New York City
New York City is the largest city in the United States, the home of the United Nations, and the center of global finance, communications, and business. New York City is unusual among cities because of its high residential density, its extraordinarily diverse population, its hundreds of tall office and apartment buildings, its thriving central business district, its extensive public transportation system, and its more than 400 distinct neighborhoods. The city’s concert houses, museums, galleries, and theaters constitute an ensemble of cultural richness rivaled by few cities. In 2000 the population of the city of New York was 8,008,278; the population of the metropolitan region was 21,199,865. Before Europeans came to the place now known as New York City, it had been the home of Native Americans of the Algonquian language group. Literally hundreds of these self-governing bands lived along the East Coast from North Carolina to Canada. At least 18 of these bands lived in the New York City area. The Canarsees, who were especially prominent in what is now Brooklyn, had settlements in present-day Gowanus, Sheepshead Bay, Flatlands, and Canarsie. Although these local groups were not as advanced as the Maya, Inca, or Aztecs, who lived farther south in the western hemisphere, they lived in peace with nature and with each other. They constructed long bark houses, replete with thatched domes, of substantial size, and they planted wheat, maize, beans, and squash. Many modern roads, such as Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway, follow the route of paths that connected the various Native American villages.
Colonial Period
In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian in the employ of France, became the first white man known to have sailed up the narrows into the lower bay. In 1609 the English navigator Henry Hudson, who had been hired by the Dutch East India Company to search for a water route through North America to Asia, arrived in New York harbor aboard his 74-foot ship, The Half Moon.
Dutch Rule
Hudson discovered that the vast area between French Canada and British Virginia was unfortified and unclaimed and that the Native Americans who lived at the mouth of the Hudson River would happily trade furs for European goods. Excited by the commercial prospects of Manhattan Island, which was in the midst of a vast harbor that was ice-free in all seasons, Dutch merchants promptly dispatched other expeditions to the vicinity. The Dutch East India Company established the first permanent European settlement in what is now New York City in 1624. Although most of the Dutch settlers established themselves in the northern Hudson Valley, near the future site of Albany, about eight or ten Protestants from Belgium, who had taken refuge with the Dutch to escape religious persecution, settled on Governors Island in New York harbor. In 1625 the tiny community moved to the southern tip of Manhattan Island. A year later, according to legend, Dutch colonial governor Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan from the Canarsees for 60 guilders (approximately $24) in trinkets and goods. The city of New Amsterdam, as it was soon called, operated as part of the colony administered by the Dutch West India Company.
From the Navigator
We will continue sailing north-northeast along the east coast of the U.S. through the Atlantic Ocean. We begin to loose the effects of the Gulf Stream as we round Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, early in the morning. During the night we will enter the Barngat to Ambrose traffic lane, a shipping lane, like lanes of the road that ships must follow. We will follow this shipping lane throughout the night as we sail towards New York.
posted by Hills @ 7:03 PM
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