Did you mean: Manhattan (borough, New York City, United States), Manhattan (city, Kansas), Manhattan (cocktail), Manhattan (indigenous people of North America), Manhattan (IL) More...
|
Results for Manhattan
|
On this page:
|
A borough of New York City in southeast New York, mainly on Manhattan Island at the north end of New York Bay. Peter Minuit of the Dutch West Indies Company bought the island in 1626 from the Manhattan Indians, supposedly for $24 worth of merchandise. The settlement of New Amsterdam, renamed New York when the English assumed control in 1664, quickly spread from the southern tip of the island, eventually becoming the financial and commercial center of the United States. Population: 1,610,000.
As early as 1614, the name Manhattes appears on an English map, naming the Indian tribe that lived on the island where New York City now has its center. In 1626 the Dutch came and gave the Manhattes twenty-four dollars in goods to vacate the land. The Indians left, but their name stayed to designate the island. Less than forty years later the English took over without paying the Dutch a cent.
In the late nineteenth century, new meaning was distilled from the old word with the invention of the Manhattan cocktail, made of sweet vermouth, whiskey, and bitters. In the early twentieth century it became additional food for thought as the name of tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder.
For more information on Manhattan, visit Britannica.com.
Geography largely shaped the character and development of Manhattan, the acknowledged heart of New York City. An island, Manhattan was only linked to the "outlet" boroughs by bridges and tunnels in the late nineteenth century. Its location, dominating New York Harbor, ensured that it would emerge as one of the major centers of colonial and national commerce. Originally settled around its southern tip (the Battery), Manhattan expanded northward to Canal Street by the American Revolution, continued to Greenwich Village by the Age of Jackson, and encompassed the upper East and West Sides above Herald Square (Thirty-third Street) in the mid-and late nineteenth century. The fields of Harlem and beyond, above Central Park, were settled at the end of the nineteenth century and just after.
Manhattan's economic centricity in turn guaranteed its political clout and helped shape its national claim to cultural prominence. This island has always had an enormous impact on American literature, theater, and art. Writers centered on Manhattan, for example, included the Algonquin Round Table, Greenwich Village bohemia, and the Harlem Renaissance. Broadway and later off
Bibliography
Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace. Gotham. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. The Encyclopedia of New York City. New York: New-York Historical Society, 1995.
Manhattan began as a town built at the tip of the island. It was called New Amsterdam and served as the capital of the colony of New Netherland during the Dutch domination. In 1664 the English captured New Netherland and renamed it New York. The boundary of New York City was first extended beyond Manhattan Island when some Westchester co. towns were annexed in 1874. In the consolidation of 1898, Manhattan became one of the five boroughs of New York City. For its history, its cultural, educational, and religious institutions, and other points of interest, see New York, city.
Bibliography
See I. N. P. Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island (6 vol., 1915–28, repr. 1967); R. Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America (2004). See also bibliography under New York, city.
Island that constitutes one of the five boroughs that make up New York City. (See also Bowery, Broadway, Central Park,
| Location | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Manhattan, highlighted in yellow. | |
| Government | |
| County: | New York |
| Borough president: | Scott Stringer |
| Demographics[206] | |
| Population: | |
| Population density: | /sq mi (/km²) |
| Geography | |
| Area: | sq mi ( km²) |
| Land: | sq mi ( km²) |
| Water: | sq mi ( km²) |
| Coordinates: | |
Manhattan is a borough of New York City, New York, USA, coterminous with New York County. With a 2000 population of 1,537,195[1] living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.47 km²), it is the most densely populated county in the United States at 66,940 residents per square mile (25,846/km²).[2] The borough consists of Manhattan Island, Roosevelt Island, several much smaller islands, and a small section on the mainland adjacent to the Bronx.
A commercial, financial, and cultural center of the city, Manhattan has many famous landmarks, tourist attractions, museums, and universities. It is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations and the seat of city government. Manhattan has the largest central business district in the United States, is the site of both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and is the home to the largest number of corporate headquarters in the nation.
The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Henry Hudson's yacht Halve Maen (Half Moon).[3] A 1610 map depicts the name Manahata twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River (later named the Hudson River). The word "Manhattan" has been translated as "island of many hills" from the Lenape language.[4]
The area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape. In 1524, Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to pass New York Harbor, though he did not enter the harbor past the Narrows.[5] It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped.[6] Hudson came across Manhattan Island and the native people living there on September 11, 1609, and continued up the river that bears his name, the Hudson River, until he arrived at the site of present day Albany.[7]
A permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625 construction was started on a citadel and a Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam).[8][9] Manhattan Island was chosen as the site of Fort Amsterdam, a citadel for the protection of the new arrivals; its 1625 establishment is recognized as the birth date of New York City.[10] In 1626, Peter Minuit acquired Manhattan from native people in exchange for trade goods, often said to be worth $24.[11]
In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony.[12] The colony was granted self-government in 1652 and New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653.[13] In 1664, the British conquered the area and renamed it "New York" after the English Duke of York and Albany.[14] Stuyvesant and his council negotiated 24 articles of provisional transfer with the British which sought to guarantee New Netherlanders liberties, including freedom of religion, under British rule.[15][16]
Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of major battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the disastrous Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. The city became the British political and military center of operations in North America for the remainder of the war.[17] Manhattan was greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the British military rule that followed. British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city.[18]
From January 11, 1785 to Autumn 1788, New York City was the fifth of five capitals under the Articles of Confederation, with the Continental Congress residing at New York City Hall then at Fraunces Tavern. New York was the first capital under the newly enacted Constitution of the United States, from March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790 at Federal Hall.[19]
New York grew as an economic center, first as a result of Alexander Hamilton's policies and practices as the first Secretary of the Treasury and, later, with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which connected the Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the Midwestern United States and Canada. By 1835, New York City had surpassed Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States.
Tammany Hall, a Democratic Party political machine, began to grow in influence with the support of many of the immigrant Irish, culminating in the election of the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1854. Tammany Hall dominated local politics for decades. Central Park, which opened to the public in 1858, became the first landscaped park in an American city and the nation's first public park.[20][21]
During the American Civil War, the city's strong commercial ties to the South, its growing immigrant population, anger about conscription and resentment at those who could afford to pay $300 to avoid service, led to resentment against Lincoln's war policies, culminating in the three-day long New York Draft Riots of July 1863, one of the worst incidents of civil disorder in American history, with an estimated 119 participants and passersby massacred.[22]
After the Civil War, the rate of immigration from Europe grew steeply, and New York became the first stop for millions seeking
a new and better life in the United States, a role acknowledged by the dedication of the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886, a gift from the people of France.[23][24] The new European
immigration brought further social upheaval. In a city of tenements packed with poorly paid laborers from dozens of nations, the
city was a hotbed of
In 1874, the western portion of the present Bronx County was transferred to New York County, and in 1895 the remainder of the present Bronx County was annexed.[25] The City of Greater New York was formed in 1898, with Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, established as two separate boroughs. On January 1, 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx County, and New York County was reduced to its present boundaries.[26]
The construction of the New York City Subway, first opened in 1904, helped bind the new city together. Starting in the 1920s, Manhattan saw the influx of African Americans as part of the Great Migration from the American South, and the Harlem Renaissance, part of a larger boom time in the Prohibition era that saw dueling skyscrapers in the skyline. New York City became the most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking London, which had reigned for a century.[27]
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 146 garment workers, which would eventually lead to great improvements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.[28]
The period between the World Wars saw the election of reformist mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance.[29] As the city's demographics stabilized, labor unionization brought new protections and affluence to the working class, the city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under LaGuardia. Despite the effects of the Great Depression, the 1930s saw the building of some of the world's tallest skyscrapers, including numerous Art Deco masterpieces that are still part of the city's skyline today.
Returning World War II veterans and immigrants from Europe created a postwar economic boom and led to the development of huge housing developments, targeted at returning veterans, including Peter Cooper Village—Stuyvesant Town which opened in 1947.[30] In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan.[31]
Like many major U.S. cities, New York suffered race riots and population and industrial decline in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the city had gained a reputation as a graffiti-covered, crime-ridden relic of history.[32] In 1975, the city government faced imminent bankruptcy, and its appeals for assistance were initially rejected, summarized by the classic October 30, 1975 New York Daily News headline as "Ford to City: Drop Dead".[33] The fate was avoided through a federal loan and debt restructuring, and the city was forced to accept increased financial scrutiny by New York State.[34]
The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the world-wide financial industry. The 1980s also saw Manhattan at the heart of the AIDS crisis, with Greenwich Village at its epicenter. Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) were founded to advocate on behalf of those stricken with the disease.
Starting in the 1990s, crime rates dropped drastically and the outflow of population turned around, as the city once again became the destination not only of immigrants from around the world, but of many U.S. citizens seeking to live a cosmopolitan lifestyle that New York City can offer.
Modern New York City is familiar to many people around the globe thanks to its popularity as a setting for films and
television series. Notable television examples include such award-winning shows as Friends, Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, Law & Order,
Manhattan Island is bound by the Hudson River to the west and the East River to the east. To the north, the Harlem River divides Manhattan from The Bronx and the mainland United States. Several small islands are also part of the borough of Manhattan, including Randall's Island, Ward's Island, and Roosevelt Island in the East River, and Governors Island and Liberty Island to the south in New York Harbor.[35] Manhattan Island is 22.7 square miles (58.8 km²) in area, 13.4 miles (21.6 km) long and 2.3 miles (3.7 km) wide, at its widest (near 14th Street).[36] New York County as a whole covers a total area of 33.77 square miles (87.46 km²), of which 22.96 square miles (59.47 km²) are land and 10.81 square miles (28.00 km²) are water.[1]
One Manhattan neighborhood is actually contiguous with The Bronx.
Marble Hill is one example of how Manhattan's land has been considerably altered by human intervention. The borough has seen substantial land reclamation along its waterfronts since Dutch colonial times, and much of the natural variation in topography has been evened out.[4]
Early in the nineteenth century,
Manhattan is loosely divided into downtown, midtown, and uptown, with Fifth Avenue dividing Manhattan's east and west sides.
Manhattan is connected by the George Washington Bridge and Holland Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey to the west, and to three New York City boroughs—the
Bronx to the northeast and Brooklyn and Queens on
The Commissioners' Plan of 1811, called for twelve numbered avenues running north and south roughly parallel to the shore of the Hudson River, each feet ( m) wide, with First Avenue on the east side and Twelfth Avenue in the west. There are several intermittent avenues east of First Avenue, including four additional lettered avenues running from Avenue A eastward to Avenue D in an area now known as Alphabet City in Manhattan's East Village. The numbered streets in Manhattan run east-west, and are feet ( m) wide, with about 200 feet (61 m) between each pair of streets. With each combined street and block adding up to about 260 feet (79 m), there are almost exactly 20 blocks per mile. Fifteen crosstown streets were designated as 100 feet (30 m) wide, including 34th, 42nd, 57th and 125th Streets, some of the borough's most significant transportation and shopping venues.[42] Broadway is the most notable of many exceptions to the grid, starting at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan and continuing north into the Bronx at Manhattan's northern tip. In much of Midtown Manhattan, Broadway runs at a diagonal to the grid, creating major named intersections at Union Square, Herald Square (Sixth Avenue and 34th Street), Times Square (Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street) and Columbus Circle (Eighth Avenue/Central Park West and 59th Street)
A consequence of the strict grid plan of most of Manhattan, and the grid's skew of approximately 28.9 degrees, is a phenomenon sometimes referred to as Manhattanhenge (by analogy with Stonehenge).[43] On separate occasions in late May and early July (for 2006 the exact dates are May 28 and July 12), the sunset is aligned with the street grid lines, with the result that the sun is visible at or near the western horizon from street level.[44][43] A similar phenomenon occurs with the sunrise in January and December (January 11 and December 2 in 2006).
The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoos and aquariums in the city, is currently undertaking The Mannahatta Project, a computer simulation to visually reconstruct the ecology and geography of Manhattan when Henry Hudson first sailed by in 1609, and compare it to what we know of the island today.[4][4]
Manhattan's many neighborhoods are not named according to any particular convention. Some are geographical (the Upper East Side), or ethnically descriptive (Chinatown). Others are acronyms, such as TriBeCa (for "TRIangle BElow CAnal Street") or SoHo ("SOuth of HOuston"), or the far more recent vintage NoLIta ("NOrth of Little ITaly") .[45][46] Harlem is a name from the Dutch colonial era after Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands.[47]
Some neighborhoods, such as SoHo, are commercial in nature and known for upscale shopping. Others, such as Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side and the East Village, have long been associated with the "Bohemian" subculture.[48] Chelsea is a neighborhood with a large gay population, and also recently a center of New York's art industry and nightlife.[49] Washington Heights is a vibrant neighborhood of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Manhattan's Chinatown is the largest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere.[50][51] The Upper West Side is often characterized as more intellectual and creative, in contrast to the old money and conservative values of the Upper East Side, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the United States.[52][53][54]
In Manhattan, uptown means north (more precisely north-northeast, which is the direction in which the island and its street grid system is oriented) and downtown means south (south-southwest). [55] This usage differs from that of most American cities, where downtown refers to the central business district. Manhattan has two central business districts, the Financial District at the southern tip of the island, and Midtown Manhattan. The term uptown also refers to the northern part of Manhattan (generally speaking, above 59th Street[56]) and downtown to the southern portion (typically below 14th Street[57]), with Midtown covering the area in between, though definitions can be rather fluid depending on the situation.
Fifth Avenue roughly bisects Manhattan Island and acts as the demarcation line for east/west designations (e.g., East 27th Street, West 42nd Street); street addresses start at Fifth Avenue and increase heading away from Fifth Avenue, at a rate of 100 per block in most places.[58] South of Waverly Place in Manhattan, Fifth Avenue terminates and Broadway becomes the east/west demarcation line. Though the grid does start with 1st Street, just north of Houston Street (pronounced HOW-stin), the grid does not fully take hold until north of 14th Street, where nearly all east-west streets use numeric designations, which increase from south to north to 220th Street, the highest numbered street on the island.[36]
Although located at about the same latitude as the much warmer European cities of Naples and Madrid, Manhattan has a humid continental climate (Köppen classification Dfa) resulting from prevailing wind patterns that bring cool air from the interior of the North American continent.[59] The city's coastal position keeps temperatures relatively warmer than inland regions during winter, helping to moderate the amount of snow which averages 25 to 35 inches (63.5 to 88.9 cm) each year.[59] New York City has a frost-free period lasting an average of 220 days between seasonal freezes.[59] Spring and Fall in New York City are mild, while summer is very warm and humid, with temperatures of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher recorded from 18 to 25 days on average during the season.[59] The city's longterm climate patterns are affected by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, a 70-year-long warming and cooling cycle in the Atlantic that influences the frequency and severity of hurricanes and coastal storms in the region.[60]
Temperature records have been set as high as 106 °F (41 °C) on July 9, 1936 and as low as -15 °F (-26 °C) on February 9, 1934. These temperatures are not common and have not been matched or surpassed in more than seven decades. Most recently, temperatures have hit 100 degrees as recently as July 2005 and 103 degrees in August 2006, and dropped to just 1 above zero as recently as January 2004. New York can have excessive days of rain or long stretches of dry weather.
Summer evening temperatures are exacerbated by the urban heat island effect which causes heat absorbed during the day to be radiated back at night, raising temperatures by as much as 7 °F (4 °C) when winds are slow.[61]
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average high temperature, °F (°C) |
38 (3) |
40 (4) |
50 (10) |
61 (15) |
72 (22) |
80 (27) |
85 (30) |
84 (29) |
76 (24) |
65 (18) |
54 (12) |
42 (6) |
62 (17) |
| Average low temperature, °F (°C) |
25 (-4) |
27 (-3) |
35 (2) |
44 (7) |
54 (12) |
63 (17) |
68 (20) |
67 (19) |
60 (16) |
50 (10) |
41 (5) |
31 (-1) |
47 (8) |
| Rainfall, inches (mm) |
3.4 (86) |
3.3 (84) |
3.9 (99) |
4.0 (102) |
4.4 (112) |
3.7 (95) |
4.4 (112) |
4.1 (104) |
3.9 (99) |
3.6 (91) |
4.5 (127) |
3.9 (99) |
46.7 (1,124) |
| Source: Weatherbase.com | |||||||||||||
Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Manhattan has been governed by the New York City Charter, which has provided for a "strong" mayor-council system since its revision in 1989.[62] The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Manhattan.
The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.[63]
Since 1990, the largely-powerless Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Manhattan's Borough President is Scott Stringer, elected as a Democrat in 2005.[64]
Robert M. Morgenthau, a Democrat, has been the District Attorney of New York County since 1974.[65] Manhattan has ten City Council members, the third largest contingent among the five boroughs. It also has 12 administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents. As the host of the United Nations, the borough is home to the world's largest international consular corps, comprising 105 consulates, consulates general and honorary consulates.[66] It is also the home of New York City Hall, the seat of New York City government housing the Mayor of New York City and the New York City Council. The mayor's staff and thirteen municipal agencies are located in the nearby Manhattan Municipal Building, completed in 1916, one of the largest governmental buildings in the world.[67]
| Year | Reps | Dems |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 16.7% 107,405 | 82.1% 526,765 |
| 2000 | 14.2% 79,921 | 79.8% 449,300 |
| 1996 | 13.8% 67,839 | 80.0% 394,131 |
| 1992 | 15.9% 84,501 | 78.2% 416,142 |
| 1988 | 22.9% 115,927 | 76.1% 385,675 |
| 1984 | 27.4% 144,281 | 72.1% 379,521 |
| 1980 | 26.2% 115,911 | 62.4% 275,742 |
| 1976 | 25.5% 117,702 | 73.2% 337,438 |
| 1972 | 33.4% 178,515 | 66.2% 354,326 |
| 1968 | 25.6% 135,458 | 70.0% 370,806 |
| 1964 | 19.2% 120,125 | 80.5% 503,848 |
| 1960 | 34.2% 217,271 | 65.3% 414,902 |
The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. Registered voters of the Republican Party are a small minority in the borough, with nearly 85% of those registered in a party registered as Democrats.[69] Republicans constitute more than 20% of the electorate only on the Upper East Side and the Financial District. Local party platforms center on affordable housing, education and economic development. Controversial political issues in Manhattan include development, noise, and the cost of housing.
No Republican has won the presidential election in Manhattan since 1924, when Calvin Coolidge won a plurality of the New York County vote over Democrat John W. Davis, 41.20%–39.55%. Warren G. Harding was the most recent Republican presidential candidate to win a majority of the Manhattan vote, with 59.22% of the 1920 vote.[70] In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 82.1% of the vote in Manhattan and Republican George W. Bush received 16.7%.[71] The borough is the most important source of funding for presidential campaigns in the United States; in 2004, it was home to six of the top seven zip codes in the nation for political contributions.[72] The top ZIP code, 10021 on the Upper East Side, generated the most money for the United States presidential election for all presidential candidates, including both Kerry and Bush during the 2004 election.[73]
Starting in the mid-19th century, the United States became a magnet for immigrants seeking to escape poverty in their home
countries. After arriving in New York, many new arrivals ended up living in squalor in the slums of the Five Points neighborhood, an area between Broadway and the
As Italian immigration grew in the early 1900s, many joined the Irish gangs. Al Capone got his start in crime with the Five Points Gang,[76] as did Lucky Luciano.[77] The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) first developed in the mid-19th century in Sicily and spread to the East Coast of the United States during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration. Lucky Luciano established La Cosa Nostra in Manhattan, forming alliances with other criminal enterprises, including the Jewish mob, led by
