New York and Washington D.C.
New York is the biggest city in the USA and one of the largest cities in the world. It is situates at the mouth of the Hudson River. The city is the leader in banking, finance, education, fashion, publishing, oil refining and clothing manufacture, food and ship-building industry. New York has five major parts: Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Brookline and Richmond.
New York is a city of sky carpers, built on a modern plan of streets (going from West to East) and avenues (from North to South).
Manhattan: those roads aren’t named, but they are numbered, only the oldest of them have got their names (e.g. Broadway). Broadway runs diagonally across Manhattan. It is a busy cultural center with the great number of movies, theatres and fashionable. In Manhattan Down town there live very rich people and bankers. In Manhattan Up town in northern part there is quarter of black people and its name is Harlem.
Queens: this is a villa’s quarter for rich people with many parks.
The Bronx: it is a center of crime and violence, there also live black people.
Brooklyn: there use to be factories, now there are a lot of homeless people, who live in this factories.
Central park: is the heart of Manhattan, a place of relaxation with beautiful lawns, artificial lakes, tennis courts and children’s ZOO.
The cultural pride of N.Y. is the Metropolitan Opera House on the scene of which the best world opera singers can appear.
The highest of skyscrapers was the Emipe State Building. It has 102 floors and a TV tower. It is standing at the corner of 5th avenue and 34th Street. From the top floor can be seeing very well.
In the Liberty Island there is the Statue of Liberty. It is a monumental female figure holding a burning torch in her right hand, and in her left hand a table showing the Declaration of Independence. It has become a symbol of both freedom and the United States inself. It is 91,5 m high from its pedestal to the torch, the height of the statue inself is 45,3 m and it weighs 225 tons.
Washington D.C.
District of Columbia was founded in 1791 in the district of Columbia for the propose serving as the capital of the U.S.A. George Washington who became the first president of the U.S.A. in 1789 and Thomas Jefferson chose that place.
The French officer architect Charles Pierel’s Enfant worked out the plans. Washington is not a very large city, but it is very important as the capital of the U.S.A. since 1880. As it was planned before being built, Washington defilers from all the cities in the U.S.A. It is situated on the river Potomac which is deep and wide and so ships can go to the city.
Washington is taken from 2 states: Maryland and Virginia. The whole city is situated on the Capitol Hill and is divided into 4 parks: the first is the North – West, second North – East, third South – West, fourth South – West.
Streets going from North to South are numbered and from west to east are lettered. Avenues have their names after the first 13 states of the U.S.A. (New York Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue etc.).
The most important of them is Constitution Avenue, where the Capitol is situated. It is the official seat of Congress and the President. It is about 290 feet high. There is a law in Washington – again building striations higher than the Capitol. The Capitol where the congress meets is a very beautiful with while marble column. It is a center of the city.
The White House is situated in a park. It is the Residence of the President. The first President living there was Adams. In that time there were only G. rooms. Nowadays there are 10t rooms. 13 of them are opened for public.
Wear the Capitol there is the Library of Congress (1817). It contains over 5 million books. There is a law since 1870 that any book, magazines or newspapers were printed in the U.S.A. must be sent to this library in two copies.
Washington Sights
Washington is a city, which attracts a lot of tourists by its fashionable hotels, restaurants and sight seeing attractions.
- Mount Vernon – is the private house of the first president – George Washington (museum)
- The Washington Monument (called the Pencil) is 555 foot high
- Lincoln Memorial
All these places of interest are situated on the left bank of the river Potomac. On the right bank of the river Potomac there is famous Pentagon, building of Ministry of Defense. The building has 5 sides aced that’s why it is called Pentagon.
Arlington Cemetery – is a Tomb of unknown Soldier from World War I. There is also a Tomb of John F. Kennedy.
We can also the Lincoln Museum in the Theatre where he was assassinated.
There are many museum and galleries there (The Medical Museum, The Naval Museum, The National Museum – in this museum our anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička worked).
There are 10 universities: the best known of them is Washington University, which has existed since 1812. There are two airports: Ronald Reagan Washington National National Air and Washington Dulles Air.
Among the newer buildings one of the most imposing is the National Gallery of Art. In Washington there is no subway system, only streetcars and buses. There is also no industry except printing industry and a mint. The total number of inhabitants is over 2 million.
Washington has wooden areas and redbrick houses. The city of Government, Clarks their families and servants 63 % of inhabitants are Negroes.
Washington is the political, culture and scientific center of the states.