New York

New York City (officially the City of New York) is a city in the southern area of the state of New York and the most populous city in the United States of America. Its business, finance, trading, law, and media organizations are influential around the globe. The city is one of the worlds most important cultural centers, with hundreds of world-class museums, galleries, and performance venues. Home of the United Nations, the city is also one of the worlds major venues for international diplomacy.

The city is comprised of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. With over 8. 1 million residents within an area of 322 square miles (830 km2), New York City has the highest population density of any major city in North America. The citys metropolitan area, with a population of 18. 8 million, ranks fourth among the largest urban areas in the world.

New York City has been a dominant global financial center since World War II. It is also the birthplace of many American cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art, abstract expressionism in painting, and hip hop in music. The citys cultural vitality has been fueled by immigration since its founding by Dutch colonists in 1625. In 2005, nearly 170 languages were spoken in the city and 36 percent of its population was foreign born.

New York City is located on the coast of the Northeastern United States at the mouth of the Hudson River in southeastern New York state. The citys geography is characterized by its coastal position at the meeting of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean in a naturally sheltered harbor. This position helped the city grow in significance as a trading city. Much of New York is built on the three islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and western Long Island, making land scarce and encouraging a high population density. The Hudson River flows from the Hudson Valley into New York Bay, becoming a tidal estuary that separates the city from New Jersey. The East River, actually a tidal strait, flows from Long Island Sound and separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates Manhattan from the Bronx.

The citys land has been altered considerably by human intervention, with substantial land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in Lower Manhattan with modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan. The citys land area is 321 mi2 (831. 4 km2). The highest point in the city is Todt Hill on Staten Island, which at 409. 8 ft (124. 9 m) above sea level is the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine. The summit of the ridge is largely covered in woodlands as part of the Staten Island Greenbelt.

Although located at about the same latitude as the much warmer European cities of Naples ...