Christopher Winn - I Never Knew That About New York

A PLUME BOOK

I NEVER KNEW THAT ABOUT NEW YORK

CHRISTOPHER WINN has been a freelance writer and trivia collector for more than twenty years. He is the author of the bestselling I Never Knew That About England. He is married to the artist Mai Osawa, who illustrates all the books in the series.

PLUME

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First published by in the United Kingdom by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing.

First American printing 2013.

Copyright 2013 by Christopher Winn

Illustrations copyright 2013 by Mai Osawa

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Winn, Christopher.

I never knew that about New York / Christopher Winn; illustrations by Mai Osawa.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-14-218063-1

ISBN 978-1-101-63485-1 (eBook)

1. New York (N. Y.)Description and travel. 2. New York (N. Y.)History. 3. New York (N. Y.)Biography. I. Title.

F128.3.W83 2013

974.7dc23

2013022582

Original design by Peter Ward

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

Version_1

For Joe and Jeanne,

New Yorkers through and through

Contents

Preface

New York belongs to the world.

New York is known and recognized and talked about everywhere in the world, and is the most photographed and most filmed city anywhere in the world. The Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park, and Times Square are the worlds most visited tourist destinations.

New York is also the shop window of America, vibrant, living, glorious proof that determined peoples from every land and every culture, every religion and every background, can join together and achieve spectacular things. In New York you will find Rome and London, Paris and Tokyo, Madrid and Dublin and Shanghai. You will find the worlds biggest cathedral, biggest synagogue, and biggest financial markets, the worlds best theaters and museums and its most iconic skyscrapers.

But there is more to New York than just tall buildings and the most expensive shopping street on earth. New York has its small and hidden places, too, beautiful parks and quiet green spaces, homely villages, chapels, smart squares, and fine, unpretentious architecture. And a fascinating history as a trading post, fortress, bustling port, and Americas first capital.

New York is compressed history. What took London , years to build, New York achieved in years. New York sprang up on boundless spirit and on dreams. And lots of hard work.

New York has survived fire, pestilence, riots, terrorist attacks, hurricanes, blizzards, and floods and each time has bounced back stronger, prouder, more dynamic, and more indefatigable.

New York can inspire you or destroy you. It can make you feel alive, or exhaust you and infuriate you. It will never bore you.

Think of I Never Knew That About New York as an entertaining friend, one who loves New York and can tell you some of its stories and its secrets, and you will discover that New York is quite simply, as Robert De Niro says, the most exciting city in the world.

Introduction

The focus of I Never Knew That About New York is New York Harbor and Manhattan Island, where New York began and which for odd years was exclusively known as New York.

In 1898 five neighboring cities, or boroughs, consolidated to form the City of Greater New York. They were New York (Manhattan), Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. They all have their own unique history and their own vibrant character, and each deserves its own book. To try and tell the story of all five boroughs in one book would be to do none of them justice.

In I Never Knew That About New York we walk along Broadway, New Yorks oldest road, its Main Street, from south to north, in the footsteps of the citys northward development, and as we go we tour the neighborhoods that sprang up along the way.

Although each chapter is arranged as a walk it is not necessary to follow the whole walk or indeed to walk at alleach chapter stands alone as an interesting read about this most fascinating city and its history.

If you do decide to follow the walks you will find that each walk starts and finishes at a subway station, and always remains within easy reach of a subway station, so that you may leave or resume the walk at any point.

Finally, to distinguish city from state, the latter is referred to throughout the book as the State of New York or New York State.

New York Time Line