufactured by the company, a clothing style that became the working woman's uniform and a symbol of women's liberation , reflecting the alliance of the labor and suffrage movements. Despite the Great Depression , some of the world's tallest skyscrapers were completed in Manhattan during the 1930s, including numerous Art Deco masterpieces that are still part of

19040-496: The first Secretary of the Treasury to expand the city's role as a center of commerce and industry. By 1810, New York City, then confined to Manhattan, had surpassed Philadelphia as the most populous city in the United States. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 laid out the island of Manhattan in its familiar grid plan . The city's role as an economic center grew with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, cutting transportation costs by 90% compared to road transport and connecting

19200-517: The five-member Committee on Style and Arrangement, which included Gouverneur Morris, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, may have met at Miss Dally's boarding house between September 8 to September 12, which would have been the most convenient location for all five delegates. Gouverneur Morris was one of the few delegates at the Philadelphia Convention who spoke openly against domestic slavery. According to James Madison , who took notes at

19360-457: The founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island . In 1625, construction was started on a citadel and Fort Amsterdam , later called Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam), on present-day Manhattan Island. The colony of New Amsterdam extended from the southern tip of Manhattan to modern-day Wall Street , where a 12-foot (3.7 m) wooden stockade was built in 1653 to protect against Native American and English raids. In 1626,

19520-416: The highest sale price per square foot in the United States. Manhattan is home to Wall Street as well as the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization , the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq . Many multinational media conglomerates are based in Manhattan, as are numerous colleges and universities, such as Columbia University and New York University . The headquarters of

19680-466: The ice (and its subsequent retreat) contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action left bedrock at a relatively shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers. 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 . The Hudson River separates

19840-470: The land around Upper New York Harbor New Angoulême , in reference to the family name of King Francis I; he sailed far enough into the harbor to sight the Hudson River , and he named the Bay of Santa Margarita – what is now Upper New York Bay – after Marguerite de Navarre , the elder sister of the king. Manhattan was first mapped during a 1609 voyage of Henry Hudson . Hudson came across Manhattan Island and

20000-495: The lands to his brother, the Duke of York . New York, based in present-day Lower Manhattan , served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor greeted millions of arriving immigrants in the late 19th century and is a world symbol of the United States and its ideals. Manhattan became a borough during the consolidation of New York City in 1898 , and houses New York City Hall ,

20160-486: The last American stronghold in Manhattan, causing George Washington and his forces to retreat across the Hudson River to New Jersey , pursued by British forces. 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 promised by

20320-554: The matter was definitively settled later that year when the New York Legislature overwhelmingly passed legislation declaring the neighborhood part of both New York County and the Borough of Manhattan. Within New York Harbor , there are three smaller islands: Other smaller islands, in the East River , include (from north to south): The bedrock underlying much of Manhattan consists of three rock formations: Inwood marble , Fordham gneiss , and Manhattan schist , and

20480-460: The military with George Washington . After witnessing the army encamped at Valley Forge , he was so appalled by the conditions of the troops that he became the spokesman for the Continental Army in Congress and subsequently helped enact substantial reforms in its training, methods, and financing. He also signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778 and was its youngest signer. In 1778, when

20640-568: 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. The daily mean temperature in January, the area's coldest month, is 32.6 °F (0.3 °C); temperatures usually drop to 10 °F (−12 °C) several times per winter, and reach 60 °F (16 °C) several days in

20800-419: The most populous urbanized area in the world in the early 1920s, overtaking London . The metropolitan area surpassed 10 million in the early 1930s, becoming the first megacity . 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

20960-488: 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. Most of the city is built on the three islands of Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island. During the Wisconsin glaciation , 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City area was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet . The erosive forward movement of

21120-466: The native people living there, and continued up the river that would later bear his name, the Hudson River . Manhattan was first recorded in writing as Manna-hata , in the logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on the voyage. 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

21280-609: The north side of the Harlem River , which was then in Westchester County but is now part of the Bronx . Morris, a gifted scholar, enrolled at King's College (now Columbia University in New York City) at age 12. He graduated in 1768 and received a master's degree in 1771. He studied law with Judge William Smith and attained admission to the bar in 1775. On May 8, 1775, Morris was elected to represent his family household in southern Westchester County (now Bronx County ), in

21440-492: The only " transgender folks around" during the June 1969 Stonewall riots. The transgender community in New York City played a significant role in fighting for LGBT equality. In the 1970s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City to suffer from economic problems and rising crime rates. Growing fiscal deficits in 1975 led the city to appeal to the federal government for financial aid; President Gerald Ford gave

21600-462: The original World Trade Center , which was destroyed during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks . Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors , the borough is bounded by the Hudson , East , and Harlem rivers and includes several small adjacent islands , including Roosevelt , U Thant , and Randalls and Wards Islands . It also includes the small neighborhood of Marble Hill now on

21760-835: The population was claimed as members by religious congregations, although members of historically African-American denominations were underrepresented due to incomplete information. In 2014, Manhattan had 703 religious organizations, the seventeenth most out of all US counties. There is a large Buddhist temple in Manhattan located at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge in Chinatown . As of 2015, 60.0% (927,650) of Manhattan residents, aged five and older, spoke only English at home, while 22.63% (350,112) spoke Spanish, 5.37% (83,013) Chinese, 2.21% (34,246) French, 0.85% (13,138) Korean, 0.72% (11,135) Russian, and 0.70% (10,766) Japanese. In total, 40.0% of Manhattan's population, aged five and older, spoke

21920-620: The possibilities of which were apparent to Morris when he said that "the proudest empire in Europe is but a bubble compared to what America will be, must be, in the course of two centuries, perhaps of one." He was one of the three men who drew up the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 , which laid out the Manhattan street grid. Morris's final public act was to support the Hartford Convention during

22080-401: The prosperity & happiness of the people, with the misery & poverty which overspread the barren wastes of Va. Maryd. & the other States having slaves.... Proceed southwardly, and every step you take, through the great regions of slaves, presents a desert increasing with the increasing proportion of these wretched beings. Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be computed in

22240-472: The public in 1858, became the first landscaped public park in an American city. New York City played a complex role in the American Civil War . The city had strong commercial ties to the South , but anger around conscription , resentment against Lincoln's war policies and paranoia about free Blacks taking the jobs of poor immigrants culminated in the three-day-long New York Draft Riots of July 1863, among

22400-457: The representation? Are they men? Then make them citizens, and let them vote. Are they property? Why, then, is no other property included? The Houses in this city [Philadelphia] are worth more than all the wretched slaves which cover the rice swamps of South Carolina. According to Madison, Morris felt that the U.S. Constitution's purpose was to protect the rights of humanity, which was incongruous with promoting slavery: The admission of slaves into

22560-409: The resignation of James Watson . Morris served from May 3, 1800 to March 3, 1803 and was defeated for re-election in February 1803 . On 4 July 1806, he was elected an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati . After leaving the Senate, he served as Chairman of the Erie Canal Commission from 1810 to 1813. The Erie Canal helped to transform New York City into a financial capital,

22720-402: The seat of the city's government . Harlem in Upper Manhattan became the center of what is now known as the cultural Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village , part of the Stonewall National Monument , is considered the birthplace in 1969 of the modern gay rights movement , cementing Manhattan's central role in LGBT culture . Manhattan was the site of

22880-442: The shorelines of the borough and the metropolitan area to minimize the risk of destructive consequences from another such event in the future. On October 31, 2017 , a terrorist drove a truck down a bike path alongside the West Side Highway in Lower Manhattan, killing eight. According to the United States Census Bureau , New York County has a total area of 33.6 square miles (87 km ), of which 22.8 square miles (59 km )

23040-432: The sidewalk, prompted the passage of the 1916 Zoning Resolution , requiring new buildings to contain setbacks withdrawing progressively at a defined angle from the street as they rose, in order to preserve a view of the sky at street level. Manhattan's skyline includes several buildings that are symbolic of New York, in particular the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building , which sees about 4 million visitors

23200-424: The site was used to expand the Manhattan shoreline across West Street, creating Battery Park City . Constructed on piers at a cost of $ 260 million, Little Island opened on the Hudson River in May 2021, connected to the western termini of 13th and 14th Streets by footbridges . Marble Hill was part of the northern tip of Manhattan Island, but the Harlem River Ship Canal , dug in 1895 to better connect

23360-480: The structure began in October 1963. The loss of Penn Station led directly to the enactment in 1965 of a local law establishing the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission , which is responsible for preserving the "city's historic, aesthetic, and cultural heritage ". The historic preservation movement triggered by Penn Station's demise has been credited with the retention of some one million structures nationwide, including over 1,000 in New York City. In 2017,

23520-415: The world by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet (541.3 m), a reference to the year of U.S. independence . The Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan began on September 17, 2011, receiving global attention and popularizing the Occupy movement against social and economic inequality worldwide. New York City

23680-423: The world's financial center , with Wall Street employment doubling from 1977 to 1987. The 1980s also saw Manhattan at the heart of the AIDS crisis , with Greenwich Village at its epicenter. In the 1970s, Times Square and 42nd Street – with its sex shops , peep shows , and adult theaters, along with its sex trade , street crime, and public drug use – became emblematic of the city's decline, with

23840-409: The world. In 1664, New York was named in honor of the Duke of York (later King James II of England ). James's elder brother, King Charles II , appointed the Duke as proprietor of the former territory of New Netherland , including the city of New Amsterdam , when the Kingdom of England seized it from Dutch control. In the pre-Columbian era , the area of present-day New York City

24000-470: The world." By the 1990s, crime rates began to drop dramatically and the city once again became the destination of immigrants from around the world, joining with low interest rates and Wall Street bonus payments to fuel the growth of the real estate market. Important new sectors, such as Silicon Alley , emerged in the Flatiron District , cementing technology as a key component of Manhattan's economy. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing , described by

24160-427: The worst incidents of civil disorder in American history. The rate of immigration from Europe grew steeply after the Civil War, and Manhattan became the first stop for millions seeking a new life in the United States, a role acknowledged by the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886. This immigration brought further social upheaval. In a city of tenements packed with poorly paid laborers from dozens of nations,

24320-422: Was Juan Rodriguez , a merchant from Santo Domingo who arrived in Manhattan during the winter of 1613–14, trapping for pelts and trading with the local population as a representative of the Dutch colonists. A permanent European presence near New York Harbor was established in 1624, making New York the 12th-oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States , with

24480-440: Was heavily affected by Hurricane Sandy in late October 2012. Sandy's impacts included flooding that led to the days-long shutdown of the subway system and flooding of all East River subway tunnels and of all road tunnels entering Manhattan except the Lincoln Tunnel . The New York Stock Exchange closed for two days due to weather for the first time since the Great Blizzard of 1888 . At least 43 people died in New York City as

24640-411: Was a prime destination in the early 20th century for Blacks during the Great Migration from the American South, and by 1916, New York City had 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 skyscrapers competing in height. New York City became

24800-410: Was arrested and imprisoned in France. Morris's efforts on their behalf have been criticized as desultory and insufficient. After a change of the French government and after Morris was replaced as minister, his successor, James Monroe , secured Paine's release. He returned to the United States in 1798 and was elected in April 1800 , as a Federalist , to the U.S. Senate , filling the vacancy caused by

24960-438: Was established as one of the five boroughs of New York City . The Bronx remained part of New York County until 1914, when Bronx County was established. The construction of the New York City Subway , which opened in 1904, helped bind the new city together, as did the completion of the Williamsburg Bridge (1903) and Manhattan Bridge (1909) connecting to Brooklyn and the Queensboro Bridge (1909) connecting to Queens. In

25120-450: Was founded. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765, as the Sons of Liberty organization emerged in the city and skirmished 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 within modern-day Brooklyn. A British rout of the Continental Army at the Battle of Fort Washington in November 1776 eliminated

25280-412: Was inhabited by Algonquians , including the Lenape . Their homeland, known as Lenapehoking , included the present-day areas of Staten Island , Manhattan , the Bronx , the western portion of Long Island (including Brooklyn and Queens ), and the Lower Hudson Valley . The first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano . He claimed

25440-468: Was named New Amsterdam in 1626 and was chartered as a city in 1653. The city came under English control in 1664 and was temporarily renamed New York after King Charles II granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York , before being permanently renamed New York in November 1674. New York City was the U.S. capital from 1785 until 1790. The modern city was formed by the 1898 consolidation of its five boroughs : Manhattan , Brooklyn , Queens ,

25600-439: Was opened in January 2021. Parkland covers a total of 2,659 acres (10.76 km ), accounting for 18.2% of the borough's land area; the 840-acre (3.4 km ) Central Park is the borough's largest park, comprising 31.6% of Manhattan's parkland. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux , the park is anchored by the 12-acre (4.9 ha) Great Lawn and offers extensive walking tracks , two ice-skating rinks,

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