Founded by Dutch settlers in 1626 on an island the indigenous people called 'Manahatta', the fort and city of Nieuw Amsterdam was taken by the British in 1664 and renamed New York. For a brief period until 1790 New York City became the capital of the newly founded United States of America. Being the major arrival port for immigrants from Europe the City grew at an astounding pace, new and often ethnic neighborhoods growing north of Wall Street, spreading over Manhattan and the surrounding mainland and Long Island. Today's city limits were set when New York and the other four boroughs, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island - with an area of 792 km² and housing some 3.4 million people - in 1898 formed Greater New York City, soon to become the second mega-city after London, although the term would not have been coined yet.
Today, New York City is one of the major global cities, the dominating hub of world finance and the seat of the United Nations headquarters. Within the city's limits commercial and residential land use is predominant. However, New York is also the largest industrial center on the East coast. The population numbers stagnate at some eight million inhabitants for the city proper and grow slightly in its metropolitan region (some 21.2 million for year 2000 according to UN Statistics).
Inner city development is mostly restricted to areas converted from industrial and other economic uses. For example, New York City has lost most of its functions as a harbor to New Jersey and the waterfront development is now restructuring most of the former docks. New York City draws heavily on the resources of the surrounding regions, especially upstate New York State, such as the Catskills for water supply, or on the adjoining beaches in New Jersey and Long Island for recreational use. Thus, the metropolitan region functionally stretches out over three states, namely New York State, New Jersey and into Connecticut.
Being a symbol for the American Dream as well as for the American economic dominance, New York City has suffered the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers of World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. It will remain to be seen whether this tragedy will in the long run influence the economic position of New York City and the confident stance of its inhabitants.
Johannes Hamhaber
Department of Geography
University of Koeln
