A few highlights from my stay in New York City
Down The Road with the Original Buffalo Dale
Welcome back. Where do you begin when you’re writing a story about New York City, one of the most complicated, diverse and exciting places on earth? With neighborhoods as different and interesting as Chinatown, SOHO, Little Italy, Greenwich Village and Tribeca it is impossible to capture all the energy of this amazing place.
To get to know the city better, I took a Skyline Bus Tour and these are just a few of the facts I learned along the way:
Two million people commute to work in Manhattan every day and most of them travel by train.
The Manhattan Post Office is the largest Post Office in the world.
St Paul’s Chapel in Trinity Church Parish is the oldest public building in continuous use in the city and it was consecrated in 1790.
There are two hundred and fifty theaters in the Broadway theater district.
The electronic billboards in Times Square cost $10,000 per day to rent.
The Woolworth Building was completed in 1913 for thirteen million dollars and the entire construction cost was paid in cash- all in nickels and dimes.
Wall Street got its name from the Dutch when they built a wall around a settlement in this area to protect themselves from Indians.
One million people work in the financial district and there is no parking at all in this area. All the workers take public transportation.
Twelve million immigrants were processed through Ellis Island. Each person was asked a series of 29 questions and given a health exam before he or she was allowed to enter the country.
Today residents of NYC come from100 different nations and speak 138 different languages and dialects. 37% of the total population of the city is foreign born.
Immigrants from Bangladesh are the fastest growing new group of immigrants.
Bellevue is the oldest hospital in the United States and established the country’s first ambulance which was a horse drawn buggy.
During the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the designer John Augustus Roebling died as the result of an accident. Before his death he appointed his son Washington Roebling to complete the project but shortly thereafter his son suffered a paralyzing injury which prevented him from leaving his home. His wife Emily spent the next eleven years helping her husband complete the project- a task which required her to study higher mathematics and engineering among other things. Mrs. Roebling supervised a team of engineers on the jobsite at a time when women did not even vote. The bridge was completed in 1883.
And last but not least, the Empire State Building is one of the most famous examples of art deco architecture in the world. It was also the tallest building in the world for forty years until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1971. The Empire State Building was completed in thirteen months and cost $40,948,900- approximately $500,000,000 in today’s dollars.
There are many other fascinating facts about New York City but I am out of space for now. Till next time, I’ll see ya down the road…
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