The New York City

New York City lies in the southeast corner of New York State at the mouth of the Hudson River. It covers about 956 square kilometers, including about 174 square kilometers of inland water. The city is divided into five areas called boroughs— Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Each is a county of New York State.

Manhattan, the smallest borough in area, covers 88 square kilometers. It occupies a long, narrow island bor­dered by the Hudson River on the west, the East River on the east, the Harlem River on the north and north-east, and Upper New York Bay (the mouth of the Hud­son) on the south.

The Bronx lies across the Harlem River from Manhat­tan and covers 143 square kilometers. It extends north along the Hudson River and east along the East River. It is the only borough not separated from upstate New York by water.

Queens, the largest borough in area, occupies 326 square kilometers on the northwest corner of Long Is­land. The East River separates Queens from the Bronx to the north and from Manhattan to the west.

Brooklyn covers 288 square kilometers on the south­west tip of Long Island. It lies south and southwest of Queens and southeast of Manhattan across the East River.

Staten Island, formerly called the borough of Rich­mond, occupies a 168-square-kilometre island in Upper and Lower New York bays. It lies west of Brooklyn and southwest of Manhattan.

The state of New Jersey is directly west of New York City. It lies across two waterways, Arthur Kill and Kill Van Kull, from Staten Island; across Upper New York Bay from Brooklyn; and across the Hudson River from Man­hattan and the Bronx.

Manhattan is the oldest and most important bor­ough of New York City. It is about 21.7 kilometres long and 3.8 kilometres wide at its widest point. But about 1.8 million people live there. The borough has the city's tallest buildings, some of the nation's largest schools and colleges, and the world's most famous financial and theatrical districts.

Manhattan is an area of many sharp contrasts. Some of the richest people in the United States live in its beau­tiful town houses and luxurious high-rise blocks of flats. But some of the nation's poorest people occupy its tene­ments (shabby blocks of flats) and low-rent public hous­ing projects. Most of Manhattan is covered with con­crete and asphalt, and skyscrapers make many of its streets look like deep canyons. But the borough's Cen­tral Park provides 340 hectares of grass, trees, and roll­ing hills. Manhattan has some of the world's most exclu­sive shops and largest department stores. They attract shoppers from all parts of the country. But the borough also has tiny shops that sell to nearby residents.

New York City's Financial District lies at the southern tip of Manhattan and is centred on Wall and Broad streets. Many large banks, brokerage houses, and stock exchanges have their headquarters along the district's narrow streets. The giant World Trade Center rises in the Financial District along the Hudson River. The centre includes twin 110-storey towers.

Broadway, one of New York City's longest and best- known streets, begins in the Financial District and runs north and northwest across the length of Manhattan. On the east side of Broadway, a few blocks north of the Fi­nancial District, stands the Municipal Civic Center. The centre includes City Hall, handsome courthouses, and other government buildings.

Residential and commercial neighbourhoods lie to the north and northeast of the Municipal Civic Center. These neighbourhoods include Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side. Both Chinatown and Little Italy have some of the city's oldest tenements. They also have many restaurants that specialize in Chinese or Italian food. For many years, most immigrants to New York City have first settled on the Lower East Side because of its many low-rent tenements. Jews once made up the larg­est group in the area, and they still own many shops there. Today, Puerto Ricans are the largest single group on the Lower East Side. But other groups, especially stu­dents and artists, have also been attracted to the Lower East Side by the low rents.

Greenwich Village lies west of Broadway and the Lower East Side. It attracts artists, writers, musicians, ac­tors, and other people in the arts. The Village has a vari­ety of housing, many interesting shops and art galleries, and several small theatres. Many people in the arts also live in the SoHo area, south of the Village.

North of Greenwich Village, Manhattan is laid out in a regular pattern of cross streets. Avenues run north and south, and numbered streets run east and west. Broad­way cuts diagonally across this pattern.

Central Park, which runs from 59th to 110th streets between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West, separates Manhattan's Upper East Side and Upper West Side. The Upper East Side has long been the most fashionable neighbourhood in Manhattan. At one time, the area had many town houses that were owned by the city's richest residents. Today, cultural organizations and United Na­tions delegations occupy many of these buildings, and most of the people in the area live in luxurious blocks of flats. The Upper West Side is chiefly a middle-class neighborhood. It has many blocks of flats, hotels, tene­ments, and long blocks of brick and brownstone ter­raced houses.

Harlem, the best-known black community in the United States, lies north of Central Park. It has been a centre of black business and cultural activities for more than 60 years. A series of model housing projects ex­tends along the Harlem River at the northern edge of Harlem. But much of the area consists of tenements.

Brooklyn has more people than any other borough of New York City. If Brooklyn were an independent city, its population of about 2,3 million would make it the na­tion's fourth largest city.

Brooklyn is an important port and industrial centre. Hundreds of ships carry freight to and from Brooklyn's docks each year. The borough's factories, most of which are along the waterfront, make a wide variety of goods.

Housing in Brooklyn ranges from large houses and towering blocks of flats to small cottages and run-down boarding houses. But most Brooklynites live in terraced houses and small blocks of flats that line the streets throughout the borough.

Central Brooklyn, the borough's main business and shopping district lies near the approaches to the Brook­lyn and Manhattan bridges. These two bridges are the main links between Brooklyn and Manhattan. A third bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, also connects the two bor­oughs. Brooklyn's centre has large department stores, tall office buildings, and several schools and colleges. Flatbush Avenue, one of the main streets of the central area, begins at the Manhattan Bridge and runs through the heart of the borough.

Two of Brooklyn's oldest neighborhoods, Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill, lie along the East River west of the central area. These neighborhoods have more than 1,000 houses over 100 years old. Many of the houses stand on handsome, tree-lined streets and are carefully preserved.

Coney Island lies at the southern tip of Brooklyn. The area once was an island, but land has been filled in to make it a peninsula. In summer, many New Yorkers travel by underground to Coney Island's beaches and to its famous Boardwalk, which has side shows, souvenir stands, and other attractions. At one time, Coney Island also had great amusement parks, but they have been re­placed by housing developments.

The Bronx has a population of about 1,7 million and is chiefly a residential borough. The western part of the Bronx consists of a series of hills and valleys crossed by boulevards. A major boulevard in the Bronx, the Grand Concourse, runs north and south through the area. It is lined with blocks of flats, office buildings, and shops. The eastern section of the borough is a broad plain, with peninsulas extending into the East River and Long Island Sound.

Bronx Park lies in the centre of the Bronx. It includes Bronx Zoo, one of the best-known zoos in the United States, and the New York Botanical Garden, an impor­tant scientific institution.

Fordham University and Lehman College have hand­some campuses to the west of Bronx Park. The campus of Bronx Community College of the City University of New York includes the Hall of Fame, which honors the memory of great Americans.

One of the most fashionable neighborhoods in the Bronx is Riverdale, in the northwest corner of the bor­ough along the Hudson River. It has tall blocks of flats, estates and other large homes, and exclusive private schools. One of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bronx is Morrisania, which lies south of Bronx Park and east of Grand Concourse Boulevard. The area has many run-down and abandoned buildings.

Queens, with nearly 2 million residents, ranks sec­ond in population among New York City's boroughs. Queens grew rapidly between 1910 and 1930, when un­derground systems were built to connect it with Man­hattan. A second period of fast growth began in the late 1940s, when the underground systems were extended, new roads were built, and two major airports were de­veloped in the borough. Today, huge housing develop­ments and busy motorways are the major features of Queens.

Much of the borough's industry is concentrated near the East River in an area called Long Island City. The area lies just south of the Queensboro Bridge, which con­nects Queens and Manhattan. It has giant rail yards of the Penn Central Railroad and many industrial plants and warehouses. Maspeth, southeast of Long Island City, also has large industrial plants, as well as pleasant residential areas.

Forest Hills lies near the centre of Queens. Within this neighborhood is Forest Hills Gardens, an attractive housing and shopping area built in 1910. Forest Hills Gardens was intended for families with middle incomes. But it immediately became—and has remained—a com­munity for the wealthy.

Northeast of Forest Hills is Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, site of the New York World's Fair of 1939 and 1964. The park has several features left from the fairs, includ­ing a botanical garden, an indoor ice-skating rink, and a science museum.

La Guardia Airport, one of New York City's two main airports, is northwest of Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, across Flushing Bay. The neighborhood of Flushing, northeast of the park, has a busy shopping area and many large blocks of flats.

Jamaica, in southeastern Queens, is one of the borough's chief commercial centres. It has large shopping and business areas and both rich and poor residential sections.

John F. Kennedy International Airport, the city's larg­est airport, lies immediately south of Jamaica. It has been expanding since 1942 and has become the borough's largest single source of employment.

Rockaway is a long peninsula that forms the southern, border of Jamaica Bay. It has a sandy beachfront, attractive private homes, and modern blocks of flats. It also has many summer holiday cottages.

Staten Island has about 352,000 residents, making it the smallest borough in population. It is the only borough not connected to Manhattan by a bridge or a tunnel. Until the completion of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, much of the island consisted of small farms and undeveloped areas. The bridge, which connects Staten Island with Brooklyn, has led to the con­struction of new housing and to industrial growth. However, many of the communities on Staten Island still look more like suburban towns than sections of a major city.