We are at the Big Apple, otherwise known as New York City, which is the largest city in the United States. There are about twenty million people living in Greater New York, the cultural and economic center of the United States. In 1626, the Dutch bought the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans for a ridiculously low price, and it was there that they founded the trading center of New Amsterdam. Around fifty years later, the British captured the island and called it New York in honor of the Duke of York.

Today, New York consists of five very different districts: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The area of New York is about three times the size of Vienna’s. The island of Manhattan is still the city center. Nearly all the important sights and skyscrapers are located here. Manhattan is still the most densely populated island in the world with 28,000 people per square kilometer.

On the southern point of Manhattan, you will find the Financial District, which is the world’s financial center. Here, every day, millions of dollars are exchanged. The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street is the hub of this district. Since 2015, the Freedom Tower is the tallest building in the Western hemisphere. It has a height of 541 meters and is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan.

Until September 2001, the World Trade Center towered above the entire district with its massive twin towers. Banks, insurance companies, offices, and hundreds of businesses had their headquarters in both of these enormous skyscrapers. The towers, which loomed over 400 meters high in the sky, were called the Twins and about 50,000 people worked in this monstrous building. But on September 11, 2001, the unbelievable happened. The 9/11 Memorial is located at the original site of the former World Trade Center. It is a place of remembrance and tribute to the victims of the terror attacks.

Also in the south of Manhattan, you will find Battery Park. Through the haze of the city, you already become aware of Liberty Island and the delicate contours of the Statue of Liberty. The ship is jam-packed with tourists, and after a fifteen-minute ride, we reach the small island where the enormous Statue of Liberty is. Lady Liberty stands before us big and powerful. She is America’s most famous lady and was a gift from France as a memorial to the common hard-won battle for the independence of the United States of America. The forty-six-meter-high statue was brought to New York by ship. You can reach the top of the crown by using the elevator and stairs. The proud lady receives more than 4 million visitors yearly.

Broadway is the most famous street in New York and extends north to south through Manhattan. The Theater District is especially well-known in Europe. It is the center of entertainment and the theater world. The most popular attractions on Broadway are shows and musicals. The Theater District is also termed “the Great White Way” because of the many, bright neon signs.

Another part of Manhattan is Chinatown, which is located in the southeast of the island. Altogether, there are nine Chinatown neighborhoods in New York with more than 800,000 inhabitants. They represent the world’s largest settlement of Chinese outside of Asia. Temples, specialty stores, and many restaurants give Chinatown the exotic atmosphere of East Asia.

The Italians have also settled together in their own part of a district and have founded “Little Italy.” A very beautiful and well-tended, but very expensive, residential area is Greenwich Village. It is a quarter where many artists and intellectuals live.