The Great New York City Trivia & Fact Book by B. Kim Taylor
"This is where to look for Woody Allen's real name, the date the
first sales tax was imposed on the city, which sport was all the
rage in 1879, how many names NYC's telephone directory contained in
1880, what Mayor Giuliani's father did for a living, and how the
Chunky bar got its name."
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Did you know that...
- New York City was briefly the U.S. capital from 1789 to 1790
- The Dutch supposedly bought Manhattan from its Native American
inhabitants for about $24 worth of trinkets
- Broadway, originating from Lower Manhattan at Bowling Green and
ending in Albany, is one of the world's longest streets at 150 mi
(241 km). The official name of this street is Highway 9.
- Manhattan's downtown southern tip area is predominantly
landfill. The actual "natural" Manhattan makes up only 75% of the
total area in the downtown region.
- The Cathedral of St. John the Divine will be the largest Gothic
cathedral in the world when it is completed. However, it was
originally (1892) begun as a Romanesque design and converted later
to Gothic (1911).
- Central Park in the middle of Manhattan covers a larger area
than the principality of Monaco.
- Staten Island residents voted to secede from the city in 1993,
but such a move would require state approval.
- Origins of "The Big Apple"
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