With an estimated population in July 2024 of 8,478,072, distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the country's second-most populous city. Over 20.1 million people live in New York City's metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, both the largest in the U.S. New York City is one of the world's most populous megacities. The city and its metropolitan area serve as the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. An estimated 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The New York City metropolitan region is home to the largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region in the world, approximately 5.9 million as of 2023. (Full article...)
Elias Karmon (October 11, 1910 – October 21, 2008), popularly known as Mr. Bronx, was an American businessman, philanthropist, and community leader in the Bronx during much of the 20th century. He made his living in the garment industry, running a retail clothing store in the South Bronx for 40 years. He later invested in Bronx real estate and was president of The Bronx Chamber of Commerce.
Karmon was involved with many community organizations in the borough including the NAACP, the YMCA, the Boy's Club and the Urban League and endowed a scholarship fund for CUNY students. He was a member of the Jackson Democratic Club and a major force in getting Black and Latino candidates elected to public office, most notably Walter Gladwin and Felipe N. Torres, who were the first black person and the first Puerto Rican from the Bronx, respectively, to serve in the New York State Assembly. (Full article...)
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Main Lagoon at Foot of Chutes, Luna Park
Luna Park was an amusement park that operated in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, United States, from 1903 to 1944. The park was located on a site bounded by Surf Avenue to the south, West 8th Street to the east, Neptune Avenue to the north, and West 12th Street to the west. Luna Park was located partly on the grounds of the small park it replaced, Sea Lion Park, which operated between 1895 and 1902. It was the second of the three original, very large, iconic parks built on Coney Island; the others were Steeplechase Park (1897, by George C. Tilyou) and Dreamland (1904, by William H. Reynolds). At Coney Island's peak in the middle of the 20th century's first decade, the three amusement parks competed with each other and with many independent amusements.
Luna Park's co-founders Frederic Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy had created the "A Trip To The Moon" ride, which had been highly popular during the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and operated at Steeplechase Park in 1902. Luna Park opened on May 16, 1903, and was highly profitable until Dundy died in 1907. Thompson operated the park alone until 1912, when his lease was canceled. The Luna Amusement Company owned the park from 1911 to 1939; during the Great Depression, creditors foreclosed on Luna Park twice. The park was leased to a syndicate in 1940 and continued to operate during World War II. Over the years, the park's owners constantly added new attractions and shows.
The park's western half was destroyed by a fire in August 1944 and never reopened, while the eastern half closed in September 1944. Although some rides on Surf Avenue continued to operate after 1944, much of the site remained closed for several years; the area was redeveloped as the Luna Park Houses between 1958 and 1962. Though another amusement park opened nearby in 2010 and was named Luna Park to commemorate the original, it is unrelated to the 1903 park. (Full article...)
The GM Building was developed by London Merchant Securities and was half occupied by General Motors (GM) upon its opening. The building's facade is made of vertical piers of white Georgia marble, alternating with strips of glass. The building has about 1.7 million square feet (160,000 m2) of space, and the lobby originally contained a GM showroom, later an FAO Schwarz department store. The public plaza outside the building on Fifth Avenue was originally below grade but, after two renovations, contains the Apple Fifth Avenue entrance and a seating area above ground level. Architecture critics, including Paul Goldberger and Ada Louise Huxtable, widely disapproved of the building upon its completion.
All of the space in the building had been leased by January 1967, over a year prior to opening. General Motors relocated most of its employees and announced their intention to sell the building in 1981. Ultimately, Corporate Property Investors (CPI) bought an option on the building in 1982 and conducted a renovation in 1990. Conseco and Donald Trump purchased the General Motors Building from CPI in 1998. Five years later, it was sold to Macklowe Organization for $1.4 billion, then the highest price for a North American office building. Macklowe sold the building in 2008 to the joint venture of Boston Properties, Zhang Xin, and the Safra banking family for $2.8 billion. The joint venture continues to own the building as of 2022[update]. (Full article...)
Conduit Avenue and Conduit Boulevard were conceived in 1921 as part of the Conduit Highway, later the Sunrise Highway, with the original highway opening in 1929. The highway was expanded in 1940 as part of the construction of the Belt Parkway. The Brooklyn section was originally supposed to host Interstate 78 within its median, but this section was ultimately not built. (Full article...)
This station opened on April 24, 1937 as part of an extension of the Independent Subway System's Queens Boulevard Line. In 1953, the platforms at the station were extended to accommodate 11-car trains. Ridership at this station decreased sharply after the opening of the Archer Avenue lines in 1988. This had been the closest subway station to the Long Island Rail Road's Jamaica station after the removal of a portion of the Jamaica Elevated in 1977. (Full article...)
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Upper floors of building (December 2009)
229 West 43rd Street (formerly The New York Times Building, The New York Times Annex, and the Times Square Building) is an 18-story office building in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1913 and expanded in three stages, it was the headquarters of The New York Times newspaper until 2007. The original building by Mortimer J. Fox of Buchman & Fox, as well as a 1920s addition by Ludlow & Peabody and a 1930s addition by Albert Kahn, are on 43rd Street. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon designed a wing on 44th Street in the 1940s. Columbia Property Trust owns most of the structure as an office building while Kushner Companies owns the lowest four floors as a retail and entertainment complex.
The 43rd Street sections of the building are designed in the French Gothic, French Renaissance, and Italian Renaissance styles and are a New York City designated landmark. The original building and its additions rise 11 stories from the street, except for a four-story wing on the eastern end of the site. The 43rd Street sections of the building are topped by a set back five-story attic, interrupted by a seven-story tower with a pyramidal hip roof. The facade is constructed of light-colored Indiana limestone, brick, and terracotta and is divided horizontally into a two-story base, a nine-story midsection, and the attic and tower stories. The elevations are divided into vertical bays with a mixture of single windows, double windows, and arches. The building contains 770,000 square feet (72,000 m2) of office space and 100,000 ft2 (9,300 m2) of retail space. Originally, each floor was devoted to a different division of the Times.
Due to overcrowding at the previous Times headquarters at One Times Square, the Times Annex was constructed to supplement the paper's printing plant and other mechanical divisions. The annex became the Times's headquarters shortly after opening. As the Times's circulation expanded and its issues grew longer, the building was expanded in 1922–1924, 1931–1932, and 1944–1947. The Times relocated its printing plant from the building in 1997 and announced plans for new headquarters two years later, relocating in June 2007. A partnership led by Tishman Speyer bought the building in 2004 and sold it three years later to AFI USA, which had trouble finding office tenants and sold the upper floors to The Blackstone Group in 2011. AFI USA operated the retail portion of the building until 2015, when Columbia acquired the offices and Kushner bought the retail. (Full article...)
The Empire Building's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column—namely a base, shaft, and capital—and has a facade of gray granite at its base and white granite on the upper stories. It is one of the earliest skyscrapers built on pneumatic caissons and one of the oldest such buildings that remain standing. The building contains an interior steel frame structure with a curtain-walled facade. The top stories contain a loggia on the facade as well as a large metal cornice above the 20th floor. There are numerous band courses, balconies, and arched windows along the facade.
The original Empire Building was a brownstone structure constructed in 1859. Though the politician and real estate developer Orlando B. Potter had acquired the brownstone in 1884, he died prior to the current building's construction. The present Empire Building was ultimately developed by his children as a 20-story structure. The Empire Building was the home of United States Steel Corporation from the company's 1901 founding to 1976, and U.S. Steel owned the building between 1919 and 1973. The Empire Building's 21st floor was constructed between 1928 and 1930 to designs by John C. Westervelt. The building was converted to apartments in 1997. (Full article...)
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"He was a tall slight man, with a stoop, quick in his movements...his mobility of expression was so extreme that the very shape of his features actually changed with his emotions."
Jacob Little (March 17, 1794 – March 28, 1865) was an early 19th-century Wall Streetinvestor and the first and one of the greatest speculators in the history of the stock market, known at the time as the "Great Bear of Wall Street". Little was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to New York City in 1817, first clerking for Jacob Barker; he then opened his own establishment in 1822, and finally his own brokerage in 1834. A market pessimist, Little made his wealth "bearing stocks", at turns short selling various companies and at others cornering markets to extract profits from other short sellers. Through his great financial foresight Little amassed an enormous fortune, becoming one of the richest men in America and one of the leading financiers on Wall Street in the 1830s and 1840s, but his speculative activities irritated his peers and earned him few admirers. Little lost and remade his legendary fortune multiple times before losing it for good in 1857; although a great many owed him enormous debts, he was a generous creditor and never collected them, and at his deathbed in 1865 Little was penniless. Although well-known on the stock market in his time, he was quickly forgotten after his death, and today has been relegated to relative obscurity. (Full article...)
The original Waldorf-Astoria, built in two stages in the 1890s, was demolished in 1929 to make way for the construction of the Empire State Building. Conrad Hilton acquired management rights to the hotel in October 1949, and the Hilton Hotels Corporation bought the hotel outright in 1972. It underwent a $150 million renovation by Lee Jablin in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 2009, the Waldorf Astoria and Towers had 1,416 rooms; the most expensive room, the Presidential Suite, was designed with Georgian-style furniture to emulate that of the White House.
The Anbang Insurance Group of China purchased the Waldorf Astoria New York for $1.95 billion in 2014, making it the most expensive hotel ever sold. Anbang closed the entire building in March 2017 for extensive renovations, converting the upper stories into 375 condominiums and retaining 375 hotel rooms on the lowest 18 floors. Dajia Insurance Group took over the Waldorf Astoria when Anbang went bankrupt in 2020, and, after several delays, the hotel reopened in July 2025. The hotel has three restaurants: Peacock Alley, Lex Yard and Yoshoku. (Full article...)
Low is arranged in the shape of a Greek cross. Three sets of stairs on the library's south side lead to a colonnade with a frieze describing its founding. The steps contain Daniel Chester French's sculpture Alma Mater, a university symbol. The library is four stories tall, excluding a ground-level basement. The building's raised first floor has an entrance vestibule, as well as an ambulatory around an octagonal rotunda, which leads to offices on the outer walls. The rotunda contains a sky-blue plaster dome and four Vermont granite columns on each of its four sides. The library's stacks could store one-and-a-half million volumes; the east wing hosted the Avery Architectural Library and the north wing hosted Columbia's law library.
The library was built as part of Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus, which was developed in the 1890s according to a master plan by McKim. When Low Library was completed, it was poorly suited for library use, becoming overcrowded from the early 20th century. Low's central location, however, made it a focal point of the university's campus. Following the completion of the much larger Butler Library in 1934, the Low Memorial Library was converted to administrative offices. (Full article...)
The facade is made of granite at the ground story and Indiana Limestone on the other stories. The facade's composition is based on the arrangement of the superstructure, which is arranged as a grid of rectangles. The main entrance is through a porch at the center of the Park Avenue facade. Inside, the building contains at least 33,600 square feet (3,120 m2) of space.
The building occupied a full city block bounded by Madison Avenue, 48th Street, Park Avenue, and 47th Street. It was composed of two sections: a 52-story tower facing Park Avenue to the east and a 12-story annex facing Madison Avenue to the west, both surrounded by public plazas. About two-thirds of 270 Park Avenue was built over two levels of underground railroad tracks, which feed directly into Grand Central Terminal to the south. This not only prevented a basement from being built under most of the site but also required that the lobby be one story above ground level. Union Carbide's offices were designed around a grid of 5-by-5-foot (1.5 by 1.5 m) modules. The offices contained flexible furnishings and partitions, as well as luminous ceilings. The Union Carbide Building received mixed reviews during its existence, and the presence of the building's plazas helped influence the 1961 Zoning Resolution.
The site was occupied by the Hotel Marguery between 1917 and 1957. Union Carbide leased the land from New York Central Railroad (later Penn Central) and announced plans for the building in 1955. Union Carbide moved into its headquarters in 1960 and acquired the underlying land in 1976 after Penn Central went bankrupt. After three years of negotiations, Union Carbide agreed in 1978 to sell the building to Manufacturers Hanover Corporation. Manufacturers Hanover moved into 270 Park Avenue in 1980 and renovated the building. Through several mergers, Manufacturers Hanover became part of JPMorgan Chase, which announced plans to demolish the building in 2018. Despite preservationists' objections, the Union Carbide Building was demolished from 2019 to 2021. (Full article...)
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"Empire State of Mind" is a song recorded by American rapper Jay-Z and American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, for the former's eleventh studio album The Blueprint 3 (2009). Produced by Al Shux, the song features a music sample of "Love on a Two-Way Street" performed by the Moments. Angela Hunte and Janet Sewell-Ulepic originally wrote it as a tribute to their hometown, New York City. The following month, they submitted it to Roc Nation, whose reviews were discouraging. They later took the suggestion of an EMI Music Publishing associate and resubmitted it to Jay-Z, who kept the "New York" singing part on the hook, changed the verses, and recorded it. The song's title, similar to "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel and "N.Y. State of Mind" by Nas, is a play on and tribute to New York's nickname "Empire State". "Empire State of Mind" was released as the third single from The Blueprint 3 on September 1, 2009, by Roc Nation and Atlantic Records.
The song originally featured Hunte on the hook, but when Hunte and Sewell-Ulepic were asked if they thought anyone else would be more appropriate for the chorus, Hunte suggested Keys. Fellow New York-based musician Mary J. Blige was also considered, but Jay-Z chose Keys after hearing the song's piano loop. "Empire State of Mind" contains songwriting contributions from Keys and Shux. Critics described the song as an "orchestral rap ballad" with "crashing piano chords" and a "soaring" hook. It references several locations in New York and its famous residents, while describing the city's essence.
"Empire State of Mind" was included in multiple critics' top 10 list of the best songs of 2009, including Rolling Stone magazine and The New York Times. It was also nominated for three Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The song achieved commercial success worldwide. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the US for five consecutive weeks, becoming Jay-Z's first number-one single on the chart as a lead artist. It also peaked within the top 10 in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Italy and Sweden. It appeared in 2009 year-end charts in Italy, Australia and the US, where it was also the last number one hit of the 2000s. As of July 2024, the single has sold over 10 million units in the United States. (Full article...)
The 28th Street station was constructed for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. Construction of the line segment that includes the 28th Street station started on September 12 of the same year. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. The station's platforms were lengthened in the late 1940s.
The 28th Street station contains two side platforms and four tracks; express trains use the inner two tracks to bypass the station. The station was built with tile and mosaic decorations, which are continued along the platform extensions. The platforms contain exits to 28th Street and Park Avenue, as well as to the New York Life Building. The platforms are not connected to each other within fare control. The station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Full article...)
The World Trade Center station is near the site of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad's (H&M) Hudson Terminal, which opened in 1909. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey bought the bankrupt H&M system in 1961, rebranded it as PATH, and redeveloped Hudson Terminal as part of the World Trade Center. The World Trade Center station opened on July 6, 1971, as a replacement for Hudson Terminal, which was closed and demolished as part of the construction of the World Trade Center. Following the September 11 attacks, a temporary PATH station opened in 2003 while the World Trade Center complex was being rebuilt. Work on a permanent station building commenced in 2008. The main station house, the Oculus, opened on March 3, 2016, and the terminal was renamed the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, or "World Trade Center" for short.
The station has five tracks and four platforms in the middle of a turning loop. Trains from New Jersey use the loop to turn around and head back to New Jersey. The platforms are four floors below ground level. The floor immediately above the platforms is occupied by the station's fare mezzanine. The New York City Subway's WTC Cortlandt station is adjacent to and above the mezzanine. (Full article...)
Inspired by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal of the 1980s, the film raises concerns about how global finance affects international politics across the world. Production began in Berlin in September 2008, including the construction of a life-size replica of New York's Guggenheim Museum for the film's central shootout scene.
The International opened the 59th Berlin International Film Festival on 5 February 2009, and was released in Germany on 12 February and in the United States the following day. It received mixed reviews from critics, with the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus being "The International boasts some electric action sequences and picturesque locales, but is undone by its preposterous plot". The film grossed $60 million on a budget of $50M. (Full article...)
Construction began in 2012 with the groundbreaking for 10 Hudson Yards, and the first phase opened on March 15, 2019. Agreements between various entities, including the local government, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and the state of New York, made the development possible. Upon completion, structures on the West Side of Midtown South would sit on a platform built over the West Side Yard, a storage yard for Long Island Rail Road trains (hence the development's name). The first of its two phases comprises a public green space and eight structures that contain residences, a hotel, office buildings, a mall, and a cultural facility. The special zoning for Hudson Yards (an area roughly bound by 30th Street in the south, 41st Street in the north, 11th Avenue in the west, and Eighth Avenue in the east) further incentivized the building of other large-scale projects. Hudson Yards is adjacent but unrelated to Manhattan West, 3 Hudson Boulevard, and The Spiral. (Full article...)
Sanford Koufax (/ˈkoʊfæks/; né Braun; born December 30, 1935), nicknamed "the Left Arm of God", is an American former baseball player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pitchers of all time, he played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. Koufax was the first three-time winner of the Cy Young Award, each time winning unanimously and the only pitcher to do so when a single award was given for both leagues; he was also named the National League Most Valuable Player in 1963. Retiring at age 30 due to chronic pain in his pitching elbow, Koufax was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972 at age 36, the youngest player ever elected.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Koufax was primarily a basketball player in his youth and had pitched in only a few games before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 19. Due to the bonus rule he signed under, Koufax never pitched in the minor leagues. His lack of pitching experience caused manager Walter Alston to distrust Koufax, who saw inconsistent playing time during his first six seasons. After making adjustments prior to the 1961 season, Koufax quickly rose to become the most dominant pitcher in the major leagues, as well as the first major sports star on the West Coast. He was an All-Star in each of his last six seasons, leading the National League (NL) in earned run average each of his last five years, in strikeouts four times, and in wins and shutouts three times each. He was the first pitcher in the live-ball era to post an earned run average below 2.00 in three different qualifying seasons, and the first in the modern era to record a 300-strikeout season three times. (Full article...)
The borough, as Kings County, at 37,339.9 inhabitants per square mile (14,417.0/km2), is the second most densely populated county in the U.S. after Manhattan (New York County), and the most populous county in the state, as of 2022. In the 2020 United States census, the borough had a population of 2,736,074. Had Brooklyn remained an independent city on Long Island, it would now be the fourth most populous American city after the rest of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. With a land area of 69.38 square miles (179.7 km2) and a water area of 27.48 square miles (71.2 km2), Kings County, one of the twelve original counties established under British rule in 1683 in the then-province of New York, is the state of New York's fourth-smallest county by land area and third smallest by total area. (Full article...)
The Bronx (/brɒŋks/BRONKS) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. The borough shares a land border with Westchester County, New York to its north; to its south and west, the New York City borough of Manhattan lies across the Harlem River; and to its south and east is the borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx, the only New York City borough located primarily on the U.S. mainland, has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km2) and a population of 1,472,654 at the 2020 census. It has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density of the boroughs.
The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County (modern-day Manhattan) in 1914. About a quarter of the Bronx's area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center. The Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden is thousands of years old and is New York City's largest remaining tract of the original forest that once covered the city. These open spaces are primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. The Bronx is also home to Yankee Stadium of Major League Baseball. (Full article...)
With a population of 2,405,464 as of the 2020 census, Queens is the second-most populous county in New York state, behind Kings County (Brooklyn), and is therefore also the second-most populous of the five New York City boroughs. If Queens were its own city, it would be the fourth most-populous in the U.S. after the rest of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated borough in New York City and the fourth-most densely populated U.S. county. Queens is highly diverse with approximately 47% of its residents being foreign-born. (Full article...)
Staten Island (/ˈstætən/STAT-ən) is the southernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of the State of New York. The borough is separated from the adjacent state of 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 495,747 in the 2020 Census, Staten Island is the least populated New York City borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km2); it is also the least densely populated and most suburban borough in the city.
A home to the Lenape Native Americans, the island was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. It was one of the 12 original counties of New York state. Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898. It was formerly known as the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Borough of Staten Island. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government and the media. It has also been referred to as the "borough of parks" due to its 12,300 acres of protected parkland and over 170 parks. (Full article...)
Image 21Anderson Avenue garbage strike. A common scene throughout New York City in 1968 during a sanitation workers strike (from History of New York City (1946–1977))
Image 33The Sunday magazine of the New York World appealed to immigrants with this April 29, 1906 cover page celebrating their arrival at Ellis Island. (from History of New York City (1898–1945))
Did you know...
... that New York City's unbuilt River Walk development was delayed due to a $2 million study of striped bass?
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