III.

Places of Interest

Manhattan south of 14th Street grew by the accretion of small, independent hamlets during the period from the city's founding in the early 1600s to the early 19th century. Consequently, this area is characterized by irregularly laid-out districts such as City Hall Plaza and Greenwich Village. North of 14th Street, a grid plan (established 1811) prevails, with named or numbered avenues running roughly north and south, and mostly numbered streets running east and west—superimposed on such irregular roads as Broadway, which pre-dates the plan. Central Park, designed by the American landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, has dominated the grid from 59th to 110th streets since the 1850s. Among the most distinct of Manhattan's numerous neighbourhoods are Chinatown (where Chinese immigrants began to settle in the 1850s) and SoHo, the latter a former warehouse and factory district with many refurbished loft apartments—both located south of Greenwich Village; the Upper East Side, an elegant residential area; and, north of 96th Street, Harlem, a largely black and Hispanic section. Manhattan is linked to New Jersey by the George Washington Bridge, the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH); and to Staten Island by a ferry service.

The city's other boroughs are much less regular in plan, having been formed by the coalescence of numerous historically separate towns and villages. Staten Island is the least urban of the boroughs and remains, to some extent, more a collection of towns than a single urban area. It has, however, grown considerably since being linked to Brooklyn in 1964 by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, one of the world's longest suspension bridges. Brooklyn is the most populous borough; its diversified neighbourhoods include elegant Brooklyn Heights, middle-class ethnic enclaves such as Sheepshead Bay, and the impoverished Brownsville section. Prospect Park, at the heart of the borough, is another major design project of Frederick Law Olmsted. Brooklyn is connected to Manhattan across the East River by the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges and by the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. In Queens, neighbourhood consciousness is particularly strong and, as in all the boroughs of New York, many neighbourhoods have a distinguishing ethnic population. The Bronx, like the other boroughs, has great diversity, ranging from an area of devastated buildings in the south to the large homes and luxury apartment buildings of Riverdale in the west. In the centre of the borough is Bronx Park, which includes the International Wildlife Conservation Park (known as the Bronx Zoo) and the New York Botanical Garden.

New York, and particularly Manhattan, boasts many distinguished architectural sites. Skyscrapers dominate the skyline; the Flatiron Building, completed in 1902, was one of the first in the city. Others include the Chrysler Building (1930), the Woolworth Building (1915), the Empire State Building (1931), and the group of buildings that constitute Rockefeller Center (begun 1931). The former World Trade Center (1972) ranked among the world's tallest buildings until its destruction by terrorist action on September 11, 2001. Older structures include Gracie Mansion (late 18th century), now the mayor's residence, and City Hall (1802-1811). Among the city's well-known religious edifices are St Patrick's Cathedral (1879), the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine (begun 1892), and Temple Emanu-El. New York's most famous landmark is the Statue of Liberty (1886) on Liberty Island; Ellis Island, from 1892 to 1954 was the point of entry of immigrants to the United States; Grand Central Terminal (1913) is the main railway station; and the vast United Nations complex is along the East River in Midtown Manhattan. Professional baseball teams play at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx (New York Yankees), and Shea Stadium in Queens (New York Mets). Other major sports facilities in the city include Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, home of the New York Knickerbockers (Knicks) basketball and New York Rangers ice hockey teams. The New York Islanders ice hockey team plays in Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in nearby Uniondale.

The many fine institutions of higher education throughout the five boroughs include Columbia University (1754), Barnard College, New York University, Pratt Institute (1887), Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, City University of New York, Fordham University, St John's University, Rockefeller University, Union Theological Seminary, and the Manhattan School of Music (1917). Among the leading art museums are the vast Metropolitan Museum of Art (1880); the Museum of Modern Art (1929); the Frick Collection (1935); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1959), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (SoHo branch, 1992); and the Whitney Museum of American Art (1966). Other museums include the American Museum of Natural History (1869); the Jewish Museum; El Museo del Barrio, devoted to the culture of Puerto Rico and Latin America; the Studio Museum in Harlem, exhibiting works by black artists; and the National Museum of the American Indian. The city's major libraries include the New York Public Library, with some 10 million volumes. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a branch of the New York Public Library, houses the world's largest collection of documents about the literature and history of black people. The hub of the city's theatre district is Times Square, with more than 30 theatres. Near the south-western corner of Central Park is the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a large cluster of buildings that includes the Metropolitan Opera House; Avery Fisher Hall, home of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, commonly known as the New York Philharmonic; the New York State Theater, where the New York City Ballet and New York City Opera perform; and the Juilliard School.