Cities don’t come any bigger than the Big Apple, another name for New York City. Nyc is the largest city in New York, as well as in the United States.
It is located in the southern part of New York State, at the mouth of the Hudson River (also known as North River)
In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name and went as far as Albany. Five years later, a permanent settlement was established at what is now New York. One Settler Peter Minuit, was said to have bought Manhattan Island from the Indians in exchange for beads, buttons, and trinkets.
New York City Streets at night glow perpetually
In 1664, Great Britain’s Duke of York sent a fleet that quietly seized the settlement from the Dutch without bloodshed and rechristened the colony in honor of the duke.
Control of New York passed to the U. S. at the end of the Revolutionary War, and George Washington was inaugurated president in New York’s old City Hall.
Congress met in New York from 1785 to 1790.
In 1898, when Greater New York was chartered, the city expanded to include the following five boroughs, which are also counties in New York State: Manhattan (New York County); Brooklyn (Kings County); Bronx (Bronx County); Queens (Queens County); and Staten Island (Richmond County).
NYC center of decadence, Times Square
NYC is a major world capital and a world leader in finance, the arts, and communications.
The port of New York is one of the finest in the world and ranks as the largest port complex on the East Coast. The city is the home of the United Nations and is headquarters for some of the world’s largest corporations. The city is also the center of advertising, fashion, publishing, and radio broadcasting in the United States.
In Sept. 2001, terrorist hijackers crashed two commercial jets into the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, causing the complete destruction of the twin towers and major loss of life.
The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, still presides over the harbor
New York is a city of excesses, in food, drink, arts and humanities, film and television and many other aspects of living.
While it certainly has its share of huddled masses, there is so much more to this city on the water that bears exploration.
New York is a densely packed mass of humanity, and all this living on top of one another makes the New Yorker a special kind of person.
Visiting Niagara Falls is a great day trip from NYC. Fly to upstate New York and visit the world’s second-largest falls from both the US and Canadian sides.
The whole of Manhattan Island can only be circumnavigated on this tour. A relaxed and refreshing 3-hour cruise to see the secrets of the city, all the renowned landmarks of the city and a magnificent view of the Statue of Liberty from the water.
A stroll through Central Park should be part of the NYC experience
Enjoy a private walking tour of New York with your very own tour guide and photographer. Explore the city’s most exciting locations and head home with beautiful color photos. If you’re hungry in New York, you’re just not trying - it’s a glutton’s dream. With around 20,000 eateries, the possibilities are almost endless: you could have dinner at a different restaurant every night for 50 years, running the gourmet gamut from hot dog to Cordon Bleu. For the quintessential slice of NYC pizza try John’s Famous Pizza at 278 Bleecker St; Two Boots pizza (42 Ave. A) is a good choice in the East Village. In Chinatown try Bo Ky (80 Bayard St at Mott St). In Little Italy we like Peasant (194 Elizabeth St at Spring St). If you want something in the Theater District the brasserie DB Bistro Moderne (55 W 44th St at Broadway) is our top pick.
Once you’ve filled up on some amazing NYC eats, it’s time to hit the streets. So read on for more Suggested Itineraries in New York City or read the Viator Travel Blog for more of things to do in New York City.
If it’s your first trip to New York City and you only have a few days, the clock is your nemesis. There are ways to skip the lines, but it may cost you a bit. So the following suggested itineraries offer a few options to squeeze in many of New York’s major sights, without breaking the bank, while still getting in a few little-known facets that will make you feel more like a seasoned traveler and less like a tourist first-timer.
Empire State Building and Observation Deck - New York City ToursFirst, the wild card: the Empire State Building. Currently the city’s tallest structure, the Empire State Building’s observation decks are open until midnight most nights, 2am at other times. Depending on what time you get to New York.
Choose between the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) or the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Both are overwhelming; don’t even pretend you’ll see it all.
Times Square heead up there and take in the madness, embracing the touristy heart of the city.
The wide traffic islands in the center are the best vantage points. For dinner, do a classic pre-theater pre-fixe. Joe Allen (326 W. 46th St) is a classic, set on the Theater District’s Restaurant Row.
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are sights that you can’t afford to miss and there are so many historically interesting places to visit that a trip to NYC will take a week to see a tenth of it.
If you go to Stone Street, walk just a bit to the south and find the foundation of Lovelace Tavern, which served as the Dutch city hall in the early days. Just across the street is Fraunces Tavern, where a triumphant General George Washington bade farewell to the troops in 1783 (if you want to learn more about the Revolutionary history of New York, consider a Patriot & Revolutionary Era walking tour).
A visit to the New York Stock Exchange should be included in your agenda as asll as Federal Hall, the site of George Washington’s inauguration.
And on the white-marbled building on the other corner of Wall and Broad Streets, you can still see the unrepaired gashes of the terror attack of 1920, which caused the deaths of 40 people and a horse. There’s no sign or marker, but they’re easy to find on the Wall Street side of the old J. P. Morgan building.
Continue walking a few blocks over to the Ground Zero / World Trade Center site. Reconstruction is underway, though it’s been so slow and the physical void remains immense.
After that, you’ll just have to decide what you most want to do because unfortunately there’s no way you’re going to cram it all in. My top options: walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, visit either the American Museum of Natural History or the Guggenheim, see the main room of Grand Central Terminal, trek upstairs to the main reading room of the New York Public Library on 42nd and Fifth Avenue, wander through Rockefeller Center and St Patrick’s Cathedral across the street, people-watch in Washington Square Park, or make time for a tour of the United Nations (and, if you plan at least a day in advance, lunch in the UN Delegates’ Dining Room). Also give one of the street vendors a try. And then come back to see more of what you missed!
That’s just a few of the many things you can do in New York.
