The big Apple (as New York City is known) needs no introduction. It’s everything you ever thought it might be and more. When you walk among the tall skyscrapers you feel small. New York It’s like a miniature universe.
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There you will find every type of person on the planet represented, not only inside the UN buildings but also on the street and in different parts of the city.
Among the main attractions of New York are the many museums, architecture and endless shopping possibilities, especially along Madison Avenue, although the backbone of NYC is undoubtedly Fifth Avenue. For many people, New York City is overwhelming.
New Yorkone of the most vibrant metropolises in the world, occupies five boroughs, which we might translate as districts or communes – each of which coincides with a county with its own well-defined identity.
Before the historic consolidation of 1898, Manhattan, Brooklyn, el Bronx, Queens y Staten Island They were independent communes.
As we have already said, Manhattan is not all of New York, but only one of the five boroughs of the city.
The total number of inhabitants of the city is regarding eight and a half million, of which regarding two million live in Manhattan.
How to get around in New York
In order to quickly locate ourselves, let us know that the Bronx is north of Manhattan, separated by the Harlem River.
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To the east of the city, with the East River in the middle, lie Queens and Brooklyn. To the south, where the East and Hudson rivers meet, is Staten Island.
The right bank of the Hudson River, west of Manhattan, is already another state: New Jersey.
bridges
There are several bridges linking Manhattan with the other New York boroughs.
There are three bridges to connect Manhattan with the neighborhood of Brooklyn: from south to north we have Brooklyn first, then Manhattan and Williamsburg.
From Manhattan to Queens, there are only two bridges, the Queensboro, which crosses Roosevelt Island on the way, and the Triborough, which crosses Randall’s and Wards Islands. And between Manhattan and the Bronx, four bear the same name: Robert F. Kennedy.
There is none, however, that crosses the Hudson to New Jersey from Manhattan, although there are several tunnels under its waters.
How to get around in Manhattan
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Locating in the city is very easy. Except in the south of the island, the so-called Downtown, in the rest, the wide avenuesexcept for Broadway, which is transverse, travel from south to north and there are fourteen in all. Most of them are named by their number, from east to west, but some have noble titles, like Lexington, Madison, Park and, of course, Broadway.
The streets run horizontally, from east to west, from river to river, and there are regarding two hundred, between the Battery and the north end of Washington Heights. In Downtown, almost all of them have names, like Warren, Chambers, or Canal, or Houston, and they are often like the streets of old European cities: winding, short, narrow.
But from Eighth, on the north side of Washington Square, they are all recognizable by number.
Source: Graphic of Nuria Nettle
According to the height of its streets, Manhattan is divided into three areas:
- Downtown: south of 14th street
- Midtown: is the area between 14th and 59th streets which is where Central Park begins and
- Uptown: north of 59th street.
And taken vertically, there are two zones: East Side and West Side. The division between east and west is marked, in almost the entire city, by Fifth Avenue, something like the backbone of New York. In the middle of Manhattan, there is the famous Central Park which, as we said before, more or less serves as the border between Midtown and Uptown.
As usual, the metro lines go from north to south and from east to west. The former are recognized by numbers and the latter by letters. When it comes to buses, it’s often the same: horizontal and vertical lines, often sporting the same street number.
New York neighborhoods
Manhattan
Home to the city’s most recognizable landmarks, Manhattan dominates the popular perception of New York City. But Manhattan is not all of New York, it is only one of the 5 counties of the city, although it is the most densely populated and the one that concentrates the most emblematic places.
Wall Street and the Financial District
New York’s first district remains the most historic. Visitors ponder the beauty of the skyscrapers and the magic of the cobblestones.
Battery Park It attracts New Yorkers from all neighborhoods for its panoramic views and excellent rollers that enchant tourists and New Yorkers alike with their tricks.
Harlem
The national epicenter of African-American culture, Harlem stands proud of its past achievements and looks to the future. As home to the most influential art movement, the literary and cultural movement of America (The Harlem Renaissance), the district gained worldwide notoriety. Twenty years ago, many visitors dreaded going to Harlem.
Today, a multi-ethnic Harlem is taking advantage of an economic boom and receiving a flood of tourists eager to visit the birthplace of great jazz, its great food and its storied roots.
Greenwich Village
If the winding streets of this historic neighborhood might speak, they would speak of poverty and prosperity, free love and socialism, gay rights and reform.
In the late nineteenth century, Greenwich Village attracted free spirits from all over the nation. Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote hedonistic poetry and Eugene O’Neill reinvented American drama.
Over the years the rents inevitably increased. Now, the houses and apartments in the Village are some of the most expensive in the city.
Soho and Tribeca
Once home to so many factories, artists took control of the spaces, transforming barren, desolate industrial spaces into bustling urban commerce. Galleries, designer shops, fancy restaurants and hip bars soon followed the artists.
Today, galleries thrive amidst the chaos making New York a world-class art scene. No more cheap rentals in what were once simple lofts.
Chinatown
New York’s Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in the United States, is located in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Manhattan.
Founded in the late 1870s by Chinese immigrants, the neighborhood offers a unique historical and cultural experience found nowhere else in the world.
Restaurants, grocery stores, and candy stores line the always crowded streets. You don’t need to travel to Hong Kong to get a $10 Rolex watch; there are more than enough here.
There is Dim Sum (typical Cantonese food) and other delicacies on practically every corner. Recently, some non-Asian places have opened up, creating quite a stir.
Chelsea
Once a proud working-class community, Chelsea has become an upscale location. As rents in Greenwich Village rose, the vibrant gay community moved out to occupy the many lofts and limestone-fronted buildings characteristic of Chelsea.
Others naturally followed suit, and Chelsea today reflects New York’s ethnic and cultural diversity. Known for its many nightspots, partygoers party at Cheetah, Twilo and Rebar.
Upper East Side
Park Ave., Fifth and Madison They have always been elegant places.
Both the gilded mansions of yesterday and the modern apartments of today, old money and high society, found their home here.
Consequently, shops to serve them sprawled up and down Madison Avenue as residents endowed museums and collected art.
Further east, new fortunes reached Yorkville, a former slum and yuppies now sharing the railway buildings.
Upper West Side
When Eastside dwellers began to restrict residents, the Upper East Side became home to the new (often Jewish) fortunes.
Over time, as the “modernist” Eastsiders tore down their antebellum palaces, Upper West Side residents kept their old buildings. Thirty years later, renters appreciate Upper West for its antebellum properties, with their strong architecture (often Gothic Revival or Victorian).
Yuppies, successful artists and young people often share apartments and meet here. Today, the buildings along Central Park West house a number of notables in highly selective condominiums (Jerry Seinfeld approved; Madonna denied).
Meanwhile, bars and restaurants catering to the people of Long Island and New Jersey (Bridge and tunnels through) continue to sprout like weeds along Columbus and Amsterdam avenues. Also the Orthodox Jewish community adds a lot of color to the scene.
It’s not possible to venture down Amsterdam or Columbus Ave. north of 90th Street without noticing it.
