Page 21 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

INTRODUCING NE W Y ORK CIT Y  19

THE HISTORY OF

NEW YORK CITY

From its first sighting almost 500 years ago City became the country’s cultural
by Giovanni da Verrazano, New York’s harbor and entertainment mecca as well as
was the prize that all of Europe wanted to its business center.
capture. The Dutch first sent fur traders to
the area in 1621, but they lost the colony The Melting Pot
they called New Amsterdam to the English The city continued to grow, as thousands
in 1664. The settlement was re-christened of immigrants came seeking a better life.
New York, and the name stayed, even after Overpopulation meant that many at first
the English lost the colony in 1783, at the lived in slums. Today, the mix of cultures
end of the Revolutionary War. has enriched the city and become its
defining quality. Its eight-and-a-half million
The Growing City inhabitants speak some 200 languages.
In the 19th century, New York grew Manhattan’s skyline took shape as the
rapidly and became a major port. Ease city grew skyward to make space for its
of shipping spawned manufacturing, ever-increasing population. Throughout
commerce was king, and great fortunes its history, the city has experienced
were made. In 1898, Manhattan was alternating periods of economic decline
joined with the four outer boroughs and growth, but it remains one of the
to form the world’s second-largest city. world’s most vital cities.
From 1800 to 1900, the population grew The following pages illustrate significant
from 79,000 to 3 million people. New York periods in New York’s history.

A deed signed by New Amsterdam’s last Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, in 1664
The southern half of Manhattan and part of Brooklyn in 1767

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