New York is the biggest city in the USA. The number of inhabitants is about 18 million. It belongs to the largest cities in the world. It is sometimes called "The Big Apple". New York has five major parts: Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island (Richmond) and Brooklyn. The black quarter - Harlem - is in northern part of Manhattan.
The original inhabitants were Indians, which is remembered by the name of the oldest part - Manhattan Island. This island was bought by the Dutch in 17th century for goods worth 25. US dollars The original name was New Amsterdam. In southern part of Manhattan there used to be a wall against Indians, now there is Wall Street - the centre of financial life.
The city was built on a modern plan of streets and avenues, which are numbered. Streets run east-west and avenues north-south. Only a few of them have their names, e. g. Wall Street, Broadway. Broadway is the centre of cultural life. There is concentrated most of entertainment (e. g. Metropolitan Opera or Carnage Hall). The island is washed by the Hudson River and the East River. East Village is a centre of many ethnic restaurants, boutiques and jazz clubs. Greenwich Village is the home of artists a writers.
New York is famous for its Manhattan skyline - a large number of skyscrapers on a small area. They started to built skyscrapers here because the price of land on the island was very high. The first skyscraper was built in 1903. Today they are built with the help of computers. In the fact the skyscrapers are small towns. We can find here residential quarters, offices, parking lots, restaurants, shops, fitness centres, swimming pool. Living here is very expensive.
The highest skyscraper in New York is The World Trade Center. It was built in 1973 and has 110 floors and more than 100 000 people come and go here every day. Another interesting skyscraper in N. Y. is Empire State Building. It has 102 floors and a TV tower and a restaurant at the top. There are also many others - e. g. Chrysler Building, PanAm Building and UN building.
The only quiet place is Central Park where famous rock concerts take place. We can there relaxing by walking or jogging.
There are many attractive places where visitors like to go in New York. The most known bridge is the Brooklyn Bridge. There are many islands in this area - Roosevelt Island, Coney Island and Liberty Island with the Statue of Liberty (It´s a copy of a small statue given to the USA by France as the symbol of the friendship between these two nations. And it is a symbol of freedom.
Other big cities are Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Detroit, Las Vegas and the capital Washington, D. C.
The capital - Washington, D. C. is the centre of US government. In the city, along the Potomac River, there are situated the most important buildings - the White House, the Pentagon, the Capitol. There are no industry and factories here and we can also find no skyscrapers here. We can find here many monuments - the Washington Monument, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorial. There is also situated the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D. C.
Philadelphia is in the State of Pennsylvania. And it is an important historical place because the Declaration of Independence on 4th July 1776 was adopted there. It was the first capital of the USA.
Chicago lies on the banks of Lake Michigan. We can find here the highest skyscraper in the USA - Sears Tower. Chicago is a centre of steel and iron industries
Detroit is the centre of US car industry (e. g. Ford, Chevrolet, Cadillac)
In Los Angeles we can find the famous film centre - Hollywood and luxurious quarters - e. g. Beverly Hills. The biggest ZOO in the world is here.
Las Vegas in Nevada is known for gambling and night life.
New Orleans is situated in the South. There was born jazz and the Spanish influence can still be seen on the architecture.
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