Sunday, November 30, 2008

The City that never Sleeps

Map of New York, New York City is located in redThe 9/11 attacks on the twin towersThe famous New York City skyline

New York City was first inhabited by about 5,000 Lenape Native Americans prior to the arrival of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. The Dutch followed the Lanape’s in 1625 with founding it as “New Amsterdam.” Shortly after, was the period of English rule with it’s renaming as “New York” in 1664. New York City then emerged as the theater for a series of major battles known as the New York Campaign during the American Revolutionary War, and also served as the capital of the United States until 1790.

The 19th century housed a different meaning for New York City, it transformed into main port of entry for many immigrants. Still today its cultural and economic influences have made it one of the most important urban areas in the United States. By 1898 New York City was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and The Bronx.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. In 1925 NYC overtook London as the most populous city in the world. With this increasing size in population crime rates and poverty levels also grew. Despite the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930’s NYC saw the building of some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers.
Along with many other major cities in the U.S., NYC suffered race riots, gang wars and industrial decline in the 1960’s. The rebirth of Wall Street in the 1980’s led the city to reclaim its role as the center of the world-wide financial industry. NYC flourished again in the 90’s as immigrants arrived from Asia and Latin American and also within the U.S.

Though like many good things tragedy hits as it did on September 11, 2001 when nearly 3,000 people were killed by a terrorist strike on the World Trade Center. In hard times the city pulled together and has since rebounded with not only the physical clean up of the site, but is planning to build the Freedom Tower that is intended to be exactly 1,776 feet tall, symbolic of the year the Declaration of Independence was written, on the site.

Compare/Contrast:
Both alike and different to New York City is Washington D.C. Like New York City with its many tourist attractions it differs as a place that holds many monuments and governments buildings. The architecture of the cities also differ greatly, Washington is known for its Roman inspired buildings with marble veneers’, where as New York is know for its gorgeous skyline with its piercing skyscrapers.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York,_New_York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_York_City

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