One of the largest and most magnificent cities in the world is considered to be New York. Many enjoy visiting this beautiful city. All tourists know why New York is called the Big Apple. Many films show the beauty of a huge city, and New Yorkers are proud to live there.
A bit about the history of New York
Initially, the state was inhabited by indigenous Indians. The first explorer to discover the city was Giovanni Verazano, an Italian explorer. He named it New Angouleme, and a year later a Dutchman named Henry Hudson insisted on giving the state the name New Amsterdam. And only later did the British give the city its name.
Island purchase
After some time, the Duke of York bought the island, and later took possession of the lands that belonged to the Dutch. He named this area after himself - New York. And only later will everyone find out why New York is called the Big Apple. This was preceded by a story.
What city is called the Big Apple?
One of the hypotheses in the nineteenth-century notorious home guide suggests that New York had the glory of a city with the very best “apples” (in this case, a euphemism for women of easy virtue). Another hypothesis is that the name comes from a book by writer Edward Martin, entitled "The Traveler in New York." There are many assumptions that explain why New York is called the Big Apple.
Why did the city get its nickname?
And yet New York is a big apple. Why? There is still a hypothesis that journalist John Fitzgerald called New York that way because he heard African-American groom in New Orleans saying that every jockey's dream is to take part in races in New York. It was he who they called the Big Apple. In New York, races were taking place just then. And many people gathered there from different parts of America.
Also, many believe that this name comes from the fact that one group of jazz musicians called the place of their performances "Big Apple". In New York there is Harlem, which is considered the jazz capital of the world. Since then, the city has been given the nickname Big Apple.
32 interesting facts about New York
1. One Dutch explorer, whose name was Peter Minuit, bought the southern part of Manhattan from an Indian tribe for about $ 24.
2. The city was twice proclaimed the capital of the United States.
3. The first name of the city was New Amsterdam.
4. Residents of the city spend on average about forty minutes a day to get to their work.
5. The central park of the city is much larger in size than the Principality of Monaco.
6. According to Crain's in 2007, an apartment in Manhattan cost about one and a half million dollars.
7. The Senate is the most important authority in the city.
8. More than 47% of city residents do not speak English.
9. Famous taxis in the city are yellow because the founder of the transport company, John Hierz, conducted certain studies that showed that yellow is the most pleasing to the eye.
10. In 2006, the daily price of a hotel room was $ 267.
11. In the New York subway, approximately 5 million people travel daily.
12. Annually about 250 films are made in the city.
13. The city includes five districts: the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens.
14. The length of all the streets in the city is more than ten kilometers.
15. The Statue of Liberty is one of the symbols of New York. It was presented to the United States by the French in 1885.
16. The height of the statue is forty-six meters.
17. The city has more than 30 thousand homeless people, most of them can be seen in Manhattan.
18. The city takes good care of the homeless, so they feed them every day in specially designated places for this with hot food and provide a place to sleep.
19. New York is not such a criminal city, as is commonly believed. He ranks 197th in crime rate among US cities.
20. Often New York falls into the ranking of cities where the most beautiful women live.
21. The most criminal areas of the city are the Bronx and Queens.
22. Residents of the city are very tolerant of other religions.
23. The authorities are actively fighting smoking, so smoking is prohibited in many places.
24. Moreover, cigarettes there are very expensive - about $ 12 per pack.
25. At night in the subway cars you can see huge rats.
26. The first chewing gum factory was opened in New York.
27. Being in the city in the summer is very difficult. Heat and high humidity have the effect of a sauna, so residents tend to leave the city at least for the weekend.
28. The city has about 25 thousand different restaurants and bars for every taste.
29. Tipping is customary to leave in the amount of 15-20% of the amount in the account, but not less than 5 dollars.
30. New York is considered a city of musicals by right. Every evening you can watch a performance in one of the Broadway theaters.
31. During the year, there are about 50 million tourists in the city who spend about $ 30 billion annually.
32. New York is one of the ten cities around the world with the most numerous traffic jams.
Love at first sight
In this article, we talked about why New York is called the Big Apple, and also provided interesting facts about this amazing city. There are many hypotheses about his nickname, but no one knows exactly which one is the most correct. Yes, this is, by and large, and it does not matter, since every year the number of tourists is only growing. Many want to visit this American city. A big apple is a place visited by which people fall in love with it forever.