The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 102-story skyscraper located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (381 meters), and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft (443.2 m) high. Its name is derived from the nickname 

for New York, the Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for 40 years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the tallest building in New York.

The Empire State Building is currently the third-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States (after the Willis Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower, both in Chicago), and the 22nd-tallest in the world (the tallest now is Burj Khalifa,located in Dubai).

The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio.The construction was part of an intense competition in New York for the title of  "world's tallest building". Two other projects fighting for the title, 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, were still under construction when work began on the Empire State Building. Each held the title for less than a year, as the Empire State Building surpassed them upon its completion, just 410 days after construction commenced. The project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Instead of taking 18 months as anticipated, the construction took just under fifteen.

The Empire State Building has one of the most popular outdoor observatories in the world, having been visited by over 110 million people. The 86th-floor observation deck offers impressive 360-degree views of the city. There is a second observation deck on the 102nd floor that is open to the public. It was closed in 1999, but reopened in November 2005.

Central Park

Central Park is a public park at the center of Manhattan in New York City. The park initially opened in 1857. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan. Construction began the same year, continued during the American Civil War, and was completed in 1873. Central Park is one of the world's largest urban public parks. Central Park is bordered on the north by West 110th Street, on the south by West 59th Street, on the west by Eighth Avenue. Along the park's borders, these streets are known as Central Park North, Central Park South, and Central Park West respectively. Only Fifth Avenue along the park's eastern border retains its name. It was opened on 770 acres (3.1 km2) of city-owned land and was expanded to 843 acres (3.41 km2; 1.317 sq mi). It is 2.5 miles (4 km) long between 59th Street (Central Park South) and 110th Street (Central Park North), and is 0.5 miles (0.8 km) wide between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. Central Park receives approximately thirty-five million visitors annually, is the most visited urban park in the United States.

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 468,730, Staten Island is the least populated of the five boroughs but is the third-largest in area at 59 sq mi (153 sq km). Staten Island is connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and to Manhattan by way of the free Staten Island Ferry. The Staten Island Ferry is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York City as it provides unsurpassed views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and lower Manhattan. Staten Island includes hundreds of acres of federal, state, and local park land including the "greenbelt" and "blue belt" park systems.  Located in central Staten Island, the 2,500 acres (10 sq km) Greenbelt has some 28 miles (45 km) of walking trails and one of the last undisturbed forests in the city. Designated in 1984 to protect the island's natural lands, the Greenbelt comprises seven city parks.

Queens

       Queens is the easternmost, geographically the largest borough and the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, and may overtake Brooklyn as the city's most populous borough due to its growth. Historically a collection of small towns and villages founded by the Dutch, today the borough is predominantly residential and middle class. The differing character in the neighborhoods of Queens is reflected by its diverse housing stock ranging from high-density apartment buildings, especially prominent in the more urban areas of central and western Queens, such as Astoria, Long Island City and Ridgewood, to large free-standing single-family homes, common in the eastern part of the borough, in neighborhoods that have a more suburban layout like neighboring Nassau County, such as Little Neck, Douglaston and Bayside. If each New York City borough were an independent city, Queens would be America's fourth most populous city, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn. Queens is home to two of the three major airports serving the New York metropolitan area, LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport. These airports are among the busiest in the world, causing the airspace above Queens to be the most congested in the country. Attractions in Queens include Flushing Meadows Park—home to the New York Mets baseball team and the US Open tennis tournament.

Brooklyn

       Brooklyn located on the western tip of Long Island, is the city's most populous borough with approximately 2.5 milion residents and was an independent city until 1898. Brooklyn is known for its cultural, social and ethnic diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods and a distinctive architectural heritage. It is also the only borough outside of Manhattan with a distinct downtown neighborhood. The borough features a long beachfront and Coney Island, established in the 1870s as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country. Today, if it were an independent city, Brooklyn would rank as the fourth most populous city in the U.S., behind only the other boroughs of New York City combined, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

View of Brooklyn Bridge and Downtown Brooklyn

THE BRONX

        The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. Located north of Manhattan and Queens and south of Westchester County. Except for a small section of Manhattan known as Marble Hill, the Bronx is the only section of the city that is part of the United States mainland. The Bronx's population is 1.385.108  according to the 2010 United States census. the borough has a land area of 42 square miles (109 square km). brinx is home of the New York Yankees and Bronx Zoo, the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States, which spans 265 acres (1.07 square km) and is home to over 6.000animals. The Bronx is the birthplace of rap and hip hop culture.

MANHATTAN

      Manhattan is the most densely populated borough and is home to Central Park and most of the city's skyscrapers. The borough is the financial center of the city and contains the headquarters of many major corporations, the UN, a number of important universities, and many cultural attractions.

Manhattan is loosely divided into Lower, Midtown and Uptown regions. Uptown Manhattan is divided by Central Park into the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, and above the park is Harlem 

NEW YORK Geography

             New York City is located on the coast of the northeastern United States at the mouth of the Hudson River in southeastern New York state. The New York harbor with its deep waters and sheltered bays, helped the city grown in significance as a trading city. Much of New York is build on the three islands of Manhattan, Staten Island and western Long Island making land scarce and encouraging a high population density.

             The Hudson River flows from Hudson Valley into New York bay, becoming a tidal estuary that seperates the Bronx and Manhattan from northern New Jersey. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between East and Hudson rivers seperates Manhattan from The Bronx. East River also seperates Manhattan from Queens and Brooklyn they are both located on the western Long Island.

                The city's land area is estimated to be 321 square miles (831.4 square kilometres)

  

          New York traces its roots to its 1624 founding as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic, and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city came under English 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the country's largest city since 1790.

                                            New Amsterdam in 1664, the year England took
                                                          control and renamed it "New York"

New York City is the most populous city in the United States. Located on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were consolidated into a single city in 1898. New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. The New York City Metropolitan Area's population is the United States  largest with 18,9 million people distributed over 6.720 square miles.