68 Facts About Manhattan Island

1.

Manhattan Island, known regionally as The City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City.

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2.

Manhattan Island serves as the city's economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and historical birthplace.

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3.

The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers along with several small adjacent islands, including Roosevelt, U Thant, and Randalls and Wards Islands.

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4.

Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each cutting across the borough's long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.

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5.

Manhattan Island has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world, is considered a safe haven for global real estate investors, and hosts the United Nations headquarters.

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6.

New York, based in present-day Manhattan Island, served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790.

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7.

Manhattan Island became a borough during the consolidation of New York City in 1898.

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8.

Manhattan Island has the third-largest population of New York City's five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, and is the smallest borough in terms of land area.

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9.

Many districts and landmarks in Manhattan Island are well known, as New York City received a record 62.

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10.

Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan Island is the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere.

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11.

Name Manhattan Island derives from the Munsee Lenape language term manahahtaan.

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12.

Manhattan Island was historically part of the Lenapehoking territory inhabited by the Munsee Lenape and Wappinger tribes.

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13.

Manhattan Island entered the tidal strait now known as The Narrows and named the land around Upper New York Harbor New Angouleme, in reference to the family name of King Francis I that was derived from Angouleme in France; he sailed far enough into the harbor to sight the Hudson River, which he referred to in his report to the French king as a "very big river"; and he named the Bay of Santa Margarita – what is Upper New York Bay – after Marguerite de Navarre, the elder sister of the king.

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14.

In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, in what is Lower Manhattan.

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15.

Manhattan Island was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of major battles in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War.

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16.

Rate of immigration from Europe grew steeply after the Civil War, and Manhattan Island became the first stop for millions seeking a new 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.

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17.

Since 2001, most of Lower Manhattan Island has been restored, although there has been controversy surrounding the rebuilding.

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18.

Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan Island began on September 17, 2011, receiving global attention and spawning the Occupy movement against social and economic inequality worldwide.

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19.

On October 31, 2017, a terrorist took a rental pickup truck and deliberately drove down a bike path alongside the West Side Highway in Lower Manhattan Island, killing eight people and injuring a dozen others before crashing into a school bus.

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20.

Manhattan Island is loosely divided into Downtown, Midtown (Midtown Manhattan), and Uptown (Upper Manhattan), with Fifth Avenue dividing Manhattan lengthwise into its East Side and West Side.

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21.

Manhattan Island is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and the East River to the east.

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22.

Little Manhattan Island opened on the Hudson River in May 2021, connected to the western termini of 13th and 14th Streets by footbridges.

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23.

Marble Hill is one example of how Manhattan Island's land has been considerably altered by human intervention.

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24.

In Central Park, outcrops of Manhattan Island schist occur and Rat Rock is one rather large example.

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25.

Geologically, a predominant feature of the substrata of Manhattan is that the underlying bedrock base of the island rises considerably closer to the surface near Midtown Manhattan, dips down lower between 29th Street and Canal Street, then rises toward the surface again in Lower Manhattan.

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26.

Manhattan Island is one of the highest-income places in the United States with a population greater than one million.

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27.

Manhattan Island is the United States county with the highest per capita income, being the sole county whose per capita income exceeded $100, 000 in 2010.

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28.

In 2014, Manhattan Island had 703 religious organizations, the seventeenth most out of all US counties.

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29.

The Statue of Liberty rests on a pedestal on Liberty Island, an exclave of Manhattan, and part of Ellis Island is an exclave of Manhattan.

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30.

Manhattan Island is the economic engine of New York City, with its 2.

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31.

Manhattan Island's workforce is overwhelmingly focused on white collar professions, with manufacturing nearly extinct.

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32.

Manhattan Island has the highest per capita income of any county in the United States.

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33.

Lower Manhattan Island is home to the New York Stock Exchange, at 11 Wall Street, and the Nasdaq, at 165 Broadway, representing the world's largest and second largest stock exchanges, respectively, when measured both by overall share trading value and by total market capitalization of their listed companies in 2013.

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34.

Silicon Alley, centered in Manhattan Island, has evolved into a metonym for the sphere encompassing the New York City metropolitan region's high tech industries, including the Internet, new media, telecommunications, digital media, software development, biotechnology, game design, financial technology and cryptocurrency blockchain technology, and other fields within information technology that are supported by the area's entrepreneurship ecosystem and venture capital investments.

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35.

Biotechnology sector is growing in Manhattan Island based upon the city's strength in academic scientific research and public and commercial financial support.

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36.

Manhattan Island has perennially been home to some of the nation's, as well as the world's, most valuable real estate, including the Time Warner Center, which had the highest-listed market value in the city in 2006 at US$1.

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37.

In 2014, Manhattan Island was home to six of the top ten zip codes in the United States by median housing price.

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38.

Midtown Manhattan Island is the largest central business district in the nation based on office space, while Lower Manhattan Island is the third-largest.

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39.

Manhattan Island has been described as the media capital of the world.

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40.

Television industry developed in Manhattan Island and is a significant employer in the borough's economy.

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41.

The four major American broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, as well as Univision, are all headquartered in Manhattan Island, as are many cable channels, including CNN, MSNBC, MTV, Fox News, HBO, and Comedy Central.

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42.

Education in Manhattan Island is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions.

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43.

Many private preparatory schools are situated in Manhattan Island, including the Upper East Side's Brearley School, Dalton School, Browning School, Spence School, Chapin School, Nightingale-Bamford School, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Hewitt School, Saint David's School, Loyola School, and Regis High School.

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44.

Manhattan Island has various colleges and universities, including Columbia University, Cooper Union, Marymount Manhattan Island College, New York Institute of Technology, New York University (NYU), The Juilliard School, Pace University, Berkeley College, The New School, Yeshiva University, and a campus of Fordham University.

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45.

CUNY senior colleges located in Manhattan Island include: Baruch College, City College of New York, Hunter College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the CUNY Graduate Center.

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46.

Manhattan Island is a world center for training and education in medicine and the life sciences.

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47.

Manhattan Island is served by the New York Public Library, which has the largest collection of any public library system in the country.

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48.

Journalist Walt Whitman characterized the streets of Manhattan Island as being traversed by "hurrying, feverish, electric crowds".

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49.

Manhattan Island has been the scene of many important American cultural movements.

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50.

Manhattan Island's vibrant visual art scene in the 1950s and 1960s was a center of the American pop art movement, which gave birth to such giants as Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein.

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51.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, anchoring Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan Island, is home to 12 influential arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, and New York City Ballet, as well as the Vivian Beaumont Theater, the Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Alice Tully Hall.

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52.

Manhattan Island is home to some of the most extensive art collections in the world, both contemporary and classical art, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Frick Collection, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum.

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53.

Manhattan Island is well known for its street parades, which celebrate a broad array of themes, including holidays, nationalities, human rights, and major league sports team championship victories.

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54.

New York Fashion Week, held at various locations in Manhattan Island, is a high-profile semiannual event featuring models displaying the latest wardrobes created by prominent fashion designers worldwide in advance of these fashions proceeding to the retail marketplace.

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55.

Manhattan Island is home to the NBA's New York Knicks and the NHL's New York Rangers, both of which play their home games at Madison Square Garden, the only major professional sports arena in the borough.

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56.

Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Manhattan Island has been governed by the New York City Charter, which has provided for a strong mayor–council system since its revision in 1989.

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57.

Manhattan Island has ten City Council members, the third largest contingent among the five boroughs.

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58.

The mayor's staff and thirteen municipal agencies are located in the nearby Manhattan Island Municipal Building, completed in 1914, one of the largest governmental buildings in the world.

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59.

Lucky Luciano established Cosa Nostra in Manhattan Island, forming alliances with other criminal enterprises, including the Jewish mob, led by Meyer Lansky, the leading Jewish gangster of that period.

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60.

The murder rate in Manhattan Island hit an all time high of 42 murders per 100, 000 residents in 1979.

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61.

Manhattan Island retained the highest murder rate in the city until 1985 when it was surpassed by the Bronx.

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62.

In 1776, shortly after the Continental Army evacuated Manhattan Island and left it to the British, a massive fire broke out destroying one-third of the city and some 500 houses.

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63.

Manhattan Island offers a wide array of public and private housing options.

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64.

Commuter rail services operating to and from Manhattan are the Long Island Rail Road, which connects Manhattan and other New York City boroughs to Long Island; the Metro-North Railroad, which connects Manhattan to Upstate New York and Southwestern Connecticut; and NJ Transit trains, which run to various points in New Jersey.

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65.

Broadway is the most notable of many exceptions to the grid, starting at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan Island and continuing north into the Bronx at Manhattan Island's northern tip.

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66.

Manhattan Island witnessed the doubling of the natural gas supply delivered to the borough when a new gas pipeline opened on November 1, 2013.

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67.

Manhattan Island, surrounded by two brackish rivers, had a limited supply of fresh water.

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68.

Address algorithm of Manhattan Island refers to the formulas used to estimate the closest east–west cross street for building numbers on north–south avenues.

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