General Description

Each of the five boroughs that make up New York City has the same boundaries as the county in which it lies. This is a city of islands, with only one borough, the Bronx, on the mainland. Manhattan and Staten Island are on separate islands, and Brooklyn and Queens are on Long Island. All five boroughs are connected by a complex system of tunnels, bridges, and ferry-boat lines. Manhattan is the focal point of the main road and railway systems. The commercial airports serving the city are in Queens and Newark, New Jersey.

The general description that follows is limited to the borough of Manhattan. For a general description of other boroughs,

Manhattan is the smallest of the five boroughs in area and follows Brooklyn and Queens in population. However, it is the part of New York City that developed first, and it has long been the commercial and cultural center of the city. The borough includes several small offshore islands, but only Manhattan Island is considered in this article.

Manhattan Island is about 12 miles (19 km) long and less than 3 miles (5 km) across at its widest point. It is separated from the Bronx on the northeast by the Harlem River; from Brooklyn and Queens on the southeast by the East River; from Staten Island on the southwest by Upper New York Bay; and from New Jersey on the west by the Hudson River.

Manhattan is commonly divided into three section---Upper, Midtown, and Lower Manhattan. Except in most of Lower Manhattan, streets follow a fairly regular grid pattern. Avenues, running the length of the island, are numbered from the East River. Streets, crossing the island southeastward, are numbered from Houston Street. They are divided into east and west by Fifth Avenue. Some streets are named rather than numbered.

site of the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam in the 17th century, was the first area settled. The street pattern here seems rather haphazard because it is related to landmarks that no longer exist. Wall Street lies along the site of a wail built by the Dutch for defensive purposes. Canal Street follows an old canal route, and both Water and Front streets followed the shoreline of the island before it was extended. Broadway once joined the Dutch settlements of New Amsterdam and New Haarlem (the present Harlem). In Lower Manhattan are the financial district, Chinatown, and Greenwich Village.

extends from 23rd Street to the southern boundary of Central Park at 59th Street. In this area are the major entertainment section, along Broad way, and the main shopping district, along Fifth Avenue. The Midtown area also contains most of the large hotels and many the points of interest, such as the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Madison Square Garden, the United Nations buildings, and St. Patrick's Cathedral.

stretches from 59th Street to the Harlem River, the northern boundary of Manhattan. In the south part is Central Park, which contains the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is bordered by the American Museum of Natural History and the Rose Center for Earth and Space. To the north of the park is Harlem, home of many of the city's blacks. In the easterly part, called Spanish Harlem, live a large percentage of New York's Puerto Ricans.