A FOREIGNER IN NEW YORK

The Brooklyn Bridge apart from being a bridge which crosses the East River, it's all a milestone in history as steel was used for the first time in this type of construction and what's more, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world for 20 years.

In August of 1876, the borders of Manhattan and Brooklyn were united for the first time through a cable of steel. In 1883, President Chester Arthur and Governor Grover Cleveland officially opened the Brooklyn Bridge in front of more than 14,000 guests. The toll to cross was set at a penny.

Six months after its inauguration, a tragedy occurred. A woman who was climbing the access stairs down the Manhattan side stumbled. So, her scream triggered the rumour that the bridge was sinking. Panic set in and people started to stamped which caused the death of 12 people and 35 people being injured.

Jumping into the river from the bridge without being a good diver is a certain death. The first person to jump from the bridge was Robert E. Odlum in 1885 betting that he would come out successfully. He died shortly after being rescued from the river.

The first woman to jump off the bridge was Clara McArthur in 1895. With the intention of falling to her feet, she inserted 9 kg of sand into her socks.

And finally, the first person to jump off the bridge and leave the river alive was Ed Quigley in 1960 winning a $ 100 bet.

In the South Bronx Park on the banks of the Bronx River, is the largest zoo in New York. It was inaugurated in 1899 with 843 animals exposed. Currently, more than 6,000 of 700 different species coexist.

It is a historic park located at the far end of the Financial District. The name comes from the battery of canyons which were found in the park and that protected the city in the early nineteenth century.

In the centre of the park is located the Castle Clinton National Monument, a fort built in 1811 to repel British attacks. The castle took the name of Mayor DeWitt Clinton and was declared a National Monument in 1946. There, it is located the ticket office to buy tickets for the ship that goes to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. From the park, you can enjoy panoramic views of New York Bay, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

It is the largest park in Midtown Manhattan. In 1823, this place was established as a cemetery until its closure in 1840. The park was renamed in 1884 as Bryant Park, in honour of the poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant.

Despite attempts to make the park a quiet place to rest, the place degenerated into being frequented by criminals and beggars in the 1970s. Bryant Park had to be rebuilt again in 1989 and reopened to the public in 1992.

Today, Bryant Park is the favourite place for office workers to relax on hot summer days. During the winter months, you can skate on one of the largest ice rinks in the city that occupies such a great part of the park.

The most important orchestras and singers in the world have passed through this music hall, which was the headquarters of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for years. It was built in 1891 by William Burnet Tuthill with an Italian Renaissance style and promoted by millionaire Andrew Carnegie. Later, it was remodelled in 1986 after going through a serious crisis with demolition attempt. Moreover, its horseshoe-shaped auditorium has 2,800 seats.

In 1991, a museum was opened on the first floor, the Rose Museum. It features scores of, musical instruments, and photographs that illustrate its more than 100 years of history.

Central Park arose because of the large population increase that New York had experienced in the early nineteenth century and the absence of a place of recreation. Between 1853 and 1856 land was purchased in downtown Manhattan for $ 5.5 million with the idea of building a large public park. The works began in 1858, directed by the architect Calvert Vaux and the landscapist Frederick Law Olmsted. These works lasted for twenty years.

Central Park is 4 km long and covers an area of 341 hectares where 26,000 trees are planted and where 275 bird species coexist.

Sundays and holidays are the days when you can find more activities, outdoor concerts, and shows

This is a transition neighbourhood between the stressful streets of Midtown Manhattan and the tranquillity of Greenwich. In 1750, Captain Thomas Clark purchased the land that comprises what currently occupies the streets 14 to 25 and of the 8th Avenue until the Hudson River naming it Chelsea.

After the installation of a rail road along 11th Avenue, the working population settled in this area of Manhattan. During this time, it was the theatre pre-Broadway centre.

Chelsea has now spread east to 6th Avenue and north to 34th Street. Most of the SoHo art galleries have moved or have opened branches in this part of the city.

The crowded streets of Chinatown are one of the most famous neighbourhoods in the United States. A neighbourhood that is gradually expanding. Fish, fruit and vegetable stalls, restaurants and posters written in Chinese create the impression of being in an eastern city. Canal Street and Mott Street are the streets where Chinatown's biggest shopping malls are.

A very special event is celebrated through the streets of Chinatown all the first full moons after every 19th January, with a carnival parade: it is the Chinese New Year.

City Hall is the city hall of New York City. It is located in the center of the City Hall Park, it was built in 1811 by the French architect Joseph-François Mangin. On the top floor of the building is the Governor's Room, a room that houses a museum where you can admire paintings and antique furniture.

Coney Island is a peninsula in the south of Brooklyn, which has been linked to tourist leisure and amusement parks for the last two centuries. According to history, shortly after the Dutch settled on the island of Manhattan, they began to inhabit an island of an area which the Indians called Narrioch, consisting of three islands and other small islets surrounded by river estuaries in the south of Brooklyn.

Apart from that, in 1800 the beach of Coney Island was already used for recreational purposes, and there, its first hotel was inaugurated in 1829. After that, in the decade of 1870, Coney Island became the tourist destination of the high society of New York.

In 1867, the German immigrant Charles Feltman began selling hot dogs with his cart on Coney Island Beach. Feltman is considered to be the inventor of the hot dog.

Furthermore, his family had a small empire and in 1920, they opened the Feltman's Ocean Pavilion restaurant, which was one of the largest in the world at the time. In 1911, a former Feltman employee, the Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker, set up a small hot dog stall and sold hot dogs cheaper. Then, in 1916, he opened the restaurant Nathan's Famous, which soon became one of the most popular in the city.

It is located on the Upper West Side. This famous apartment building was built in 1880 by the architect Henry J. Hardenberg.

When it was built, it was so far from the city that not even the power supply reached it and it was said that it seemed to be in Dakota, so it was called "Dakota Building."

As Manhattan expanded northward, the prices of these luxury apartments skyrocketed and they were soon occupied by celebrities.

This building is famous for the 1980 assassination of John Lennon when he was entering the building. His widow, Yoko Ono, still lives on the seventh floor of these apartments.

Approximately, 12 million people arrived in the United States from 1892 to 1924, so it was the largest immigration center in the country. The immigrants were subjected to a severe medical examination and interrogation.

Currently, the Ellis Island Immigration Center is a museum with more than thirty independent galleries and two theaters, where there are more than two thousand objects including passports, jewelry, tools, religious articles, and clothing. To get to the island you take the same ferry that goes to Liberty Island and leaves from Battery Park.

The Empire State Building is New York's most famous building. It was inaugurated in 1931, by President Hoover, who switched on the lights of the building from Washington. For 40 years, it held the title of the world's tallest building, which it lost after the construction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

The Empire State Building occupies the same grounds as the first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It was built at a high speed, completing it in a year and 45 days. It is 443.2 meters high and has 102 floors.

The biggest disaster in the history of the Empire State was in 1945, when a US Army B25 bomber, which, due to a dense fog, crashed into the north facade of the building between floors 78 and 79. The accident caused 14 dead, 26 injured and $ 1 million in damages.

The Statue of Liberty is the symbol par excellence of America and one of the most visited and photographed monuments in the world. It was a gift from France to the US in honour of the bonds of friendship during the War of Independence.

The statue was commissioned to the sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi in order to inaugurate it in 1876 making it coincide with the first centenary of the American Independence.

The statue was finished in July 1884. After finishing the pedestal in 1886, the statue was mounted on the platform in four months. Eventually, in 1886, President Grover Cleveland inaugurated the statue symbolizing Freedom Enlightening the World.

The monument measures in total 92.99 meters and the table that maintains its left-hand says "4 of July of 1776" in Roman numerals, the date in which the American Independence was signed.

It is a neighbourhood located in lower Manhattan that is delimited by the Hudson River, Broadway, Houston Street and 14th Street. The neighbourhood is an area of leisure and entertainment. What's more, the heart of the Village, Washington Square Park, is always animated by artists, neighbours, tourists and students from the New York University, which is located at the south end of the park.

On the East, it is the East Village, home of the 1950s beat generation, hippies in the 60s and punks in the 70s and 80s.

This popular neighbourhood is located in Downtown Manhattan. At the beginning of the 20th century, 145,000 immigrants from Sicily and southern Italy settled in this part of the city. Nowadays, the typical atmosphere is still maintained, with its traditional festivities and restaurants of Italian food.

The history of Madison dates back to 1869 when an abandoned rail road station was set up to hold outdoor sporting events at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.

It has a capacity of 20,000 people. It is home to the New York Knicks basketball team, New York Rangers hockey team, and New York Liberty women's basketball team.

Fifth Avenue is one of the most famous places in the world and the main one for shopping , which divides the city into two sectors, the East Side and the West Side.

Fifth Avenue runs from the north of Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village and extends to the Harlem River. The most luxurious shops, such as Tifanny or Cartier, the most famous hotels such as the Plaza, the most important churches like St. Patrick's Cathedral or the most charismatic building in the city, the Empire State, give prestige to this important avenue.

There, it is located The Rockefeller Center, which is the largest commercial and entertainment complex in the United States; which holds the offices of General Electric and NBC (National Broadcasting Company).

Every year at Christmas, at the foot of the building stands the famous Christmas tree that is the largest in the United States

On Fifth Avenue, opposite the Rockefeller Center complex, is the largest Catholic Gothic Cathedral in the United States.

St. Patrick's Cathedral began to be built in 1858 led by the architect James Renwick who designed it under the French and English influence. The cathedral was not completed until 1888.

This symbol of the Irish Catholic domain of the late nineteenth century is dedicated to Saint Patrick (patron saint of the Irish) and is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese.

The United Nations was founded in 1945, with the confirmation of the Charter of the United Nations signed by 50 countries in San Francisco, with the aim of promoting the economic and social progress of all peoples; in addition to joining forces for the maintenance of peace and international security.

The World Trade Center is a commercial and financial complex located in Lower Manhattan that replaces the former located in the same place and of the same name, destroyed in the attacks of 11S, 2001.

On September 11, 2001, a plane crashed into the North Tower. In the interior of the airplane were 81 passengers and 11 crew. Among the passengers were 5 terrorists who managed to hijack the plane and divert it from its route to crash it against the building. A few minutes later, another plane hit the South Tower.

2,752 people lost their lives in this attack on the World Trade Center and 14 ones survived.