For many New Yorkers, New York City itself is the most magnificent and beloved character in a city full of an extraordinary large cast of characters. Paris and Venice may have their own unique beauty and Old World charm, but New York City is uniquely beautiful in its blend of innovative and bold modern Art Deco skyscrapers and architectural designs of the 20th and 21st centuries with Old World buildings and styles of the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, no other city in the world has New York's combination of excitement, ebullience, energy, vitality and, most of all, diversity.

Commerce and success were extremely important to the Dutch West India Company, the founders of New Amsterdam, and the company was always welcoming to a wide diversity of people as long as they were willing to work. Holland was the only 17th Century country in Europe that offered women an education and that tradition was continued in New Amsterdam. New York has been described as the cultural capital of America and is the birthplace of motion pictures and television broadcasting. New Amsterdam was a city of commerce and a town of merchants.


In E.B. White's short essay, HERE IS NEW YORK, he noted (in 1948) that there are three NEW YORKS:

  • "the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the City for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable."
  • the New York of the "commuter--the city that is devoured each day and spat out each night," and
  • the New York of the person who was born elsewhere and came to New York in "quest of something."
Perhaps we should also add the New York of those who love to visit but don't want to live here.

 

As with many large cities, there will always be those who LOVE it and those who HATE it.  Large numbers of words and extremes have been used to describe the City ranging from sparkling to dirty, rich to poor, exciting to noisy, elite to vulgar and heaven or hell.

 

Throughout its history, New York City has been a symbol of freedom, hope, tolerance, American culture and artistic expression, and power. The hopes and promises of the City and what the City itself means to each of its over eight-million inhabitants are as different as its diversities of people and cultures.


Think of New York City as a city with many neighborhoods and communities of various nationalities and cultures with certain similarities and many differences. Some neighborhoods were named after the immigrants who settled them so we have neighborhoods known as Germantown, Little Italy, Little Ukraine, Chinatown, Little India and Little Korea, etc. The City has been described as a "melange of customs and people."


In a history of New York City, EMPIRE CITY: NEW YORK THROUGH THE CENTURIES, authors Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. Dunbar list ten factors that make New York City so special. Among them are: the City's tempo, its reputation for tolerance, its public transportation and its incredible diversity.


IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT NEW YORK:

  • Europeans first entered New York Harbor in 1524 when the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano -- financed by the king of France -- discovered New York Bay and New York harbor. His ship, the Dauphine, sailed into the bay at the locale of today's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. TheVerrazano-Narrows Bridge suspension bridge, which connects Staten Island and Manhattan, is named in da Venazzano's honor. Unfortunately, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority misspelled the explorer's name with only one "z" (although Verrazzano has two z's).
  • Esteban Gomez -- a black navigator from Portugal, was hired to explore America by King Charles of Spain. Gomez reached the rivers of New York harbor on January 17, 1526. He and his crew did not go ashore but wrote about the beauty of the land and water.
  • On September 12, 1609, Henry Hudson, who was searching from the Northwest Passage, sailed into New York Harbor on the ship Halfe Moon and into the river that took his name and is now the Hudson River. Hudson's journey was financed by the Dutch East India Company (there was also a Dutch West India Company.) Hudson and his crew of both English and Dutch sailors were greeted by Indians wearing deerskins and cooper ornaments and offering them tobacco leaves. Early explorers noted the island’s beauty, its hills, and its meadows and described it as “curiously bedecked with Roses, and an innumerable multitude of delightful flowers.” The air was described as sweet and smelling like champagne. Hudson would return here in 1611 when his crew would mutiny and throw him overboard.
  • New York Bay was populated with whales, dolphins, seals, porpoises, an abundance of oyster beds, lobsters and fish, and even sea lions.Pearl Street in lower Manhattan was named for “the mounds of oyster shells left by Lenape American Indian bands along the East River shore.” In The Big Oyster:History on the Half Shell, author Mark Kurlansky writes of the time when New York City was the oyster capital of the world and of the influence of oysters on the life of the City.From the time of the first Dutch settlement in New Amsterdam until 1927, oysters were sold on street corners all over Manhattan. Oysters beds in the New York area can be traced as far back as 10,000 B.C. and were so plentiful (in 1880 they were producing seven million oysters per year) that the author contends New York City should have been nicknamed "The Big Oyster." It was disease and epidemics of cholera that led to the destruction of the oyster beds. Epidemics were eventually traced to the oyster beds because as the city and industrial pollution grew (along with the dumping of raw sewage into the rivers) obviously, the oysters became unfit to eat. The last oyster bed was destroyed in 1927. Because oysters clean the waters, the author notes that the Hudson River must have been very clear and beautiful when Henry Hudson first sailed into it. In recent years there have been attempts to reestablish oysters bed.
  • In early 1613 Adriaen Block became the first white man to sail up the East River and through Hellegat (Hell's Gate) in his ship, Tiger.
  • Trade in beaver fur in early New York was so popular and profitable (John Astor began his fortune in fur) that a beaver appears on New York City's official city seal. Beavers, bear, foxes, wolves, blackbirds, turkeys, doves, deer and even lions and bobcats were among the island’s wildlife. Hats, muffs and coats made from beaver fur were extremely popular and treasured throughout Europe at this time and worn by both women and men. The Dutch saw the potential and riches in fur trade and trade in furs between the Dutch and the Indians dates back to 1610. In the 17th Century, beaver oil was thought to cure rheumatism, toothaches, stomach aches, poor vision, and dizziness.
  • The highest point on the island of Manhattan is 265.05 feet above sea level and is at Bennett Park in Washington Heights. Bennett Park was originally part of Fort Washington where the Continental Army -- consisting of 2,900 troops -- was defeated by the overpowering number (8,000) of British and German soldiers on November 16, 1776. American troops were driven out of the New York area and retreated to Delaware. General George Washington had chosen the location at West 183rd Street for his operations because of its height. The highest point in the five boroughs encompassing New York City is at Todt Hill, Staten Island (409.8 feet above sea level).
  • New York City was nicknamed Gotham by author Washington Irving in 1807. Gotham was a humorous reference to the English Village of Gotham of which it was said: "more fools pass through Gotham than remain in it." Gotham City" was officially proposed as the City's nickname to City Council members in the spring of 2008 by a councilman from Queens. The issue is still up for debate.
  • In the early days of silent movies and before the film industry moved to Hollywood, Biograph Films, the oldest film company, was turning out motion pictures at D.W. Griffith’s studio (at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue). Griffith, an early pioneer in filmmaking and editing techniques, became the greatest American silent film director (The Birth of a Nation, 1915) and was the first producer-director of motion pictures. His early films starred the young actress, Mary Pickford (who gained riches and fame in such films as Rebecca of Stony Brooke Farm and Sparrows), and the Gish sisters: Lillian (Birth of a Nation, Broken Blossoms, and Orphans of the Storm) and Dorothy (Orphans of the Storm). Mack Sennett (known for his slapstick Keystone Cops comedies) and Lionel Barrymore also worked for Biograph.
  • The first television networks were all located in Manhattan. NBC conducted experimental television broadcasts from the Empire State Building in 1932. NBC also became the first network to offer regular television services with its telecast of the opening of the New York World’s Fair on April 30, 1939. In the late 40s and early 50s, television shows such as Texaco Star Theater, Studio One, Philco TV Playhouse (all in 1948), The Honeymooners (1955) and Playhouse 90 (1956) were filmed in front of live audiences and broadcast “Live from New York” throughout the country. The Ed Sullivan Show (1955) hosted by newspaper columnist Sullivan, brought Broadway and opera stars, as well as Elvis Presley and the Beatles, into the nation’s living rooms on Sunday evenings. Sullivan’s show was tremendously popular and he would be called America’s Minister of Culture. “I Love Lucy” premiered on October 15, 1951 and made Lucy and Desi America’s favorite married couple; by 1954 the show was attracting an unprecedented 50 million viewers. Many actors and directors, later to move on to great fame in Hollywood, were introduced to American audiences through live television broadcasts. The young James Dean appeared on Studio One and Kraft Television Theater and Paul Newman in dramatic productions of Playwrights ’56 and The Philco Television Playhouse. Director Sidney Lumet, who started in television, would later direct many Oscar-winning films. Lumet is known as a “New York director” due to his love of filming on the streets of New York (The Pawnbroker in Harlem; Serpico about corruption in the New York City Police Department; Dog Day Afternoon -- at a bank in Greenwich Village; The Wiz, a version of The Wizard of Oz with a black cast and with the Brooklyn Bridge and other NYC locales as its backdrop; and Network a negative look at the television industry).
  • The American people seem to have a love/hate relationship with New York City. Many would not be caught dead living here while others dream about exciting visits here. Presidents have told New York City to DROP DEAD and New Yorkers themselves have conflicting feelings about the City. Sometimes New Yorkers may seem a little "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewillered" as the Rodgers & Hart song from the Broadway musical, PAL JOEY, admits. New Yorkers may frequently complain about the City, but despite all, it's still amazing to see how well a city of over eight million people actually works and survives.
  • New York City's official theme song is "New York, New York," by Broadway composers, John Kandor and Fred Ebb. The song was first performed by Liza Minnelli in the 1977 film of the same title and recorded later by Frank Sinatra.

New York City has fortunately been the subject of a number of very talented and pioneer photographers who have beautifully captured the City in black and white. Some of the more important ones are:

  • Bernice Abbott (1898 - 1991)
  • Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882 - 1966)
  • Paul Strand (1890 - 1976)
  • Edward Steichen (1879 - 1973) and
  • Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) and
  • Edward Weston (1886 - 1958).

Their works can be found on the Masters of Photography website. Other photographers such as Lewis Hine (1874 - 1940) and Jacob Riis (1849 - 1914) were social commentators. Hine did a series of photographs on child labor and Riis is known for his photos of immigrants on the Lower East Side. For over 50 years James Vanderzee (1886 - 1983), an African-American photographer, had his own studio in Harlem where he captured the portraits Harlem residents and others who passed through.


INFORMATIVE BOOKS ABOUT NEW YORK:

THE ARCHITECTURE OF NEW YORK CITY: HISTORIES AND VIEWS OF IMPORTANT STRUCTURES, SITES AND SYMBOLS by Donald Martin Reynolds*

THE BIG OYSTER: A HISTORY ON A HALF SHELL by Mark Kurlansky

EMPIRE CITY NEW YORK THROUGH THE CENTURIES by Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. Dunbar *

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK CITY by Kenneth T. Jsckson

THE EPIC OF NEW YORK CITY A NARRATIVE HISTORY by Edward Robb Ellis*

A PICKPOCKET'S TALE: THE UNDERWORLD OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY NEW YORK by Timothy J. Gilfoyle

THE GANGS OF NEW YORK by Herbert Asbury

THE GAY METROPOLIS, 1940 - 1996 by Charles Kelser

THE GAY MILITANTS HOW GAY LIBERATION BEGAN IN AMERICA, 1969 - 1971 by Donn Teal

GAY NEW YORK: GENDER, URBAN CULTURE, AND THE MAKING OF THE GAY MALE WORLD, 1890 - 1940 by George Chauncey

GOTHAM A HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY TO 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows & Mike Wallace*

GREENWICH VILLAGE CULTURE AND COUNTERCULTURE by Rick Beard and Leslie Cohen Berlowitz (published for the Museum of the City of New York by Rutgers University Press

GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY LANDMARKS by Andrew S. Dolkart*

HARLEM ON MY MIND: CULTURAL CAPITAL OF BLACK AMERICA, 1900-1968 by Alton Schoener

NEW YORK in the 50s by Dan Wakefield

REPUBLIC OF DREAMS Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia 1910 - 1960 by Ross Wetzsteen

TERRIBLE HONESTY MONGREL MANHATTAN IN THE 1920s by Ann Douglas

THE WOMEN OF THE HOUSE: HOW A COLONIAL SHE-MERCHANT BUILT A MANSION, A FORTUNE, AND A DYNASTY by Jean Zimmerman

Asterisks denote books that I first consult and relay on when researching and checking facts about NYC.


Sunday's New York Times has a column, called F.Y.I. in its City section where readers' questions about New York are answered. Interesting facts about the City appear there. The column's email is: fyi@nytimescom.