World Travel Guide Search for a City   Destination Guides > North America > USA > Mid-Atlantic > New York > New York City New York City -- Neighborhoods -- 42nd Street and around Chelsea Chinatown City Hall and TriBeCa East Village Fifth Avenue and around Financial District Garment District Harlem and north Manhattan Little Italy and NoLita Lower East Side Midtown East Midtown West Murray Hill Outer boroughs SoHo Union Square and Gramercy Park Upper East Side Upper West Side West Village -- Sights -- Central Park Metropolitan Museum of Art Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island •  New York City   · Orientation And Highlights •  When To Go •  Arrival •  City Transportation •  Information And Websites •  Eating And Drinking •  Entertainment •  Gay And Lesbian New York •  Kids' New York •  History •  Media •  Best Of •  City Tours •  Free Museums Hours •  Staten Island Ferry •  Parades And Festivals •  Shops And Markets •  Commercial Galleries •  Sports And Outdoor Activities •  Directory •  Books •  New York In Film •  Explore New York City •  Hotels in New York City NEW YORK CITY - HISTORY Hotels in New York City   •  Newton New York City from  $79.95  USD     •  Gramercy Park New York City from  $139.00  USD     •  Avalon New York City from  $169.00  USD   More Hotels in New York City >>   Early days and colonial rule Before the arrival of European explorers, Native Americans populated the area now encompassing New York City. In 1524, 32 years after Christopher Columbus had sailed to the New World, Giovanni da Verrazano , an Italian in the service of the... read more >> Revolution By the 1750s the city had reached a population of 16,000, spread roughly as far north as Chambers Street. As the new community grew more confident, it realized that it could exist independently of the government in Britain. In a way, New York's role... read more >> Immigration and civil war The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 allowed New York to expand massively as a port. The Great Lakes were suddenly opened to New York, and with them the rest of the country; goods manufactured in the city could be sent easily and cheaply to... read more >> The late nineteenth century The end of the Civil War saw much of the country devastated but New York intact, and it was fairly predictable that the city would soon become the wealthiest and most influential in the nation. New York was also the greatest business, commercial and... read more >> Turn-of-the-nineteenth-century development At the same time, the emigration of Europe's impoverished peoples continued unabated, and in 1884 new immigrants from Asia settled in what became known as Chinatown ; Jewish and other European immigrants continued to arrive, and in 1898 the... read more >> The war years and the Depression: 1914-45 With America's entry into World War I in 1917, New York benefited from wartime trade and commerce. Perhaps surprisingly, there was little conflict between the various European communities crammed into the city. Although Germans comprised roughly one-fifth... read more >> The postwar years Following racial tensions in the 1950s there was a general exodus of the white middle classes out of New York - the Great White Flight as the media labeled it. Between 1950 and 1970 more than a million families left the city. Things went from... read more >> The Giuliani years Though it may have been coincidental, Giuliani's first term helped usher in a dramatic upswing in New York's prosperity. A New York Times article described 1995 as "the best year in recent memory for New York City." Even... read more >> September 11, 2001, and beyond Nothing could have prepared New York - or indeed the world - for the morning of September 11, 2001 , when terrorists took over four hijacked planes, crashing two of them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, a third plane into the... read more >>