It’s not hard to find fascinating facts about New York city. Think about it. New York city currently houses 8.4 million people distributed over a land area of 305 square miles. That’s insane! The city has five boroughs; Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Some even say that these boroughs have enough personality and attractions to be their own cities! And then there’s New York’s history, which is full of defining moments, some tragic like Sept. 11, others revolutionary like the creation of New York’s Subway. And then there’s the nick name: “The Big Apple”, a mystery that has captured the imagination of most. Where does this nickname come from? Well you’re about to find out. That’s right, if you stick with us until #1 we’ll explain why it’s called the Big Apple even though everybody you ever asked told you it was a mystery. So from cool quirky facts like New York’s obsession with coffee, to the origins of New York’s nickname we bring you 25 fascinating facts about New York City and why it is called the Big Apple.
15,152 forms of life have been found in the New York Subway system (these include insects and bacteria)
Except for emergencies, honking your car horn is actually illegal in New York City. And yes, we know, everybody does it anyway.
In 1789 it became the first capital of the United States. This only lasted for one year though.
In 2018 NYC will open the world's first underground park
There is a skyscraper with no windows
Manhattan was purchased from the native people in 1626 for the modern equivalent of US $1000
New Yorkers bite 10 times more people per year than sharks do
New York sets train tracks on fire to keep them free of ice in the winter
More people in New York die of suicide than murder
It can cost nearly $300,000 to operate a hot dog stand around Central Park
Manhattan comes from a Lenape word meaning "island of many hills" (mostly flattened by now to provide room for urban development)
New York City is the city with the largest Polish population after Warsaw
Roughly half of the population speaks a language other than English at home
New York City doesn't have any Walmarts
Here's some cool information about New York: more Chinese people live in New York City than any other city outside of Asia. And more Jewish people live there than any other city outside of Israel.
1 in every 38 Americans live in NYC
New Yorkers drink 7 times more coffee than people in the rest of America
25% of the world's gold bullion is stored in vaults under Wall Street (the federal reserve bank)
1 out of every 21 New Yorkers is a millionaire
Invisible, harmless shrimp called copepods live in New York City's water supply
The city gets about 15 times more snow than the South Pole every year (this shouldn't be too surprising though because Antarctica is a desert and therefore receives very little precipitation)
Einstein's eyes are locked in a safe deposit box somewhere in the city
The Empire State Building has its own zip code
With over 800 languages spoken by a significant portion of the population, New York City is the most linguistically diverse city in the world.
Although for a long time many people considered the origin of the term Big Apple to be a mystery, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology managed to determine the probably etymology. "Apple" referred to many of the big horse racing courses around NYC (possibly due to the fact that horses liked apples). Smaller tracks were often called "bull rings". The term was popularized for the first time by John J. Fitz Gerald in The New York Morning Telegraph when he mentioned going to the "Big Apple" as in going to the "big time"
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