New York is a city of superlatives- the biggest, the largest, the brightest. Henry Hudson first described the place as ‘beautiful a land as one can hope to tread upon.’ However, New York was not what we see it as today about 11,000 years ago. With influx of Irish, German, Scandinavian, Italian, and Greek immigrants in the 19th century, population increased in leaps and bounds. Businessmen established industries which saw the rapid growth of industrial development in New York city. It became an important city after the Second World War Today, New York is a city of neighborhoods like avant-garde Greenwich Village, bustling Harlem, the ultra-sophisticated TriBeCa,

New York is located on the Atlantic Coastal Plain at the mouth of the Hudson River. It comprises of five boroughs. They are the densely packed Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn, a place of the hipsters; Queens, the largest borough; and Bronx home to the Yankee Stadium. The larger metropolitan area takes in Long Island, northern New Jersey, and southwestern Connecticut. Commuters now live as far away as eastern Pennsylvania. The city lies at the conjunction of the Hudson and East Rivers with New York Bay leading to the Atlantic Ocean.

The weather of New York is mostly continental with the ocean influencing summer temperatures and keeping the humidity relatively high.

Area: 303 square miles (2000)

Elevation: 50 to 800 feet above sea level

Latitude: 40.70 N,

Longitude: 73.92 W

Average Temperatures: January, 32.4° F; July, 76.9° F; annual average 54.91° F

Average Annual Precipitation: 42.6 inches of total precipitation; 26.5 inches of snowfall

Population: 8,143,197 as on 2005

Attractions

• Statue of Liberty
• Ellis Island
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Wall Street
• South Street Seaport Museum
• Empire State Building
• Chrysler Building
• Rockefeller Center
• New York Public Library
• Ground Zero – the sight of the former Twin Towers
• Chinatown and Little Italy
• SOHO- South of Houston, a trendy neighborhood of New York City

Festivals

• Lunar New York Festival
• Restaurant Week
• Cheery Blossom Festival
• Fleet Week
• New York Film Festival
• Columbus Day Parade