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New York City Break

Potted history:

New York first appeared on the map in 1524 when an Italian explorer by the name of Giovanni da Verrazano sailed into New York Bay . The fact that native Algonquin Indians had been calling Manhattan home for thousands o f years did little to deter the Dutch settling the island exactly a century later in 1624.

Trade in ' New Amsterdam ' was good and the Dutch decided to legalize their claim by buying the island for a measly 60 guilders. Even in 1626 the equivalent of $24 didn't add up to much, but to make matters worse the Dutch governor handed the cash over to a tribe who didn't live on the island.

By the turn of the century the colony was in the hands of the British and renamed New York . However, during the reign of George III British diplomacy was at an all time low and it wasn't long before the thriving port was the new seat of government under the first US president, George Washington.

With the withdrawal of the British both New York 's economy and population continued to boom, and in 1811 the civic authorities carved the island into a grid of 2028 'blocks'. New York got off comparatively lightly during the civil war and expansion continued into the outlying boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens .

On the 4 th October 1929 the Wall Street crash heralded the start of the Depression and the city 7 million took a financial beating. Help came in the guise of an unlikely duo; Fiorello La Guardia (an immigrant known as the 'little flower' who was elected mayor) and his sidekick Robert Moses. With relentless energy and determination they managed to pull the city up by its' bootstraps.

Post WWII New York's swollen immigrant population began to force the more affluent out of the city and they took their money with them. New York began to feel the economic pinch and bankruptcy loomed on the horizon. By the 1980's Wall Street had given the city a much needed financial shot in the arm, which set the stage for Rudolph Giuliani to clean up the streets.

On 11 th September 2001 New York was turned upside down as two hijacked jets were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center . The city's grief was only matched by its determination to look forward, and today Ground Zero stands as a testament to the city's irrepressible spirit.

About town:

With more than 3700 buses, 12000 taxis and 700 miles of Subway; New York is one of the easiest cities to navigate on the planet.

Handy numbers:

New York City Official Visitor Information Center : Midtown ( 810 Seventh Avenue ) Tel: 212 484-1222
Airport enquiries: JFK International Airport : Tel: 718 244-4444, LaGuardia Airport : Tel: 718 533-3400, Newark International Airport : Tel: 973 961-6000
Amtrak rail enquiries: Tel: 800 872-7245
Emergencies (police/ambulance): Tel: 911

Take five:

The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger: Holden Caulfield's wry New York odyssey

Lonesome Traveler by Jack Kerouac: the original beat down and out in the big apple

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster: three metropolitan tales of love, solitude and sleuthery

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote: seen the film, now read the (much better) book

The Collected Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker: decadent and dazzling New York in the 1920s

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