What can one say about New York City that hasn't already been said? This is the "Big Apple," the city that never sleeps, and is truly the cultural and financial heart of the United States of America.

How did the city get the name of the "Big Apple?" No one knows for sure, and there are many stories suggesting origins, ranging from depression- era former financiers making ends meet by selling apples on the streets while dressed in full suits to jazz musicians landing a gig at the popular Big Apple club in Harlem. The city has adopted an "official" version that ties the name to horse racing: Stable hands in New Orleans referred to a trip to a New York racecourse as the "Big Apple" as the greatest reward for any thoroughbred.

Broadway originates from Lower Manhattan at Bowling Green and ends in Albany, making it one of the world's longest streets at 150 miles (241 kilometers). Its official name is Highway 9, but it was originally called Bloomingdale Road and began at what is now 23rd Street and stretched to 114th Street. It was built to handle the increasing commercial traffic back when Manhattan was mostly farms and rolling countryside and when Bloomingdale was a large producer of tobacco. Bloomingdale Road later became the Boulevard and later still was changed to Broadway.

Columbia University originated on the East Side. In the 1890s it moved to the Upper West End's Morningside Heights, taking over the grounds of the Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum.

The City was briefly (1789-1790) the capital of the US and was state capital until 1797. By 1790 it was the largest city in the US, and the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal led to even greater expansion. In 1898 a new charter made Greater New York a metropolis of five boroughs (counties).