NEW YORK
New York is the biggest city in the USA and one of the largest cities in the world. It is sometimes called „The Big Apple“ or „Melting Pot“, many people call it „The city that never sleeps“, too, because it is alive with action all day and night. It lies on the east coast at the mouth of the Hudson and East Rivers and covers an area of 780 square kilometres. It has about 8 million people. 43 per cent of them are white, 25 per cent black and 24 per cent Hispanic. New York has five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and The Staten Island. It is one of the most important financial, commercial and cultural centres in the world.
HISTORY. I’d like to tell you something about the history of the city. It is not exactly known when the area of New York was first populated, but the original inhabitants were Indian. In 1624, it was bought from the Indians by the Dutch for goods worth 25 dollars and the settlement „New Amsterdam“ was established there by the West India Company. In 1664, New Amsterdam became and English colony and it was renamed New York. After the war for independence, in 1789, New York became the capital of the United States for two years and George Washington the first American president. By 1860 the city was the largest in the USA, a great number of immigrants arrived, especially Irish and German. In 1870s the first skyscrapers were built there. In 1886 the Statue of Liberty was given by French to the USA. October 24th 1929 was the day of the Wall Street Crash, also known as Black Thursday. It was the beginning of great depression. On the other hand some major projects were completed at that time: the George Washington Bridge, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. After the World War II New York became the seat of the United Nations.
TOWN PLANNING. I’ll tell you something about the town planning. The streets are in the shape of chessboard. There are two types of streets – streets, that go from east to west, and avenues, that go from north to south. The avenues have no names, they are only numbered. The only exception is Brodway which runs almost diagonaly from south to north. Broadway is the center of cultural life, there is for example Metropolitan Opera or Carnage Hall. Another important avenue is the 5th Avenue or Wall Street, it’s not in the shape of chessboard, too. It was built against the attacks of Indians. It’s the financial center with the most important Stock Exchange in the world.
SKYSCRAPERS. New York is famous for its skyscrapers, especially for the Manhattan skyline. The site in Manhattan is very expensive, that’s why much higher buildings were build there. The most remarkable buildings there were the Twins, two towers of the World Trade Center. They were built in 1970s and they were the tallest buildings in the world, but they were destroyed by a terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001. New skyscrapers will stand on the place where the Twins stood. One of them will be the Freedom Tower, which will be even higher than the Twins were. Another skyscraper is the Empire State Building. It was built at the beginning of 1980s, at the time it was the highest building, until the building of the World Trade Center was finished. Now it is the highest building in New York again. One of the most beautiful skyscrapers is the Chrysler Building. It was built in Art-Deco style. Another famous building are for example the Trump Tower (glas tower, cascade of trees), the Woolworth Tower (white colour) or the Rockefeller Center, that is a komplex of 19 buildings, there is the main christmas tree in New York. Unfortunately, because of the skyscrapers you can’t see the St. Patrick’s Cathedral from afar.
WASHINGTON D.C.
Washington D.C. is the capital city of the United States. It’s named after the first president, George Washington, and „D.C.“ (it’s a shortcut of „District of Columbia“) is added to the name because Washington is also one of the states in USA and we could mix the terms. There live about 600.000 people and 70% of them are black. The city was established by Act of Congess in 1790, the site for the capital was chosen by President Washington himself. Washington D.C. is situated on the Potomac River and has 4 sections: northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest.
THE CAPITOL & MEMORIALS. In the centre, on Capitol Hill, is the Capitol where Congress meets. Capitol is the highest building in Washington D.C. – there must not be build higher buildings. The Capitol has 2 wings: the Library of Congress and Folger Shakespeare Library, which has the world’s largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare. From the west side of the Capitol goes the Mall, which is an area with a lot of museums and parks. There is the Washington Monument, too. People call it „The Needle“ and it serves as a lookout tower. There is a pool in the front of it, which is called „the Reflecting Pool“. There are also another memorials in Washington – for example the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. They are similar to each other because they are both inspirated by Greek architecture, but the Jefferson Memorial has a cupola on the top. Inside both of them there are statues of the presidents.
PLACES OF INTEREST. Not far from the Lincoln Memorial the Arlington National Cemetery is located. There are graves espacially for soldiers who died in the World Wars. There are over 300000 graves. Close to Arlington Cemetery is the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense.
THE WHITE HOUSE. From the Capitol goes a street named the Pennsylvania Avenue that is joining the Capitol and the White House. The White House is the official residence of the President of the United States. It has 2 floors, there are offices and official places on the first floor and private rooms on the second floor. The White House is open to the public, you can see for example the East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room and State Dining Room. Unfortunately, you can’t see the Oval Office. Outside is a green place called „the Ellipse“ – president meets there other politicians, too. It is also a location for so-called Easter Egg Rolls which is an event for kids to hunt Easter Eggs on the White House Lawn.
MOUNT VERNON. There is another interesting building 20 miles from Washington. It is called Mount Vernon and it was the mansion of George Washington, he lived there and he is buried there. Now it serves as a museum of president Washington.