New York city is a hotbed of cultural amalgamation. There are people from all walks of life and ethnicities who have been here for generations or migrated in hopes of starting their own story. New York cannot be summarized in a few simple paragraphs, but only lauded for its diversity. It breathes art, music, movies, diverse cuisine and last but not the least, the 305 sq. miles’ big city has a story unraveling in every street. Comprised of 5 different districts or boroughs: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. New York was the blueprint for Bob Kane’s Batman’s Gotham City and has several urban legends as well that will force you to consider visiting the Big Apple! Some of these urban legends are as wild as alligator families living in the sewers and a chest of treasures being buried under the statue of Liberty! Among them here are 15 reasons why New York city is still a major enigma:
New York is home to a 550-foot tower, at 33 Thomas Street which is AT&T’s communication routing centre. Rumour has it that it is also NSA’s secret site for sniffing out malice in the big city!
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New York is also home to as many as 15.152 different life-forms in its habitat. The environ supports all kinds of insects and bacteria and other animals and birds that are included in this statistic. For example, there exists a harmless shrimp called copepods in New York’s water supply.
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You can throw up your devil horns if your favourite Rockstar is stuck with you on the New Jersey Turnpike, but blaring your car horn is actually an offense in the New York City law books, unless there is an emergency.
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Prior to Washington DC, New York was actually the capital of the country! This was as early as 1789 and only lasted for a single year.
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New York is about to open its first underground park in the year 2018. The Lowline, as the project has been titled, is a subterranean urban park and is being established under the borough of Manhattan.
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The land for the borough of Manhattan was purchased from the native tribes living there, way back in the Frontier days, for the current day equivalent of 1000 USD.
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If you thought what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas is as bad as it gets, get this! There are more incidents of people biting others in NYC, than the total number of shark bites in a year in the country. And the number is almost 10 times that of the number of shark-bites!
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New York is known for its freezing winters and waist-deep snowfall. As soon as there are signs that winter is coming, New York city officials step in to set fire to the tracks to keep it free of snow.
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Dark as the title to this bullet point me, the statistics do not lie; yearly there are more suicides in the Big Apple than there are homicides. The depressing stats can be seen as above.
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New York and its numerous street food stalls are a beloved novelty! However, do not be fooled by the sights of folks flocking the falafel or hot dog owners stall! Once you realize, it costs anything around 300,000 USD if you are operating a food stall on the or around Central Park’s premises, you won’t envy him so much. No wonder, 1 out of every 21 New Yorker is a millionaire!
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The phrase ‘Manhattan’ is derived from the Lenape phrase ‘Island of many Hills’. Manhattan truly used to comprise of hilly districts till they were all modified for accommodating modern housing.
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Due to the fact that everyone more or less speaks English in the streets, visitors are often fooled about NYC’s diversity. However, a closer look at surveys revealed every other New Yorker speaks a different language at home, ergo every other New Yorker is someone who migrated here for a fresh start!
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New York city is home to more Asians outside Asia than any other city in the world. The same applies for the Jewish folks, as there are more of them here than in any other city outside Israel.
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The Wall Street and its famous bull are etched in the minds of many across the planet. But did you know that 25 percent of the entire world’s gold bullion is stashed in the deposit vaults in the Federal Reserve Bank, under the streets?!
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The origin of the moniker ‘The Big Apple’ has been disputed by many, however the scientists at Missouri University have finally discovered how it came into practice. In the old days, the horse racing courses around the city were referred colloquially as ‘Apples’. John J Fitzgerald, in the NY Morning Telegraph had once mentioned ‘going to the big apple’, as in going to the big races. Soon the nickname caught on like wildfire!
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Conclusion:
New York is popularized and immortalized in books, movies and even contemporary music as well. The city has spread its roots far and wide; even those in the opposite hemisphere have fallen hook, line and sinker for this fair dame! And why not, for the city that speaks over 800 languages, gets more snow than Antarctica and has the most avid coffee drinkers in the country, New York City is pure love!