The state of New York has an area of ​​141,080 square kilometers and, with 18.98 million inhabitants, is the third most populous state in the United States after California and Texas.

The capital of the state of New York is Albany and the largest city in the state is New York City.

New York is located on the east coast of the US and is located in New York Bay at the mouth of the Hudson River and the East River. The city of New York rises only about six feet above sea level. The geographical coordinates are 40.46 degrees north latitude and 73.54 degrees west longitude.

New York City Center is located on the island of Manhattan. The development of the city extends from the river banks with several suburbs far into the country. The suburban communities are Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan. The urban area has an area of ​​800 square kilometers.

New York’s coastal plain extends as a foreland of the southern Appalachian Mountains to Jacksonville.

The urban area is divided into five communities, the so-called boroughs. Each borough is subordinate to a borough president.

Manhattan (New York County) has 1.6 million inhabitants and a land area of ​​59 square kilometers. Manhattan consists mainly of the island of Manhattan Island, which is surrounded by the Hudson River in the west, the East River in the east and the Harlem River in the northeast. There are other small islands like Roosevelt Island, Belmont Island, Governors Island and a little bit of the mainland, Marble Hill.

Brooklyn (Kings County) has 2.5 million inhabitants and is the most populous community in New York. Brooklyn is located in the southeast of the city and at the western end of Long Island. The area is 183 square kilometers.

Queens (Queens County) has 2.3 million inhabitants and is with its surface of 283 square kilometers the largest district of New York. It is located in the west of Long Island. Queens was founded on November 1, 1683. There are also two of New York’s largest airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport.

The Bronx (Bronx County) has 1.4 million inhabitants and is 109 square kilometers in size. The Bronx used to be an independent city. Since 1 January 1874 she is incorporated into New York. Bronx was named by an emigrant named Jonas Broncks, who came from Sweden.

Staten Island (Richmond County) has 460,000 inhabitants and a land area of ​​151 square kilometers. Staten Island is located southwest of the island of Manhattan and west of the Long Island district of Brooklyn. The island is connected to Brooklyn via the toll-fee Verrazano Narrows Bridge. New Jersey can be reached via the Goethals Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing. The highest point of the island is Todt Hill.

The city of New York is located in the temperate zone.

The weather in New York is mainly influenced by the continental landmasses in the west.

The summers are usually very hot and the winters very cold.

The temperature often rises above 30 degrees Celsius in July and August and can drop below -20 degrees Celsius in January.

Sometimes, the Northeastern sea air brings moisture from the Atlantic Ocean, combined with strong winds and heavy rain or snowfall.

The average annual mean is 12.5 degrees Celsius and the mean annual rainfall is 1,070 millimeters.

The warmest month is July with an average of 24.7 degrees Celsius and the coldest January with -0.4 degrees Celsius on average.

Most precipitation falls in the month of July with 104 millimeters on average, the least in January with 80 millimeters on average.

As early as 1524, the first voyages of discovery took place in the area of ​​today’s New York by Giovanni da Verrazano and in 1609 by Henry Hudson. Around 1610 merchants from the Netherlands started a comprehensive fur trade with the Indians living here.

The colonization of the New York area began in 1624. The first settlers were 30 Dutch families who settled on the island of Manhattan and in the area of ​​the Delaware Foot.

In 1626, Peter Minuit bought the natives, probably a branch of the Lenni-Lenape Indians who called the island Manna-hatta, the island for 60 guilders. The settlement was named Nieuw Amsterdam and became the capital of the colony Nieuw Nederland.

In the war between England and the Netherlands Nieuw Nederland was plundered by the Englishmen, whereupon the governor Petrus Stuyvesant the city on September 24, 1664 ceded. The colony was awarded to the Duke of York, later King James II. In his honor, the city was renamed New York. In 1667, the Dutch gave up all claims to the colony in the Peace of Breda.

In the 18th century, New York actively participated in the independence movement. In 1776 she was for a short time These left the city until 1783, after the American independence was also recognized by European states including Britain. This year, a devastating fire destroyed large parts of New York. 1785 ravaged another fire disaster other areas of the city.

From 1788 to 1790, New York was the capital of the United States. George Washington was sworn in New York in 1789 as the first president. During the difficult economic times after the war, on 17 May 1792, traders founded the New York Stock Exchange. 1797 Albany was appointed instead of New York to the capital of the state of New York. Albany is still the capital.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the city grew faster than ever before in its history. In 1811, the city planners of New York decided to rethink the whole island of Manhattan with a grid-shaped road network.

The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 created a link between New York, the Great Lakes and the Midwest. Overnight, the city became the largest cargo handling center on the US East Coast.

In the middle of the 19th century, they planned a large city park, the so-called Central Park. Construction began in 1858 and was completed in 1866. In the second half of the 19th century, more and more immigrants came to New York. Irish, Italians and Germans came hoping for a better life. However, many of them did not come out of slums like Five Points and the Bowery. This, of course, led to strong conflicts that plunged the city into the greatest chaos in its history.

In 1898, the five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx merged into Greater New York.

In the first half of the 20th century, the city became the center of industry and commerce. In the wild twenties, New York fell into a stock market frenzy, which came to an abrupt end on October 24, 1929. The next economic crisis hit New York hard.

The unemployment rate rose to over 25 percent. Many people lost their jobs and their homes. The turnaround was brought by the Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia construction programs. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first skyscrapers were built, most notably the Woolworth Building and the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. All became landmarks of the city of Ney York.

After the end of the Second World War, the economy went downhill again. The middle class moved to the suburbs. Many industrial enterprises emigrated. In 1975, the city had to declare bankruptcy. Edward Koch restored the city of New York during his term as mayor (1978-1989). In the following economic boom of the 1980s, Wall Street established itself in the financial world. In the 1990s, the popular New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani achieved with the so-called zero tolerance strategy decisive success in the fight against crime. This brought a new crucial influx of better-earning citizens to New York.

In late summer 2001, the World Trade Center was completely destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This was the blackest day in New York history. Only in May 2002, the cleanup on Ground Zero ended. The city’s deficit is more than $ 7 billion.

The decision for the Memorial at Ground Zero falls in 2004 – “Reflecting Absence” by Michael Arad and Peter Walkers.

Since January 1, 2002 Michael Bloomberg is the 108th mayor of New York. In 2001 he won the mayoral election and succeeded Rudolph Giuliani. In 2005 he was re-elected with 59 percent of all votes cast.