Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Manhattan shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Manhattan offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Manhattan at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Manhattan? Wrong! If the Manhattan is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Manhattan then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Manhattan? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Manhattan and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Manhattan wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Manhattan then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Manhattan site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Manhattan, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Manhattan, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

Manhattan is a borough (New York City) of New York City, New York, United States, wikt:coterminous with New York County. With a United States Census, 2000 of 1,537,195 New York—Place and County Subdivision, United States Census Bureau, accessed May 1, 2007. 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). District Profile: New York City, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Accessed September 4, 2006. 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). Full Text of Robert Juet's Journal: From the collections of the New York Historical Society, Second Series, 1841 log book, Newsday. Accessed May 16, 2007. 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.Holloway, Marguerite. "URBAN TACTICS; I'll Take Mannahatta", The New York Times, May 16, 2004, accessed April 30, 2007. "He could envision what Henry Hudson saw in 1609 as he sailed along Mannahatta, which in the Lenape dialect most likely meant island of many hills.'

History Colonial . The large structure toward the tip of the island is Fort Amsterdam.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.Sullivan, Dr. James. "The History of New York State: Book I, Chapter III", USGenNet, accessed May 1, 2007. "There is satisfactory evidence that Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into the outer harbor of New York in 1524. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped. 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, New York. "Henry Hudson and His Exploration" Scientific American, September 25, 1909, accessed May 1, 2007. "This was a vain hope, however, and the conviction must finally have come to the heart of the intrepid adventurer that once again he was foiled in his repeated quest for the northwest passage … On the following day the “Half Moon” let go her anchor inside of Sandy Hook. The week was spent in exploring the bay with a shallop, or small boat, and “they found a good entrancebetween two headlands” (the Narrows) “and thus entered on the 11th of September into as fine a river as can be found.”"

A permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch Republic fur trade 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). Dutch Colonies, National Park Service. Accessed May 19, 2007. "Sponsored by the West India Company, 30 families arrived in North America in 1624, establishing a settlement on present-day Manhattan." Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park. Accessed May 12, 2007. See Legislative Resolutions Senate No. 5476 and Assembly No. 2708. 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. City Seal and Flag, New York City, accessed May 13, 2007. "Date: Beneath the horizontal laurel branch the date 1625, being the year of the establishment of New Amsterdam." In 1626, Peter Minuit acquired Manhattan from native people in exchange for trade goods, often said to be worth $24. Letter of 1626 stating that Manhattan Island had been purchased for the value of 60 guilders, The College of New Jersey. Accessed April 26, 2007. The 60 guilders have been traditionally converted to about $24. If the money had been invested at anything above a 6.25% return (essentially a bond's current yield), it would be worth over $250 billion today, which exceeds Manhattan's estimated value of $200 billion. Historical Inflation Data (PDF), Oregon State University. It is virtually impossible to make a reasonable comparison of societies, values and price structures dated back to 1626, and 2006. The source warns that data of 1913 and earlier are highly approximative. Besides, the data, which had been tabulated, based on John J. McCusker's article How much is that in real money (Processing American Antiquarian Society 2001 ISBN 1-929545-01-0) started from 1665—40 years after the time, when the trade was settled. However, these numbers give the feeling of the price paid for Manhattan.

In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony.Williams, Jasmin K. "New York - The Empire States", The New York Post, November 22, 2006. Accessed May 19, 2007. "In 1647, Dutch leader Peter Stuyvesant arrived with an iron fist to put an end to the colony's rampant crime and restore order." The colony was granted self-government in 1652 and New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653. About the Council, New York City Council. Accessed May 18, 2007. In 1664, the British conquered the area and renamed it "New York" after the English James II of England. The Origins of New York State's County Names, New York Department of State, accessed April 27, 2007. "New York: in honor of the Duke of York. 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.Griffis, William Elliot. s:The Story of New Netherland/Chapter 15, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909. "In religious matters, Article VIII of the capitulation read, “The Dutch shall enjoy the liberty of their consciences in Divine worship and in Church government.”" Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park, accessed April 26, 2007.

American Revolution and the early United States 's statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall, on the site where Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States.

Manhattan was at the heart of the New York and New Jersey 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. Fort Washington Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed May 18, 2007. Manhattan was greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York (1776) during the Great Britain military rule that followed. British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as Evacuation Day (New York). "Happy Evacuation Day", New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, November 23, 2005. Accessed May 18, 2007.

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 United States Constitution, from March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790 at Federal Hall. The Nine Capitals of the United States. United States Senate Historical Office. Accessed June 9, 2005. Based on Fortenbaugh, Robert, The Nine Capitals of the United States, York, PA: Maple Press, 1948.

19th century growth 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 (United States) political machine, began to grow in influence with the support of many of the immigrant Irish people, 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.Blair, Cynthia. "1858: Central Park Opens", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "Between 1853 and 1856, city commissioners purchased more than from 59th Street to 106th Street between Fifth and Eighth Avenues to create Central Park, the nation’s first public park as well as its first landscaped park."Rybczynski , Witold. "Olmsted's Triumph", Smithsonian (magazine), July 2003. Accessed May 29, 2007. "By 1876, landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux had transformed the swampy, treeless 50 blocks between Harlem and midtown Manhattan into the first landscaped park in the United States."

denounces Tammany as a ferocious tiger killing democracy; the tiger image caught on.

During the American Civil War, the city's strong commercial ties to the American 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.Ward, Geoffrey C. "Gangs of New York", a review of Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker, The New York Times, October 6, 2002. Accessed May 29, 2007. "The New York draft riots remain the worst civil disturbance in American history: according to the historian Adrian Cook, 119 people are known to have been killed, mostly rioters or onlookers who got too close when federal troops, brought back from the battlefield to restore order, started shooting."

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. Statue of Liberty, National Park Service. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New Jerseyans' Claim To Liberty I. Rejected", The New York Times, October 6, 1987. Accessed May 19, 2007. "The Supreme Court today refused to strip the Statue of Liberty of its status as a New Yorker. The Court, without comment, turned away a move by a two New Jerseyans to claim jurisdiction over the landmark for their state." 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 revolution, syndicalism, racketeering, and unionization.

In 1874, the western portion of the present The Bronx was transferred to New York County, and in 1895 the remainder of the present Bronx County was annexed.Macy Jr., Harry. Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages That Came Together to Form "Greater New York", New York Genealogical and Biographical Society from The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1998, accessed April 29, 2007. "In 1683, when the Province of New York was first divided into counties, the City of New York also became New York County... In 1874, to accommodate this growth, New York City and County annexed from Westchester County what is now the western Bronx... In 1895 New York City annexed the eastern Bronx." The City of Greater New York was formed in 1898, with Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, established as two separate borough (New York City). On January 1, 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx County, and New York County was reduced to its present boundaries.Hermalyn, Gary and Ultan, Lloyd. Bronx History: A General Survey, New York Public Library, accessed April 26, 2007.

The 20th century towering above the city, 1909.

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 (African American) from the U.S. Southern states, 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.Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Manning, Susan. "City systems and world-systems: Four millennia of city growth and decline", University of California, Riverside Institute for Research on World-Systems. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New York, which became the largest city in the world by 1925, beating out London..."

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.Rosenberg, Jennifer. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, About.com. Accessed May 17, 2007.

, Chrysler Building behind. 1930.

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. 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."Stuyvesant Town to Get Its First Tenants Today," The New York Times, August 1, 1947. p. 19 In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan.Behrens, David. "The World Came to Long Island: The small Village of Lake Success played a big role in the launch of the United Nations", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "In the spring of 1951, the UN moved to its current home along Manhattan's East River."

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.Clyde Haberman. "Surviving Fiscal Crisis (and Disco)", The New York Times, January 25, 1998. Accessed May 29, 2007. 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".Zeitz, Joshua. "New York City on the Brink", American Heritage (magazine), November 26, 2005. Accessed May 29, 2007. 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.Firestone, David. "This Time, New York City Is All Alone", The New York Times, May 18, 1995. Accessed May 29, 2007.

Skyline, with newly completed Battery Park City, August, 2001.

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, Manhattan 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, Will & Grace, and Sex and the City.

Geography is visible in the center of this satellite image. Manhattan is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and East River to the east.

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. New York City Administrative Code Section 2-202 Division into boroughs and boundaries thereof - Division Into Boroughs And Boundaries Thereof., Lawyer Research Center. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The borough of Manhattan shall consist of the territory known as New York county which shall contain all that part of the city and state, including that portion of land commonly known as Marble Hill and included within the county of New York and borough of Manhattan for all purposes pursuant to chapter nine hundred thirty-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-four and further including the islands called Manhattan Island, Governor's Island, Bedloe's Island, Ellis Island, Franklin D. Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island and Oyster Island..." 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 (Manhattan)). How New York Works, How Stuff Works, accessed April 27, 2007. "The island is 22.7 square miles (58.8 km²), 13.4 miles (21.6 kilometers) long and 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometers) wide (at its widest point)." 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.

One Manhattan neighborhood is actually contiguous with The Bronx. Marble Hill, Manhattan at one time was part of Manhattan Island, but the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, dug in 1895 to improve navigation on the Harlem River, separated it from the remainder of Manhattan as an island between the Bronx and the remainder of Manhattan.Gray, Christopher. New York Times—Streetscapes: Spuyten Duyvil Swing Bridge; Restoring a Link In the City's Lifeline. The New York Times, March 6, 1988. Accessed May 16, 2007. Before World War I, the section of the original Harlem River channel separating Marble Hill from The Bronx was filled in, and Marble Hill became part of the mainland.Jackson, Nancy Beth. " If You're Thinking of Living In/Marble Hill; Tiny Slice of Manhattan on the Mainland". The New York Times, January 26, 2003. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The building of the Harlem River Ship Canal turned the hill into an island in 1895, but when Spuyten Duyvel Creek on the west was filled in before World War I, the 51 acres became firmly attached to the mainland and 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.



Early in the nineteenth century, landfill was used to expand Lower Manhattan from the natural Hudson shoreline at Greenwich Street to West Side Highway. When Building of the World Trade Center the World Trade Center, 1.2 million cubic yards (917,000 Cubic metre) of material was excavated from the site. Rather than dumping the spoil at sea or in landfills, the fill material was used to expand the Manhattan shoreline across West Street, creating Battery Park City, Manhattan. The result was a 700 foot (210 m) extension into the river, running six blocks or 1,484 feet (450 m), covering 92 acres (37 hectare), providing a 1.2 mile (1.9 km) riverfront esplanade and over 30 acres (12 ha) of parks. ASLA 2003 The Landmark Award, American Society of Landscape Architects. Accessed May 17, 2007.

Manhattan is loosely divided into Lower Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, and Upper Manhattan, with Fifth Avenue (Manhattan) 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 Long Island to the east and south. Its only direct connection with the fifth New York City borough is the Staten Island Ferry across New York Harbor, which is free of charge. The ferry terminal is located at Battery Park (New York) at its southern tip. It is possible to travel to Staten Island via Brooklyn, using the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

The Commissioners' Plan of 1811, called for twelve numbered avenues running north and south roughly parallel to the shore of the Hudson River, each wide, with First Avenue (Manhattan) on the east side and Twelfth Avenue (Manhattan) in the west. There are several intermittent avenues east of First Avenue, including four additional lettered avenues running from Avenue A (Manhattan) eastward to Avenue D (Manhattan) in an area now known as Alphabet City, Manhattan in Manhattan's East Village, Manhattan. The numbered streets in Manhattan run east-west, and are 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 Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street (Manhattan), 57th Street (Manhattan) and 125th Street (Manhattan) Streets, some of the borough's most significant transportation and shopping venues. Remarks of the Commissioners for laying out streets and roads in the City of New York, under the Act of April 3, 1807, Cornell University. Accessed May 2, 2007. "These streets are all sixty feet wide except fifteen, which are one hundred feet wide, viz.: Numbers fourteen, twenty-three, thirty-four, forty-two, fifty-seven, seventy-two, seventy-nine, eighty-six, ninety-six, one hundred and six, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and thirty-five, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty-five—the block or space between them being in general about two hundred feet." Broadway (New York City) is the most notable of many exceptions to the grid, starting at Bowling Green (New York City) 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 (Manhattan) and 34th Street), Times Square (Seventh Avenue (Manhattan) and 42nd Street) and Columbus Circle (Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)/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).Silverman, Justin Rocket. "Sunny delight in city sight", Newsday, May 27, 2006. "'Manhattanhenge' occurs Sunday, a day when a happy coincidence of urban planning and astrophysics results in the setting sun lining up exactly with every east-west street in the borough north of 14th Street. Similar to Stonehenge, which is directly aligned with the summer-solstice sun, "Manhattanhenge" catches the sun descending in perfect alignment between buildings. The local phenomenon occurs twice a year, on May 28 and July 12… 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. Sunset on 34th Street Along the Manhattan Grid, Natural History (magazine) Special Feature—City of Stars, accessed September 4, 2006. 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. The Mannahatta Project, Wildlife Conservation Society, January 1, 2006, accessed September 3, 2006.

Adjacent counties

• Bergen County, New Jersey—west/northwest
• Hudson County, New Jersey—west/northwest
• the Bronx (the Bronx)—northeast
• Queens (Queens)—east/southeast
• Brooklyn (Brooklyn)—southeast
• Staten Island (Staten Island)—southwest

Neighborhoods .

Manhattan's many neighborhoods are not named according to any particular convention. Some are geographical (the Upper East Side), or ethnically descriptive (Chinatown, Manhattan). Others are acronyms, such as TriBeCa (for "TRIangle BElow CAnal Street") or SoHo ("SOuth of HOuston"), or the far more recent vintage NoLIta, Manhattan ("NOrth of Little ITaly") .Senft, Bret. " If You're Thinking of Living In/TriBeCa; Families Are the Catalyst for Change", The New York Times, September 26, 1993. Accessed April 26, 2007. "Families have overtaken commerce as the catalyst for change in this TRIangle BElow CAnal Street (although the only triangle here is its heart: Hudson Street meeting West Broadway at Chambers Street, with Canal its north side) … Artists began seeking refuge from fashionable SoHo (SOuth of HOuston) as early as the mid-70's."Cohen, Joyce. " If You're Thinking of Living In/Nolita; A Slice of Little Italy Moving Upscale", The New York Times, May 17, 1998. Accessed April 26, 2007. "NO ONE is quite certain what to call this part of town. Nolita—north of Little Italy, that is—certainly pinpoints it geographically. The not-quite-acronym was apparently coined several years ago by real-estate brokers seeking to give the area at least a little cachet." Harlem is a name from the Dutch colonial era after Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands.Pitts, David. U.S. Postage Stamp Honors Harlem's Langston Hughes, United States Department of State. Accessed April 26, 2007. "Harlem, or Nieuw Haarlem, as it was originally named, was established by the Dutch in 1658 after they took control from Native Americans. They named it after Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands."

, on Broadway between 112th and 113th streets.

Some neighborhoods, such as SoHo, are commercial in nature and known for upscale shopping. Others, such as Greenwich Village, Manhattan, the Lower East Side, Manhattan and the East Village, Manhattan, have long been associated with the "Bohemianism" subculture.Bruni, Frank. " The Grounds He Stamped: The New York Of Ginsberg", The New York Times, April 7, 1997. Accessed April 30, 2007. "Indeed, for all the worldwide attention that Mr. Ginsberg received, he was always a creature and icon principally of downtown Manhattan, his world view forged in its crucible of political and sexual passions, his eccentricities nurtured by those of its peculiar demimonde, his individual myth entwined with that of the bohemian East Village in which he made his home. He embodied the East Village and the Lower East Side, Bill Morgan, a friend and Mr. Ginsberg's archivist, said yesterday." Chelsea, Manhattan is a neighborhood with a large gay population, and also recently a center of New York's art industry and nightlife.Dunlap, David W. " The New Chelsea's Many Faces", The New York Times, November 13, 1994. Accessed April 28, 2007. "Gay Chelsea's role has solidified with the arrival of A Different Light bookstore, a cultural cornerstone that had been housed for a decade in an nook at 548 Hudson Street, near Perry Street. It now takes up more than at 151 West 19th Street and its migration seems to embody a northward shift of gay life from Greenwich Village... Because of Chelsea's reputation, Mr. Garmendia said, single women were not likely to move in. But single men did. "The whole neighborhood became gay during the 70's," he said." Washington Heights, Manhattan is a vibrant neighborhood of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Manhattan's Chinatown is the largest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere.Grimes, Christopher. "WORLD NEWS: New York's Chinatown starts to feel the pinch over 'the bug'", Financial Times, April 14, 2003. Accessed May 19, 2007. "New York's Chinatown is the site of the largest concentration of Chinese people in the western hemisphere." Chinatown: A World of Dining, Shopping, and History, NYC & Company, accessed April 27, 2007. "No visit to New York City is complete without exploring the sights, cuisines, history, and shops of the biggest Chinatown in the United States. The largest concentration of Chinese people—150,000—in the Western Hemisphere are in a two-square-mile area in downtown Manhattan that's loosely bounded by Lafayette, Worth, and Grand streets and East Broadway." 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. Upper West Side, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "This is the traditional stronghold of the city's intellectual, creative, and moneyed community, but the atmosphere is not as upper crust as the Upper East Side." Upper East Side, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "The neighborhood air is perfumed with the scent of old money, conservative values, and glamorous sophistication, with Champagne corks popping and high society puttin' on the Ritz." Stroll the Upper East Side for Lifestyles of the Elite, Footnotes of the American Sociological Association, March 1996, accessed April 30, 2007. "Although not everyone who lives in the Upper East Side is wealthy, a great many are. According to 1990 census data, over 53 percent of all households boasts income in excess of $50,000 per year, compared to the city total of 27 percent. Over one-third of those households in New York City, who reported incomes of more than $200,000 in 1990 live in the Upper East Side. The area contains only four percent of all households in New York City."

Skyline from Brooklyn Promenade

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). Petzold, Charles. " How Far from True North are the Avenues of Manhattan?", accessed April 30, 2007. "However, the orientation of the city's avenues was fixed to be parallel with the axis of Manhattan Island and has only a casual relationship to true north and south. Maps that are oriented to true north (like the one at the right) show the island at a significant tilt. In truth, avenues run closer to northeast and southwest than north and south." 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, Manhattan 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 (Manhattan)Jackson, Nancy Beth. "Living On/59th Street; Putting Out the Gold-Plated Welcome Mats", The New York Times, August 29, 2004. Accessed April 27, 2007. "Now anchored east and west by glittering towers, destination supermarkets and shops, 59th Street is more than where Midtown meets uptown.") and downtown to the southern portion (typically below 14th Street (Manhattan) NYC Basics, NYC & Company, accessed April 27, 2007. "Downtown (below 14th Street) contains Greenwich Village, SoHo, TriBeCa, and the Wall Street financial district."), with Midtown covering the area in between, though definitions can be rather fluid depending on the situation.

Fifth Avenue (Manhattan) 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. NYC Basics:Orienting Yourself, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan into East Side and West Side; street addresses increase with their distance west and east from Fifth Avenue, usually by 100 per block." 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 (Manhattan) (pronounced HOW-stin), the grid does not fully take hold until north of 14th Street (Manhattan), 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.

Climate in Midtown Manhattan.

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. 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. New York City has a frost-free period lasting an average of 220 days between seasonal freezes. 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. 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.

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. "Keeping New York City Cool Is The Job Of NASA's Heat Seekers.", Spacedaily.com, February 9, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The urban heat island occurrence is particularly pronounced during summer heat waves and at night when wind speeds are low and sea breezes are light. During these times, New York City's air temperatures can rise 7.2 °F higher than in surrounding areas."

Government .

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 government since its revision in 1989. "Report on Ballot Proposals of the 2003 New York City Charter Revision Commission" (PDF), Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Accessed May 11, 2007. "Unlike most cities that employ nonpartisan election systems, New York City has a very strong mayor system and, following the 1989 Charter Amendments, an increasingly powerful City Council." 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 to the United States Constitution Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision. Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, Cornell Law School. Accessed June 12, 2006.

, 2006.

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 Democratic Party (United States) in 2005. Manhattan is a borough (New York City) of New York City, New York, United States, wikt:coterminous with New York County. With a United States Census, 2000 of 1,537,195 New York—Place and County Subdivision, United States Census Bureau, accessed May 1, 2007. 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). District Profile: New York City, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Accessed September 4, 2006. 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). Full Text of Robert Juet's Journal: From the collections of the New York Historical Society, Second Series, 1841 log book, Newsday. Accessed May 16, 2007. 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.Holloway, Marguerite. "URBAN TACTICS; I'll Take Mannahatta", The New York Times, May 16, 2004, accessed April 30, 2007. "He could envision what Henry Hudson saw in 1609 as he sailed along Mannahatta, which in the Lenape dialect most likely meant island of many hills.'

History Colonial . The large structure toward the tip of the island is Fort Amsterdam.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.Sullivan, Dr. James. "The History of New York State: Book I, Chapter III", USGenNet, accessed May 1, 2007. "There is satisfactory evidence that Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into the outer harbor of New York in 1524. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped. 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, New York. "Henry Hudson and His Exploration" Scientific American, September 25, 1909, accessed May 1, 2007. "This was a vain hope, however, and the conviction must finally have come to the heart of the intrepid adventurer that once again he was foiled in his repeated quest for the northwest passage … On the following day the “Half Moon” let go her anchor inside of Sandy Hook. The week was spent in exploring the bay with a shallop, or small boat, and “they found a good entrancebetween two headlands” (the Narrows) “and thus entered on the 11th of September into as fine a river as can be found.”"

A permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch Republic fur trade 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). Dutch Colonies, National Park Service. Accessed May 19, 2007. "Sponsored by the West India Company, 30 families arrived in North America in 1624, establishing a settlement on present-day Manhattan." Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park. Accessed May 12, 2007. See Legislative Resolutions Senate No. 5476 and Assembly No. 2708. 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. City Seal and Flag, New York City, accessed May 13, 2007. "Date: Beneath the horizontal laurel branch the date 1625, being the year of the establishment of New Amsterdam." In 1626, Peter Minuit acquired Manhattan from native people in exchange for trade goods, often said to be worth $24. Letter of 1626 stating that Manhattan Island had been purchased for the value of 60 guilders, The College of New Jersey. Accessed April 26, 2007. The 60 guilders have been traditionally converted to about $24. If the money had been invested at anything above a 6.25% return (essentially a bond's current yield), it would be worth over $250 billion today, which exceeds Manhattan's estimated value of $200 billion. Historical Inflation Data (PDF), Oregon State University. It is virtually impossible to make a reasonable comparison of societies, values and price structures dated back to 1626, and 2006. The source warns that data of 1913 and earlier are highly approximative. Besides, the data, which had been tabulated, based on John J. McCusker's article How much is that in real money (Processing American Antiquarian Society 2001 ISBN 1-929545-01-0) started from 1665—40 years after the time, when the trade was settled. However, these numbers give the feeling of the price paid for Manhattan.

In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony.Williams, Jasmin K. "New York - The Empire States", The New York Post, November 22, 2006. Accessed May 19, 2007. "In 1647, Dutch leader Peter Stuyvesant arrived with an iron fist to put an end to the colony's rampant crime and restore order." The colony was granted self-government in 1652 and New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653. About the Council, New York City Council. Accessed May 18, 2007. In 1664, the British conquered the area and renamed it "New York" after the English James II of England. The Origins of New York State's County Names, New York Department of State, accessed April 27, 2007. "New York: in honor of the Duke of York. 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.Griffis, William Elliot. s:The Story of New Netherland/Chapter 15, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909. "In religious matters, Article VIII of the capitulation read, “The Dutch shall enjoy the liberty of their consciences in Divine worship and in Church government.”" Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park, accessed April 26, 2007.

American Revolution and the early United States 's statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall, on the site where Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States.

Manhattan was at the heart of the New York and New Jersey 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. Fort Washington Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed May 18, 2007. Manhattan was greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York (1776) during the Great Britain military rule that followed. British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as Evacuation Day (New York). "Happy Evacuation Day", New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, November 23, 2005. Accessed May 18, 2007.

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 United States Constitution, from March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790 at Federal Hall. The Nine Capitals of the United States. United States Senate Historical Office. Accessed June 9, 2005. Based on Fortenbaugh, Robert, The Nine Capitals of the United States, York, PA: Maple Press, 1948.

19th century growth 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 (United States) political machine, began to grow in influence with the support of many of the immigrant Irish people, 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.Blair, Cynthia. "1858: Central Park Opens", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "Between 1853 and 1856, city commissioners purchased more than from 59th Street to 106th Street between Fifth and Eighth Avenues to create Central Park, the nation’s first public park as well as its first landscaped park."Rybczynski , Witold. "Olmsted's Triumph", Smithsonian (magazine), July 2003. Accessed May 29, 2007. "By 1876, landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux had transformed the swampy, treeless 50 blocks between Harlem and midtown Manhattan into the first landscaped park in the United States."

denounces Tammany as a ferocious tiger killing democracy; the tiger image caught on.

During the American Civil War, the city's strong commercial ties to the American 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.Ward, Geoffrey C. "Gangs of New York", a review of Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker, The New York Times, October 6, 2002. Accessed May 29, 2007. "The New York draft riots remain the worst civil disturbance in American history: according to the historian Adrian Cook, 119 people are known to have been killed, mostly rioters or onlookers who got too close when federal troops, brought back from the battlefield to restore order, started shooting."

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. Statue of Liberty, National Park Service. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New Jerseyans' Claim To Liberty I. Rejected", The New York Times, October 6, 1987. Accessed May 19, 2007. "The Supreme Court today refused to strip the Statue of Liberty of its status as a New Yorker. The Court, without comment, turned away a move by a two New Jerseyans to claim jurisdiction over the landmark for their state." 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 revolution, syndicalism, racketeering, and unionization.

In 1874, the western portion of the present The Bronx was transferred to New York County, and in 1895 the remainder of the present Bronx County was annexed.Macy Jr., Harry. Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages That Came Together to Form "Greater New York", New York Genealogical and Biographical Society from The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1998, accessed April 29, 2007. "In 1683, when the Province of New York was first divided into counties, the City of New York also became New York County... In 1874, to accommodate this growth, New York City and County annexed from Westchester County what is now the western Bronx... In 1895 New York City annexed the eastern Bronx." The City of Greater New York was formed in 1898, with Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, established as two separate borough (New York City). On January 1, 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx County, and New York County was reduced to its present boundaries.Hermalyn, Gary and Ultan, Lloyd. Bronx History: A General Survey, New York Public Library, accessed April 26, 2007.

The 20th century towering above the city, 1909.

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 (African American) from the U.S. Southern states, 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.Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Manning, Susan. "City systems and world-systems: Four millennia of city growth and decline", University of California, Riverside Institute for Research on World-Systems. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New York, which became the largest city in the world by 1925, beating out London..."

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.Rosenberg, Jennifer. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, About.com. Accessed May 17, 2007.

, Chrysler Building behind. 1930.

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. 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."Stuyvesant Town to Get Its First Tenants Today," The New York Times, August 1, 1947. p. 19 In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan.Behrens, David. "The World Came to Long Island: The small Village of Lake Success played a big role in the launch of the United Nations", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "In the spring of 1951, the UN moved to its current home along Manhattan's East River."

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.Clyde Haberman. "Surviving Fiscal Crisis (and Disco)", The New York Times, January 25, 1998. Accessed May 29, 2007. 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".Zeitz, Joshua. "New York City on the Brink", American Heritage (magazine), November 26, 2005. Accessed May 29, 2007. 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.Firestone, David. "This Time, New York City Is All Alone", The New York Times, May 18, 1995. Accessed May 29, 2007.

Skyline, with newly completed Battery Park City, August, 2001.

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, Manhattan 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, Will & Grace, and Sex and the City.

Geography is visible in the center of this satellite image. Manhattan is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and East River to the east.

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. New York City Administrative Code Section 2-202 Division into boroughs and boundaries thereof - Division Into Boroughs And Boundaries Thereof., Lawyer Research Center. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The borough of Manhattan shall consist of the territory known as New York county which shall contain all that part of the city and state, including that portion of land commonly known as Marble Hill and included within the county of New York and borough of Manhattan for all purposes pursuant to chapter nine hundred thirty-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-four and further including the islands called Manhattan Island, Governor's Island, Bedloe's Island, Ellis Island, Franklin D. Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island and Oyster Island..." 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 (Manhattan)). How New York Works, How Stuff Works, accessed April 27, 2007. "The island is 22.7 square miles (58.8 km²), 13.4 miles (21.6 kilometers) long and 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometers) wide (at its widest point)." 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.

One Manhattan neighborhood is actually contiguous with The Bronx. Marble Hill, Manhattan at one time was part of Manhattan Island, but the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, dug in 1895 to improve navigation on the Harlem River, separated it from the remainder of Manhattan as an island between the Bronx and the remainder of Manhattan.Gray, Christopher. New York Times—Streetscapes: Spuyten Duyvil Swing Bridge; Restoring a Link In the City's Lifeline. The New York Times, March 6, 1988. Accessed May 16, 2007. Before World War I, the section of the original Harlem River channel separating Marble Hill from The Bronx was filled in, and Marble Hill became part of the mainland.Jackson, Nancy Beth. " If You're Thinking of Living In/Marble Hill; Tiny Slice of Manhattan on the Mainland". The New York Times, January 26, 2003. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The building of the Harlem River Ship Canal turned the hill into an island in 1895, but when Spuyten Duyvel Creek on the west was filled in before World War I, the 51 acres became firmly attached to the mainland and 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.



Early in the nineteenth century, landfill was used to expand Lower Manhattan from the natural Hudson shoreline at Greenwich Street to West Side Highway. When Building of the World Trade Center the World Trade Center, 1.2 million cubic yards (917,000 Cubic metre) of material was excavated from the site. Rather than dumping the spoil at sea or in landfills, the fill material was used to expand the Manhattan shoreline across West Street, creating Battery Park City, Manhattan. The result was a 700 foot (210 m) extension into the river, running six blocks or 1,484 feet (450 m), covering 92 acres (37 hectare), providing a 1.2 mile (1.9 km) riverfront esplanade and over 30 acres (12 ha) of parks. ASLA 2003 The Landmark Award, American Society of Landscape Architects. Accessed May 17, 2007.

Manhattan is loosely divided into Lower Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, and Upper Manhattan, with Fifth Avenue (Manhattan) 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 Long Island to the east and south. Its only direct connection with the fifth New York City borough is the Staten Island Ferry across New York Harbor, which is free of charge. The ferry terminal is located at Battery Park (New York) at its southern tip. It is possible to travel to Staten Island via Brooklyn, using the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

The Commissioners' Plan of 1811, called for twelve numbered avenues running north and south roughly parallel to the shore of the Hudson River, each wide, with First Avenue (Manhattan) on the east side and Twelfth Avenue (Manhattan) in the west. There are several intermittent avenues east of First Avenue, including four additional lettered avenues running from Avenue A (Manhattan) eastward to Avenue D (Manhattan) in an area now known as Alphabet City, Manhattan in Manhattan's East Village, Manhattan. The numbered streets in Manhattan run east-west, and are 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 Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street (Manhattan), 57th Street (Manhattan) and 125th Street (Manhattan) Streets, some of the borough's most significant transportation and shopping venues. Remarks of the Commissioners for laying out streets and roads in the City of New York, under the Act of April 3, 1807, Cornell University. Accessed May 2, 2007. "These streets are all sixty feet wide except fifteen, which are one hundred feet wide, viz.: Numbers fourteen, twenty-three, thirty-four, forty-two, fifty-seven, seventy-two, seventy-nine, eighty-six, ninety-six, one hundred and six, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and thirty-five, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty-five—the block or space between them being in general about two hundred feet." Broadway (New York City) is the most notable of many exceptions to the grid, starting at Bowling Green (New York City) 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 (Manhattan) and 34th Street), Times Square (Seventh Avenue (Manhattan) and 42nd Street) and Columbus Circle (Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)/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).Silverman, Justin Rocket. "Sunny delight in city sight", Newsday, May 27, 2006. "'Manhattanhenge' occurs Sunday, a day when a happy coincidence of urban planning and astrophysics results in the setting sun lining up exactly with every east-west street in the borough north of 14th Street. Similar to Stonehenge, which is directly aligned with the summer-solstice sun, "Manhattanhenge" catches the sun descending in perfect alignment between buildings. The local phenomenon occurs twice a year, on May 28 and July 12… 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. Sunset on 34th Street Along the Manhattan Grid, Natural History (magazine) Special Feature—City of Stars, accessed September 4, 2006. 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. The Mannahatta Project, Wildlife Conservation Society, January 1, 2006, accessed September 3, 2006.

Adjacent counties

• Bergen County, New Jersey—west/northwest
• Hudson County, New Jersey—west/northwest
• the Bronx (the Bronx)—northeast
• Queens (Queens)—east/southeast
• Brooklyn (Brooklyn)—southeast
• Staten Island (Staten Island)—southwest

Neighborhoods .

Manhattan's many neighborhoods are not named according to any particular convention. Some are geographical (the Upper East Side), or ethnically descriptive (Chinatown, Manhattan). Others are acronyms, such as TriBeCa (for "TRIangle BElow CAnal Street") or SoHo ("SOuth of HOuston"), or the far more recent vintage NoLIta, Manhattan ("NOrth of Little ITaly") .Senft, Bret. " If You're Thinking of Living In/TriBeCa; Families Are the Catalyst for Change", The New York Times, September 26, 1993. Accessed April 26, 2007. "Families have overtaken commerce as the catalyst for change in this TRIangle BElow CAnal Street (although the only triangle here is its heart: Hudson Street meeting West Broadway at Chambers Street, with Canal its north side) … Artists began seeking refuge from fashionable SoHo (SOuth of HOuston) as early as the mid-70's."Cohen, Joyce. " If You're Thinking of Living In/Nolita; A Slice of Little Italy Moving Upscale", The New York Times, May 17, 1998. Accessed April 26, 2007. "NO ONE is quite certain what to call this part of town. Nolita—north of Little Italy, that is—certainly pinpoints it geographically. The not-quite-acronym was apparently coined several years ago by real-estate brokers seeking to give the area at least a little cachet." Harlem is a name from the Dutch colonial era after Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands.Pitts, David. U.S. Postage Stamp Honors Harlem's Langston Hughes, United States Department of State. Accessed April 26, 2007. "Harlem, or Nieuw Haarlem, as it was originally named, was established by the Dutch in 1658 after they took control from Native Americans. They named it after Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands."

, on Broadway between 112th and 113th streets.

Some neighborhoods, such as SoHo, are commercial in nature and known for upscale shopping. Others, such as Greenwich Village, Manhattan, the Lower East Side, Manhattan and the East Village, Manhattan, have long been associated with the "Bohemianism" subculture.Bruni, Frank. " The Grounds He Stamped: The New York Of Ginsberg", The New York Times, April 7, 1997. Accessed April 30, 2007. "Indeed, for all the worldwide attention that Mr. Ginsberg received, he was always a creature and icon principally of downtown Manhattan, his world view forged in its crucible of political and sexual passions, his eccentricities nurtured by those of its peculiar demimonde, his individual myth entwined with that of the bohemian East Village in which he made his home. He embodied the East Village and the Lower East Side, Bill Morgan, a friend and Mr. Ginsberg's archivist, said yesterday." Chelsea, Manhattan is a neighborhood with a large gay population, and also recently a center of New York's art industry and nightlife.Dunlap, David W. " The New Chelsea's Many Faces", The New York Times, November 13, 1994. Accessed April 28, 2007. "Gay Chelsea's role has solidified with the arrival of A Different Light bookstore, a cultural cornerstone that had been housed for a decade in an nook at 548 Hudson Street, near Perry Street. It now takes up more than at 151 West 19th Street and its migration seems to embody a northward shift of gay life from Greenwich Village... Because of Chelsea's reputation, Mr. Garmendia said, single women were not likely to move in. But single men did. "The whole neighborhood became gay during the 70's," he said." Washington Heights, Manhattan is a vibrant neighborhood of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Manhattan's Chinatown is the largest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere.Grimes, Christopher. "WORLD NEWS: New York's Chinatown starts to feel the pinch over 'the bug'", Financial Times, April 14, 2003. Accessed May 19, 2007. "New York's Chinatown is the site of the largest concentration of Chinese people in the western hemisphere." Chinatown: A World of Dining, Shopping, and History, NYC & Company, accessed April 27, 2007. "No visit to New York City is complete without exploring the sights, cuisines, history, and shops of the biggest Chinatown in the United States. The largest concentration of Chinese people—150,000—in the Western Hemisphere are in a two-square-mile area in downtown Manhattan that's loosely bounded by Lafayette, Worth, and Grand streets and East Broadway." 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. Upper West Side, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "This is the traditional stronghold of the city's intellectual, creative, and moneyed community, but the atmosphere is not as upper crust as the Upper East Side." Upper East Side, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "The neighborhood air is perfumed with the scent of old money, conservative values, and glamorous sophistication, with Champagne corks popping and high society puttin' on the Ritz." Stroll the Upper East Side for Lifestyles of the Elite, Footnotes of the American Sociological Association, March 1996, accessed April 30, 2007. "Although not everyone who lives in the Upper East Side is wealthy, a great many are. According to 1990 census data, over 53 percent of all households boasts income in excess of $50,000 per year, compared to the city total of 27 percent. Over one-third of those households in New York City, who reported incomes of more than $200,000 in 1990 live in the Upper East Side. The area contains only four percent of all households in New York City."

Skyline from Brooklyn Promenade

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). Petzold, Charles. " How Far from True North are the Avenues of Manhattan?", accessed April 30, 2007. "However, the orientation of the city's avenues was fixed to be parallel with the axis of Manhattan Island and has only a casual relationship to true north and south. Maps that are oriented to true north (like the one at the right) show the island at a significant tilt. In truth, avenues run closer to northeast and southwest than north and south." 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, Manhattan 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 (Manhattan)Jackson, Nancy Beth. "Living On/59th Street; Putting Out the Gold-Plated Welcome Mats", The New York Times, August 29, 2004. Accessed April 27, 2007. "Now anchored east and west by glittering towers, destination supermarkets and shops, 59th Street is more than where Midtown meets uptown.") and downtown to the southern portion (typically below 14th Street (Manhattan) NYC Basics, NYC & Company, accessed April 27, 2007. "Downtown (below 14th Street) contains Greenwich Village, SoHo, TriBeCa, and the Wall Street financial district."), with Midtown covering the area in between, though definitions can be rather fluid depending on the situation.

Fifth Avenue (Manhattan) 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. NYC Basics:Orienting Yourself, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan into East Side and West Side; street addresses increase with their distance west and east from Fifth Avenue, usually by 100 per block." 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 (Manhattan) (pronounced HOW-stin), the grid does not fully take hold until north of 14th Street (Manhattan), 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.

Climate in Midtown Manhattan.

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. 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. New York City has a frost-free period lasting an average of 220 days between seasonal freezes. 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. 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.

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. "Keeping New York City Cool Is The Job Of NASA's Heat Seekers.", Spacedaily.com, February 9, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The urban heat island occurrence is particularly pronounced during summer heat waves and at night when wind speeds are low and sea breezes are light. During these times, New York City's air temperatures can rise 7.2 °F higher than in surrounding areas."

Government .

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 government since its revision in 1989. "Report on Ballot Proposals of the 2003 New York City Charter Revision Commission" (PDF), Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Accessed May 11, 2007. "Unlike most cities that employ nonpartisan election systems, New York City has a very strong mayor system and, following the 1989 Charter Amendments, an increasingly powerful City Council." 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 to the United States Constitution Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision. Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, Cornell Law School. Accessed June 12, 2006.

, 2006.

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 Democratic Party (United States) in 2005.

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