TOP 10 New York Facts – 10 érdekesség New Yorkról

New York is known as one of the biggest and most diverse cities worldwide and also as one of the richest and busiest. So, catch a cab uptown, walk down the sidewalks or mind the gap in the subway, as you make your way through ten interesting facts about this bustling metropolis.

The sky is the limit!

The One World Trade Center or Freedom Tower is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Centre complex in Lower Manhattan. It is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth-tallest in the world.

The hard bedrock of midtown and lower Manhattan mean that these are the only places suitable to support the superstructure of skyscrapers, anywhere else they would fall over.

Green space at a high cost

Central Park was the first landscaped public park in the United States, thought up by the high society of New York City and designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Work began on it in 1857. Tragically in 1855, a village of 264 residents named Seneca had to be evicted for construction to begin – it was one of the principal black settlements in New York City.

Taxi! Keep the meter running

New York City has about 13,000 yellow taxis. Research showed yellow is the most visible colour to be noticed so it was picked. The medallion system is the license that every cabby needs to operate legally in New York. Each medallion is valued at one million dollars, but the average cabby makes nearly 800 trips per month so perhaps the fares cover the cost?

A capital idea

New York City was the first capital of the United States of America for five years, from 1785 to 1790, before being moved to Washington D.C. For a time, Brooklyn rivalled New York in terms of its size because before 1898 it was a major city in its own right. The later incorporation into NYC was called by some the Great Mistake.

Islands in the stream

Four out of the five boroughs are on islands – Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Long Island which contains Queens and Brooklyn. Only the Bronx is part of the mainland. These watery surrounds provide plenty of beaches, but only two for surfing – Rockaway Beach and Long Beach. The recreational Brighton Beach has been a getaway for city dwellers for nearly 150 years.

Put a hole in it

The New York Bagel is an iconic food, and NYC claims to make the best. Their chewy texture is down to being boiled before baking, but their ingredients were once a closely guarded secret.

Originally, they were Polish and thought to have been brought over by the Jewish Polish immigrants, their origins stretch back to 1610 and when a baker crafted them in the shape of the King’s stirrup to honour Polish King John Sobieski III’s defeat of the Turks. The word bagel came from “beugel” Austrian for stirrup.

City of many tongues

It is the most linguistically diverse city in the world.  Residents speak about 800 languages. Within this melting pot is the largest Jewish population living outside Israel, the largest Asian Indian community in the Western Hemisphere and the largest number of Chinese living outside of China. The Chinese have 6 Chinatowns and a big proportion of the half million Chinese live in Queens – which is ranked as the most ethnically diverse area in America.

… a másik 5 érdekességet a 2018. júliusi számunkban találod meg! Megvásárolható minden újságárusnál, hiper- és szupermarketben, benzinkúton, illetve postahivatalban! 

Ne feledd a születésnapi, rendkívüli előfizetési akciónkat sem: Most 9540 Ft helyett 6500 Ft az éves előfizetés! 12 lapszám, több mint 1100 oldal tanulnivaló és közel 12 órányi letölthető rádiós minőségű hanganyag!