Category: North America

Manhattan (New York) – Global City
New York City, the largest city in the United States, has become something of an icon for modernity, multiculturalism and, more generally, for big city life in the course of the 20th century. In the metropolis at the mouth of the Hudson River, which is rich in bays, all conceivable nationalities, ethnicities and religions are represented by a stream of immigrants that has lasted for centuries. In addition to the descendants of European settlers, millions of Afro-Americans, Hispancs and Asians live here, many of them in their own neighborhoods. The city, which is divided into five districts, has several universities and other educational institutions, internationally renowned museums and important theaters such as the Metropolitan Opera. Despite severe financial crises, for example in 2008/2009, To this day, New York is the undisputed economic center of the United States and the world. A general difference between New York and many major European cities is the chessboard-like floor plan of the streets, which shows the city as not having grown historically, but as planned.

THE CENTER OF NEW YORK
Manhattan is the central part of New York. It is only three kilometers from the United Nations building on the East River across the island to the banks of the Hudson River; Broadway, on the other hand, is a good 25 kilometers long. There is hardly any other place in the world where so many people live and work in such a small space. Every day, commuters from the suburbs and the surrounding districts, the “boroughs”, more than double the number of people in Manhattan – from around 1.6 million to more than 3 million – which corresponds to a population density of around 27,000 and corresponds to a daily population density of almost 51,000 people per square kilometer. This makes Manhattan the most densely populated place in the United States. Its subway network is over 350 kilometers long, has more than 450 stations and transports 1.7 billion passengers a year; this puts it in seventh place worldwide. In addition, 20 railroad lines run from the main railway stations at Grand Central Station and Pennsylvania Station to the suburbs of the three states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, to which they transport several 100,000 passengers every day.

CITY ARCHITECTURE AND SKYSCRAPERS
The construction of skyscrapers and the sometimes gigantic bridge structures were favored by the rocky, glacial subsoil on which New York stands. From a structural point of view, steel girder structures and elevators were the decisive inventions that made the construction of high-rise buildings possible in the late 19th century. The Woolworth Building, built on Broadway in 1913, was the tallest building in the world with its 241 meters until 1930. Also on Broadway, the Equitable Building followed in 1915, which for the first time took up an entire vertical block and thus provoked a storm of protest. As a result, the “Zoning Laws” were created, according to which – except in the riverside regions – high-rise buildings could only be built upwards so that more light could get into the streets. For more information about the continent of North America, please check physicscat.com.