"New York, The Empire State: Excelsior " a New York State Travel Page by seagoingJLW

I grew up in a New York that doesn't exist anymore. See my Travelogue

Old New York

. As a child, I rode the subways by myself or with friends all over town for a nickel. It was safe, convenient and led to many wonders. My children used to use the subway to go to school. We lived in Queens and my son and daughter went to Stuyvesant High School in downtown Manhattan.

What a place to live in. You had the whole world right there. There was Little Italy, Chinatown, German Yorkville, the Jewish Lower East Side-- even the Russian Tea Room. I remember going to Broadway musicals with my parents when we could pick up tickets at the old LeBlang's for $1.20 (first row mezzanine.).

The cuisine of the entire world is available.

A good way to start your sightseeing in New York City is to purchase a City Pass. For $34 ($25 for Seniors, $26 ages 12 to 17) you get a ticket booklet good for nine days with admission to:

American Museum of Natural History
Empire StateBuilding Observatory
Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum
Guggenheim Museum
The Museum of Modern Art

History

Giovanni de Verrazano was probably the first European to explore New York. Henry Hudson also visited it. But it was the Dutch who settled the area by establishing the town of Nieuw Amsterdam in 1624. Peter Minuit supposedly bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians for $24 worth of trinkets.

In 1664 the English seized the colony and renamed it New York. During the American Revolution the English held New York from 1776 to 1781.

Brooklyn was settled in 1636 by the Dutch and Walloons. It became the village of Brooklyn Ferry in 1816 and the city of Brooklyn in 1834 when it absorbed villages such as Flatbush and Gravesend. In 1855 Brooklyn was the third largest U.S. city. It was chartered as part of New York City in 1898.

Most of the settlements in Queens occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Bronx was originally setled in 1636 by Jonas Bronck. An influx of Italian and Irish immigrants contributed to the population explosion in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Staten Island (Richmond) was discovered in the 16th century by Verrazano. In 1687 it was offered as a prize in a sailing race by the Duke of York. It wasn't until a ferry was started and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge was built that the island really became accessible.

The name Big Apple according to rumor came about during the depression when former financiers would travel from the suburbs dressed in their business suits to sell apples on the streets of New York. The fact that formerly well-to-do families had to make ends meet by selling apples came to be known as the "Big Apple" scam of New York. Others say that the term arose from jazz musicians in the 20's and 30's who said "There are many apples on the success tree, but when you pick New York City, you pick the Big Apple." there was also once a jazz club in Harlem named "The Bog Apple." Public literature states that stable hands in New Orleans referred to a trip to a New York racecourse as "The Big Apple," the greatest reward for any thoroughbred.