YoungFeds.Org > Features > FedCity Spotlight

To Most its New York, Unless its just "THE city"

It is estimated that about 44 million people from across the country and around the world visited New York City in 2006 . . . and for good reason.  It's the center of—and the best of—EVERYTHING!

There are literally as many guidebooks and websites to help you discover the history and attractions in NYC as there are swanky hotels and hip coffee shops So we decided to take a different approach for this Federal Region spotlight... we're sharing some great facts that event the most die-hard New Yorkers don't know about the city... and attraction recommendations that are certainly off the beaten path.

Here's 10 things you never knew about “the city so nice, they named it twice...”

1.)  In the 1920s, a Morning Telegraph sportswriter overheard stablehands in New Orleans refer to New York City 's racetracks as "the Big Apple"... so he named his column "Around the Big Apple." A decade later, jazz musicians adopted the term to refer to Harlem, as the jazz capital of the world. “There are many apples on the trees of success,” they would say, "but when you pick New York, you pick the big apple.”

2.) John Hertz, who founded New York's Yellow Cab Company in 1907, chose that color because he had read a study conducted by the University of Chicago that indicated it was the easiest color to spot.

3.) Believe it or not, there isn't a Main Street in Manhattan. There is, however, a Main Street in each of the other boroughs and on Roosevelt Island.

4.) Lady Liberty (aka The Statue of Liberty) has a 35-foot waist, an 8-foot index finger, and weighs 450,000 pounds.

5.) Broadway's original name was the Wiechquaekeck Trail. It was an old Algonquin trade route.

6.) The triangular shape of the Flatiron Building (an early skyscraper on 23rd Street) produced wind currents that made women's skirts billow and caused police to create the term “23 skiddoo” to shoo gapers from the area.

7.) There are 215 different types of bird species living and chirping in Central Park.

8.) As late as the 1840s, thousands of pigs -- no bulls or bears -- roamed Wall Street to consume garbage, an early sanitation system under the Dutch. Wall Street, where there really was a wall -- was the city limit.

9.) Fun Fed facts: Downtown Manhattan was the site of the nation's first capital. Federal Hall National Memorial was the site of George Washington's first inauguration. Alexander Hamilton is buried in the Trinity Church graveyard.  And City Hall houses one of the most important collections of 19th century American portraiture as well as historic furnishings, including George Washington's desk from 1789.

10.) The vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank on Maiden Lane store more than one-quarter of the world's gold bullion.

Times Square? The Empire State Building? Radio City Music Hall? The Statue of Liberty? The Whitney Museum? Sure they are all “must visits” in the city that never sleeps... But whether you live in the area or are visiting, you're not getting a total New York experience if you don't visit:

The Bodies Exhibition LLC
11 Fulton Street - 2nd Floor @ the South Street Seaport
1- 888-9BODIES
We have to be honest... there's really nothing like this exhibit of the human body “from the inside out.” It's fascinating and oddly beautiful... but not for the squeamish.

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn
718-623-7200
Brooklyn Botanic Garden is one of New York's most magnificent and treasured natural spaces. A tour through BBG, no matter what time of year, will be a rewarding experience, complete with an ever-changing natural palette of color, fragrance, beauty, and design.

Lower East Side Tenement Museum
91 Orchard Street
212-431-0233
Get a unique view of the area's immigrant and migrant experiences. Tours of a landmark 19th century tenement, living history programs, neighborhood walking tours, plays, and special programs. The perfect compliment after visiting Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Museum at The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
Seventh Avenue at 27th Street
212-217-5800
High fashion at a bargain price (admission is free). MFIT is the repository for one of the world's largest and most important collections of clothing, textiles and accessories. Stunning temporary exhibitions. A great compliment to marathon shopping.

Museum of American Finance
28 Broadway
212-908-4695
This Smithsonian Institution affiliate is the only independent museum dedicated to capitalism, entrepreneurship, and free enterprise. Teaches the power of a free market economy to better the financial lives of individuals, companies, and nations. A stop that is “right on the money.”

Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, Suite 401
212-254-3511
No joke! This museum promotes appreciation and understanding of the world's most popular art form through exhibits, lectures, and special events that showcase cartoonists' and animators' work, while documenting their artistic, historical, and cultural impact.

The Museum of Television & Radio
25 West 52nd Street   212-621-6600  This place is a couch potato's dream! Collection of more than 120,000 programs available for viewing and listening. Holds screening and listening series, seminars with the people behind radio and television, and festivals to celebrate various aspects of radio and television. Special exhibits are always fabulous.

The Skyscraper Museum
39 Battery Place
212-968- 1961
Where else but New York City? The Skyscraper Museum is the first and only institution devoted to the past, present, and future of skyscrapers and skylines. Located six blocks south of Ground Zero, with spectacular views of the downtown skyline.

South Street Seaport Museum
12 Fulton Street
212-748-8600
Located in an 11 square-block historic district, features galleries with changing exhibitions, historic ships, tours, harbor sails aboard antique schooners, a reconstructed 19th century printing ship, gift shop, and extensive family and public programs.

The Studio Museum in Harlem
144 West 125th Street
212-864-4500
A beautiful and serene museum specializing in African American artists and artists of African descent. Limited hours (Closed Monday and Tuesday) with great special events and programs on weekends.