New York City

Although New York is not the capital of the United States, it is the biggest and most important city of the country. New York is situated on the Atlantic coast, in the North-East of the country, in the state of New York at the mouth of the deep Hudson River. It is the financial and media capital of the world, the center of the American cultural life and the national leader in fashion and entertainment. The “Big Apple” is the nickname of the city. New York , with the population of 16 mln people, is the second largest city and the biggest sea port in the world. It was founded in 1613 by Dutch settlers. It consists of 5 large boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Richmond. There are a lot of places of interest in New York. The most famous of them is The Statue Of Liberty, given to the USA by France in 1886. Its torch towers about 200 feet above the harbor and can be seen at night for many miles. It is the largest statue in the world. The Empire State Building used to be the first, but now it is only the third tallest building in the world. It is a 102- storied building with an observatory on he 86 floor. Broadway is the longest street in the world. It is 12 miles long. It is the center of entertainments. The Metropolitan Museum is by now probably the richest museum in the world in painting and other objects of Art, due to what had been bought from Europeans after World War Two. Besides, we can see the works of American painters there. The Central Park is the largest park in the world. The Fifth avenue has the best houses, hotels and fashionable shops. Times Square is known as New York’s theatre land the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many other museum are situated there. The Rockefeller center belongs to the Rockefeller family. It is 15 skyscrapers housing several large corporations. It is also known as “Radio City”. There is a theatre , too. The United Nations Headquarters was built in 1952. The building and the grounds contain sculptures and other works of art, donated by member nations. Among them is the gift of the Soviet Union.

New York attracts people from all over. Get on a subway in New York and look at the newspapers that people around you are reading. One person is reading a newspaper in Spanish , another in Chinese, yet others in Arabic , Russian , Italian , Yiddish, and French . New York was always a city of immigrants. It still is.