VHS 42 8954 und DVD 46 04027 / Schulmedienstelle Vorarlberg
New York - An excursion through the metropolis
The United States (US) has many interesting cities, but one raises above the others: New York (NY).
New York, this colorful and lively city , known by many who have never even been there. There is one thing that is especially fascinating about NY, no other city in the world where so many different ethnic groups and races are living together. But here they are all New Yorkers, in Harlem, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island.
NY defies logic, because logically the 8 million residents of NY should all die from a lack of air, energy, and stress. The traffic on the streets should be permanently clogged.
NY has 5 primary districts and is located at the mouth of the Hudson and is surrounded on both sides by the East River. However, everything famous about NY is found in Manhattan: the United Nations, Broadway, Central Park, the Empire State Building (ESB) etc.
The 420m high twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) dominate the south Manhattan sky line. These shiny 110 story giants were built in the early 1970s. 50,000 people, the population of a medium sized city, work in the WTC. 110 elevators transport an average of 80,000 visitors a day. That’s how it was until the morning of September 11, 2001 (9-11).
On this morning the previously unimaginable happened. An American Airlines plane, hijacked by Islamic terrorists, slammed into the north tower of the WTC. As the north tower burned, a second hijacked plane ran into the south tower. Thousands began to flee the towers, shortly afterwards the towers imploded and came crashing down. Some 3000 people wereburied under the 450,000 tons of wreckage. In and around the WTC some 13 million m2 of office space were destroyed. Trading on Wall Street was halted for days.
The WTC was a symbol of the financial center of not just NY but all of America, the world´s only remaining super power.
The world has changed since the 9-11 attack.
Following the attack there was a unified reaction from the American public. Millions of people stayed home from work for days, as most gathered with family and friends to mourn and to contemplate the significance of this shocking change in the course of modern history.
The attacks did not cause a crash of the American stock markets, as the attackers had surely hoped. The financial quarter around wall street is back to business as usual, the mood is one of persevering. Bankers and investment fund managers are making decisions that impact all the financial institutions of the world.
NYC is the only city in the world where so many people of different race, religion, and nationality imaginable live together in relative harmony. All these languages, races, and nationalities are what make New York New York. A major portion of the population is Jewish, more Jews live in NY than in Jerusalem. The Italians have a little Italy here, more Italians live in NY than in the city of Rome. In NY they even live in the cracks of the walls.
300,000 Chinese live in NY with more than 100,000 living in Manhattan’s China town. Here truly exotic delicacies from Asia are abundant. Many Americans visiting NY feel like a minority in their own country. There are more Irish in NY than in Dublin, more Germans than in Nürnberg, and more Poles than in Danzig. NY truly is a world city.
Getting orientated in Manhattan is easy. The Avenues run south-to-north, beginning with First Ave on the East side, ending with 11th Ave on the west. The Streets run east-to-west from 1st Street on up to 207th Str. in Harlem.
There are numerous small and larger city parks in Manhattan. These are an oasis of green in the otherwise hectic concrete jungle.
On the corner of 5th Ave and 34th Str. sits the Empire State Building (ESB), for many years the tallest building in the world. The 102 story building was built in the early 30s, taking a mere 16 months to erect. The best view of the “Big Apple”, as locals affectionately call NY, can be seen from the viewing platform of the ESB. From up here you can see the 300 skyscrapers and street canyons of downtown Manhattan. Manhattan is actually an island, approximately 25 km long and 4 to 5 km wide.
A special experience for every visitor is Manhattan at night. All around times square, where Broadway and 7th Ave meet, the city pulses with life – “the city that never sleeps”. Flashing billboards, hot asphalt, the smell of pizzas mixed with auto exhaust, and pick pockets everywhere.
In the US the automobile can be a fantastic convinence, but in this city it becomes a burden. There is not enough parking spaces and the prices in the park houses are hefty.
There are some 35,000 police officers in NY, and one can imagine that there is plenty to keep the cops busy. In 1991 there was 2154 murders and some 98,000 assaults. That means a murder every 4 hours and an assault every 7 minutes. Statistics from 1998 reveal only 691 murders, which means, the murder rate was reduced by 70 percent, the city is safer now than it has been in decades.
Some examples of all the different things which are illegal in the city include: spitting on the sidewalk, drinking alcohol in public, feeding pigeons, wearing inappropriate clothing, urinating in public, riding a bike without a bell, climbing a tree in the park - and skipping school.
Manhattan is connected to the surrounding parts of the city by many bridges. The most famous of which is the Brooklyn-Bridge, which connects south Manhattan with Brooklyn over the East River. The bridge was opened after many years of construction in 1883. Engineered by John Roebling, a German immigrant, it was the worlds first hanging bridge built of steel. Cables the size of a man´s thigh, composed of thousands of thin strands braided together hold the entire structure.
One big problem the city faces is the many homeless people. They can be found on the street corners, under the bridges, and in the sub-way stations. 1 out of 4 in NY live under the poverty level and over 100,000 are homeless.
The NY subway is the second oldest in the world, following London’s, and is by far the quickest means of transport. Especially in the heat of the summer and during rush-hour, using the NY subway can really stress ones nerves and health. In most of the stations it is as hot as an oven, whereas the temperature in the trains is cooled to 18 degrees C. The NY subway system has a total of 470 stations. The trains run 24 hours a day, but from 11pm until 6am every trip is pretty risky. In the out of the way stations one can easily become a victim of violent crime.
From Battery Park it takes about a 20 minute ride to reach Staten Island. Between Manhattan and Staten Island is the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Here new immigrants are inspected for infectious diseases, and are often sent back to where they came from.
It takes some time until the family name Stein becomes Stone, Rosen – Russel, and Müller – Miller. Alone between 1890 and 1920, 15 million new Americans traveled through Ellis Island, making NY a melting pot of nationalities.
The Statue of Liberty is the symbolic goal of thousands of immigrants from Europe. This 45m high statue was given to America by France in 1885.
Here in Central Park one could easily believe that all of NY is jogging, biking, or roller blading. This giant park is the largest artificially created green space in the world. 350 hectares, that’s larger then the principality of Monaco. After the close of the business day or on the weekend, New Yorkers meet in Central Park for a game of Baseball. On sunny days the park comes to life, as everyone does the things they enjoy the most.
The approximately 11,000 NY taxis are as much a part of the city as Broadway and the Statue of Liberty. After the sub-way the Yellow cab is the quickest way to get around. After successfully waving down a cab, many visitors to NY quickly discover that they, first of all, can speak better English than the driver and secondly that they know their way around the city better.
NY – America’s Big Apple. Financial capital, cultural center, world trading center, and yet the difference between poverty and wealth is often only one street corner away.