New York and interesting places in the USA

NEW YORK

Geography:


New York is the largest city in he USA. It occupies area about 780 km2 and there live 18 million people. New York has 6 official languages - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. It belongs to the largest cities in the world. It is sometimes called "The Big Apple" or The City, which never sleeps– because of the amount of people. New York has five major parts: Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island (Richmond) and Brooklyn. The black quarter - Harlem - is in northern part of Manhattan.

History:
The original inhabitants were Indians. Giovanni da Verrezano was the first European, who reached the New York Bay in 1524. In 1624, Indians sold the land to the Dutch for 25 dollars. At first, it was called New Amsterdam. In 1664 New Amsterdam became an English colony. The Charles VI., king of England gave this territory to his brother, the Duke of York – that’s why it’s called New York.
Between the years 1789 – 91, New York was the capital of the USA.

Place of Interest:

Statue of Liberty – it lies on Liberty Island. It’s the symbol of freedom; 46 m high, 225 tones. The statue was given by the people of France to American people to commemorate French-American friendship on the occasion of 100 anniversary of American Independence. You must go there from Battery Park by boat. The F.E. Bartholdi designed it.

Ellis Island – is gateway to America, was known as Isle of tears, isle of hopes

Broadway - is the centre of cultural life. There is concentrated most of entertainment (e. g. Metropolitan Opera or Carnegie Hall).
East Village - is a centre of many ethnic restaurants, boutiques and jazz clubs.
Greenwich Village -is the home of artists a writers.

Manhattan – it’s heart of the New York. It’s the commercial and the financial centre. Two rivers - the East River and the Hudson River, wash the island. It is considered the „heart“ of the city. Manhattan was built on a modern plan of streets and avenues. Streets run east - west and avenues north - south. 42nd street is between the Downtown and Uptown and between West Side and East Side is 5th avenue (= the famous shopping centre).

New York is famous for its Manhattan skyline - a large number of skyscrapers on a small area. They started to build skyscrapers here because the price of land on the island was very high. The first skyscraper was built in 1903. Today they are built with the help of computers. In the fact the skyscrapers are small towns. We can find here residential quarters, offices, parking lots, restaurants, shops, fitness centres, swimming pool. Living here is very expensive.

The highest skyscraper in New York is The World Trade Center. It was built in 1973 and had 110 floors and more than 100 000 people came and went here every day.
On Tuesday September 11th 2001 terrorists hijacked jet airlines crashed into the twin towers of WTC in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington DC. Thousands of innocent people died. Hijackers were identified as terrorists whose mastermind is OSAMA BIN LADEN who is now residing in Afghanistan. President George Bush started an attack not only against OBL but also against the Taliban Goverment of Afghanistan who offers him sanctuary. The war against terrorises continue............
Another interesting skyscraper in N. Y. is Empire State Building. It has 102 floors and a TV tower and a restaurant at the top. There are also many others - e. g. Chrysler Building, PanAm Building and UN building.

Wall Street –In New York, there was the wall, which was a protection against the Indians centre of US‘s financial world

United Nations Headquarters – seat of the United Nations Organisation

City Hall - the Mayor‘s office and the place for official ceremonies are situated there

Times Square - centre of performing arts
- people go there to welcome the New Year

St. Paul‘s Chapel - the oldest church in New York, built in 1766

St. Patrick‘s Cathedral - the largest Roman-catholic church in America, inspired by the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe, built in 1888, 2400 seats

Lincoln Centre – a large complex of buildings:
New York State Theatre - home of the New York City Opera a New York City Ballet
Metropolitan Opera House - founded by wealthy New Yorkers, who wanted to have their own opera house
Metropolitan Museum of Art - collection of art (paintings, sculptures, furniture) from Africa, the Pacific, America, China as well as Europe
American Museum of Natural History – its collections document native American, African and Pacific civilisations

Parks:
Central Park - largest of the New York‘s parks
New York botanical garden
Battery Park
East River park

Universities:
29 universities
Columbia University - the oldest and largest university in the country
New York University - the largest private university in the US

Transport:
Airports – John F. Kennedy airport
Newark
La Guardia

Subway: it was opened in 1904
It’s the largest subway system in the world.

4 Tunnels under the water


Bridges: The Brooklyn bridge
The George Washington bridge
The Verrezano narrows bridge

Sport:
Flushing Meadows – U.S. Open (tennis)
Madison square garden – basketball
Ice-hockey (N.Y. Rangers)


OTHER INTERESTING PLACES IS U.S.A.


Washington DC

It is the capital of the USA. D.C. stands for District of Columbia. It situated on the Potomac River, about 4000000 inhabitants live there. It’s the seat of the federal government of the United States.

Places of Interest

Capitol Building – it’s situated on Capitol Hill; it has two separate chambers – the House of Representative (south wing) and Senate (north wing), on the top of the building is the bronze Statue of Freedom, every four years the president comes here for his Inauguration
White House - president‘s residence, exterior walls were made of sandstone and painted on white, official rooms are on the first floor while second and third floor are reserved for the Presidential family, it has 132 rooms and 20 baths and showers – Blue room – in this room the President and First Lady receive guests at state dinners, East room – decorated in white and gold, used for the state receptions, it‘s largest
Washington monument – 1885, it’s symbol of the President Washington and Washington city, about 170m high and 4,5m wide at base (there are lots of statues of George Washington in W.)
Jefferson Memorial – 1934, commemorates the third US President, adaptation of the ancient Roman Pantheon, a bronze statue of Thomas dominates the open-air interior of the Monument Jefferson holding the Declaration of Independence, the four wall panels surrounding the statue are inscribed with Jefferson‘s writings
Lincoln Memorial – 1922, commemorates the 16th US President, it is a white marble building designed by Henry Bacon, there is famous 6m high marble statue of a seated Lincoln
Vietnam Veterans Memorial –
Pentagon - largest office building in the world, situated in Arlington, it‘s called the Pentagon because of its shape
National Gallery of Art -
National Theatre – focuses on plays and musicals
American Film Institute – centre of drama, concerts and dance performances
Concert Hall – home of the National Symphony Orchestra
Opera House
Library of Congress


Philadelphia
Is in the State of Pennsylvania. And it is an important historical place because the Declaration of Independence on 4th July 1776 was adopted there. It was the first capital of the USA.

Chicago
Lies on the banks of Lake Michigan. We can find here the highest skyscraper in the USA - Sears Tower. Chicago is a centre of steel and iron industries

Detroit
Is the centre of US car industry (e. g. Ford, Chevrolet, Cadillac)

Los Angeles
We can find here the famous film centre - Hollywood and luxurious quarters - e. g. Beverly Hills. The biggest ZOO in the world is here.

Las Vegas
Lies in Nevada is known for gambling and nightlife.

New Orleans
Is situated in the South. There was born jazz and the Spanish influence can still be seen on the architecture