See the Empire State, Statue of Liberty, 9/11 Memorial, Top of the Rock & More! Book Now. Book Unforgettable Tours on Viator. Skip the Line, Book Tickets, Experiences and More
The most venerable and polished of the tour-and-activity sites. - BBC
- Reserve Now & Pay Later
Secure Activities You Don't Want to
Miss, Without Being Locked In.
- Plan Trips With Our App
Search And Book Unforgettable
Things To Do, Any Time Any Where
- Explore By Destination
Find Inspiration for Your Trip
Do more with Viator
- 24 Hour Support
New price? New plan? No problem.
We’re here to help
- Add Trips To Wishlist
Search Unforgettable Experiences
Save Your Favourites on Wishlist
- Free Cancellation
Receive a Full Refund If You Cancel
at Least 24 Hours in Advance
- Reserve Now & Pay Later
Compare 500+ Airlines and Book Confidently with Our Low Fares from United States. Book OneTravel®'s Low Fare to New York City. Trustworthy Flight Fares.
Lowest Fare - Online-Travel-Sites-Review
Search results
The boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that compose New York City. The boroughs are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of the State of New York: The Bronx is Bronx County, Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County, Queens ...
- Overview
- Character of the city
- The city site
New York City is located at the mouth of the Hudson River in southeastern New York state, which is in the northeastern section of the United States.
What are the five boroughs of New York City?
The five boroughs of New York City are Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island.
Why is New York City important in the United States?
New York City is the largest and most influential American metropolis and the most populous and the most international city in the country. Located where the Hudson and East rivers empty into one of the world’s premier harbors, New York is both the gateway to the North American continent and its preferred exit to the oceans of the globe.
What does the seal of New York City look like?
New York is the most ethnically diverse, religiously varied, commercially driven, famously congested, and, in the eyes of many, the most attractive urban centre in the country. No other city has contributed more images to the collective consciousness of Americans: Wall Street means finance, Broadway is synonymous with theatre, Fifth Avenue is automatically paired with shopping, Madison Avenue means the advertising industry, Greenwich Village connotes bohemian lifestyles, Seventh Avenue signifies fashion, Tammany Hall defines machine politics, and Harlem evokes images of the Jazz Age, African American aspirations, and slums. The word tenement brings to mind both the miseries of urban life and the upward mobility of striving immigrant masses. New York has more Jews than Tel Aviv, more Irish than Dublin, more Italians than Naples, and more Puerto Ricans than San Juan. Its symbol is the Statue of Liberty, but the metropolis is itself an icon, the arena in which Emma Lazarus’s “tempest-tost” people of every nation are transformed into Americans—and if they remain in the city, they become New Yorkers.
For the past two centuries, New York has been the largest and wealthiest American city. More than half the people and goods that ever entered the United States came through its port, and that stream of commerce has made change a constant presence in city life. New York always meant possibility, for it was an urban centre on its way to something better, a metropolis too busy to be solicitous of those who stood in the way of progress. New York—while the most American of all the country’s cities—thus also achieved a reputation as both foreign and fearsome, a place where turmoil, arrogance, incivility, and cruelty tested the stamina of everyone who entered it. The city was inhabited by strangers, but they were, as James Fenimore Cooper explained, “essentially national in interest, position, pursuits. No one thinks of the place as belonging to a particular state but to the United States.” Once the capital of both its state and the country, New York surpassed such status to become a world city in both commerce and outlook, with the most famous skyline on earth. It also became a target for international terrorism—most notably the destruction in 2001 of the World Trade Center, which for three decades had been the most prominent symbol of the city’s global prowess. However, New York remains for its residents a conglomeration of local neighbourhoods that provide them with familiar cuisines, languages, and experiences. A city of stark contrasts and deep contradictions, New York is perhaps the most fitting representative of a diverse and powerful nation.
Sections of the granite bedrock of New York date to about 100 million years ago, but the topography of the present city is largely the product of the glacial recession that marked the end of the Wisconsin Glacial Stage about 10,000 years ago. Great erratic boulders in Manhattan’s Central Park, deep kettle depressions in Brooklyn and Queens, and the glacial moraine that remains in parts of the metropolitan area provide silent testimony to the enormous power of the ice. Glacial retreat also carved out the waterways around the city. The Hudson and East rivers, Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and Arthur Kill are, in reality, estuaries of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Hudson is tidal as far north as Troy. The approximately 600 miles (1,000 km) of New York shoreline are locked in constant combat with the ocean, as it erodes the land and adds new sediments elsewhere. Although the harbour is constantly dredged, ship channels are continually filled with river silt and are too shallow for more modern deep-sea vessels.
Britannica Quiz
Anywhere USA
South of the rockbound terrain of Manhattan stretches a sheltered deepwater anchorage offering easy access to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1524 the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to enter the harbour, which he named Santa Margarita, and he reported that the hills surrounding the vast expanse of New York Bay appeared to be rich in minerals; more than 90 species of precious stone and 170 of the world’s minerals have actually been found in New York. Verrazzano’s daring expedition was commemorated in 1964, when what was then the world’s longest suspension bridge was dedicated to span the Narrows at the entrance to Upper New York Bay.
Exclusive academic rate for students! Save 67% on Britannica Premium.
Learn More
- George Lankevich
Boroughs. Map of Manhattan, the most densely populated borough of New York City, and the economic, cultural and administrative center of the city. New York City comprises five boroughs, an unusual form of government used to administer the five constituent counties that make up the city.
2 days ago · Even to residents of the other boroughs, Manhattan is “the city,” the administrative, business, and financial centre of the metropolis and the basis of their renown. In no other part of New York are there such stark contrasts between rich and poor.
- George Lankevich
- Staten Island. Staten Island is the southernmost borough and is the least populated, with a population of about 480,000. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connects the island to the rest of the city and a ferry service is also available.
- The Bronx. The Bronx is the only borough that is not an island. It borders Manhattan to the south and is the northernmost borough. It covers an area of 42.4 square miles and is densely populated, with an estimated population of 1.46 million as of 2016.
- Queens. Queens is the largest borough with an area of 109.7 square miles. It makes up 35% of New York City and is also the second most populous, with a population of 2.4 million as of 2016.
- Brooklyn. The population of Brooklyn was estimated to be about 2.63 million in 2016. It is the most populous of the five boroughs and covers an area of 71 square miles.
New York, often called New York City[b] or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive with a respective county.
Dec 11, 2018 · New York City is one of the largest cities in the world and it is divided into five boroughs. Each borough is also a county within the state of New York. The total population of New York City was 8,622,698 in 2017, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
Visit the American Museum of Natural History to Learn More About Our Exhibits. American Museum of Natural History Tickets & Exhibits. Special Exhibits.
