I'm Jen your local New York City guide in New York is full of secret facts and
surprising history if you thought you knew New York then think again please
share this video with friends and subscribe for more new york city videos
and let's get into it 101 secret facts inventions and forgotten history all
about New York.
The Lenape people named it "Manhatta" which means many hills
since then though many of the hills have been flattened. A Dutch settler supposedly
bought Manhattan for $24 in beads, a thousand dollars today and then he named
it New Amsterdam and named himself the governor. The Europeans first name for
New York was New Amsterdam in 1664 the British seized the land and named it
after the Duke of York. Some believe the Empire State nickname which is on our
license plates is actually from the Empire State Building but the nickname
came first it was likely Washington who said he wanted New York to be the seat
of the Empire. Apples are the official state fruit of New York. New York City
got its nickname the Big Apple not because it is the second state for apple
production but actually from a horse-racing column and then in the
1970s in New York City tourism campaign pushed it back into popularity and it is
still nicknamed the Big Apple today. New York City was the first capital of the
United States before Philadelphia and Washington DC it only lasted for five
years starting in 1785 and George Washington was sworn into office as the
first president at Federal Hall the original building was downtown at 26
Wall Street on the same spot you can still see the remaining piece of the
original balcony where Washington was inaugurated in the bronze statue of him.
Also New York City is not the capital of New York State,
the capital is Albany. New York is the site of the largest battle of the
Revolutionary War the Battle of Long Island.
New York City is a true melting pot with one out of three people living in New
York City born outside the US. More languages are spoken in Queens New York
than any other city in the world there are 800 different languages spoken in
Queens alone. The largest population of Chinese people outside of Asia is
actually in New York City not to be confused with the oldest Chinatown in
San Francisco. Manhattan also has the second largest population outside of
their native lands of Koreans, Greek Jewish, polish and Irish. From the 1700s
to 1839 Ellis Island was used for pirate and criminal hangings before becoming
the symbol of immigrants American dreams. Ellis Island was then a military post
for eight years before immigrants began traveling
to it. 90% of Ellis Island is man-made built up from landfills and excavation
for the subways in 1892 the first immigrants to travel through Ellis
Island were actually minors. Annie Moore was 17 years old when she brought her
two brothers from Ireland to reunite with their family.
Annie was rewarded ten dollars to be the first immigrant to travel through Ellis
Island. The Statue of Liberty's official name is Liberty enlightening the world
because of her torch. Half of Ellis Island is in New York and half is in New
Jersey it has been contested for hundreds of years
until 1998 when it was ruled that half the island was in fact in New Jersey
where New Jersey controls the electricity and the water and New York
controls the mail. The hospital on Ellis Island was one of the most advanced at
the time many rich patients actually tried to be seen there but they were
turned away because it was for public not private patients. You can tour the
hospital which was abandoned in 1954 on a hardhat tour. The oldest operating
hospital in America today is Bellevue Hospital founded in 1736. Bellevue
Hospital had many firsts including the first ambulance service which were
horse-drawn carriages, first mental ward first residency training program and
first men's nursing school. After the White Star Line's RMS Titanic sank in
April of 1912 survivors were rescued by the nearby Cunard Line ship which
dropped the empty lifeboats at the original final destination of Pier 59
before dropping off the survivors in Canard's pier 54. New York City was the
center of the film industry before Hollywood. April 14th 1894 New York City
showed the first commercially submitted in the first Kinetoscope parlor Sesame
Street is the longest-running kids TV show and is still filled in Astoria
Queens the Museum of the moving image is the only Museum in the country dedicated
solely to the Moving Image. The first roller coaster was invented in Coney
Island in 1884 but it was not the cyclone. It was actually a switchback
that traveled only six miles per hour the first escalator was invented in 1896
by Jesse W Reno it only went up about 7 feet in an incline and was there for
only two weeks before being relocated to the Brooklyn Bridge. The first elevator
shaft was invented before the elevator and it was included in the Cooper Union
foundation building the only problem is it was round not square.
The first Children's Museum was the Brooklyn Children's Museum founded in
1899. Central Park has been featured in more films than any other location in
the world it has been featured in at least 300 films Central Park was the
first part to be landscaped in America and all of the diverse sections are to
represent the diverse areas of New York State the designers of Central Park
considered Prospect Park their greatest masterpiece Central Park is not the
largest park in New York City. Pelham Bay Park is actually the largest it is in
the Bronx and is three times as large. The Bronx has three of the largest parks
in NYC and is one of the greenest boroughs with
the largest percentage of land dedicated to parks.
Although most know that hip hop was born in the Bronx in New York City many do
not realize that salsa was also born here in New York. The Bronx is the only
borough located on the mainland. Manhattan and Staten Island are separate Islands
and then Brooklyn and Queens are located on Long Island. Cortland Park Golf
Course is the oldest public golf course in the nation from 1895. The New York
Yankees were originally called the New York Highlanders until sports writers
nicknamed them the Yanks or Yankees. The NY Yankees and NY Giants were the
first teams ever to retire players numbers first we had in baseball Lou
Gehrig and Babe Ruth and then in football we had Ray Flaherty. The Red Sox
sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for about 1.5 million dollars today and that was
what set off the curse of the Bambino Red Sox fans believed they were cursed
from 1918 to 2004 when there are no championships. The New York Mets played
the three longest games in Major League history the longest game ran eight hours
and 15 minutes including rain delays. The Mets official name is the New York
metropolitan baseball club. The Knicks legal name is the Knickerbockers which
was once a nickname for New Yorkers. Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New
York though his family moved away when he was just a toddler. Brooklyn
originally fought against consolidating with Manhattan. If Brooklyn was still a city and not a borough, it would be the 4th most borough it would be the fourth most
populous city in the U.S. Many of New York's parks and squares were once
potter's fields. Washington Square Park where we are right now is actually a
burial ground of about 20,000 people. The largest mass graveyard in the United
States is Hart island near the Bronx, unfortunately there are about 1 million
unclaimed bodies buried there since the 1860s. New York was once the oyster capital
of the world containing half the world's oysters until unfortunately pollution
and overharvesting destroyed most of the oyster beds. The New York bagel dates
back to the 1800s when Eastern European Jewish immigrants started it and sold it
at bakery. The American hot dog was invented in Coney Island but not by
Nathan's it was actually by Feldman's the original cart in 1867. The hamburger
we know today was rumored to be invented in New York by immigrants from Hamburg
Germany. The Reuben sandwich was invented in 1914 by Arnold Reuben at Reuben's deli
by throwing a bunch of leftovers together on a sandwich. Italian
immigrants moved to Little Italy in New York and invented the spaghetti with
meatballs which is considered an American dish not Italian dish. General
Tso's chicken was first popularized in New York City. Chicken and waffles were
not invented in the South but in Harlem at Well Supper Club. Eggs Benedict was
invented by a hungover guest at the Waldorf Astoria and then the maitre d
added it to the menu. The Waldorf Astoria also invented the Waldorf salad.
Red velvet cake was invented at the Waldorf Astoria in 1959 one guest asked
for the recipe and then realized later that she was charged $100 on her bill so
therefore she sent it to all of her friends and that is how we had the
popularity of the red velvet cake. The original Thomas nooks and cranny's
English muffins were invented here in 1800. Charles Ronhoffer invented the
first Baked Alaska at Delmonico's in 1867. Cronuts were invented by Dominique
Ansel in 2013 and still draw lines. New Yorkers supposedly drink seven times
more coffee than any other city in the US. The Manhattan cocktail was of course
invented in the Manhattan club in the 1870s. The Cosmo was invented
in 1987 in the Odeon bar, the Bloody Mary or red snapper was invented in 1934
at King Cole bar after his own concoction in the net in 1921 at the New York Bar
in Paris. The Tom Collins was invented to stop a joke where people would come to
bars and they would say have you seen my friend Tom Collins and then a smart
bartender invented a drink called the Tom Collins and if anyone asked he would
give them the drink. The longest-running Broadway show isn't the highest-earning
the longest-running show started in 1988 it was Phantom of the Opera and is still
running today but the highest-earning three shows are: number one Lion King
number two Phantom of the Opera and number three Wicked. All four members of
The Beatles have performed at Madison Square Garden but never altogether. It is
known as the jazz capital of the world and still hosts the winter Jazz Festival
voted the number one Jazz Fest in the world.
Jay-z chose his nickname jay-z because of a couple of reasons his nickname was
jazzy his mentor was called jazz oh and did you know that he lived near the Jay
Z subway line in Brooklyn in 1870 before the subway system we know today there
was a subway system run a pneumatic power similar to Elon Musk's Hyperloop.
There are more subway stations in New York in any other city and there are 472
subway stations currently. The Brooklyn Bridge is rumored to have inspired more
art than any other man-made structure in the US. PT Barnum led 21 elephants across
the Brooklyn Bridge in 1884 after a stampede unfortunately was caused by
fears of potentially the the bridge falling down but he did this to show
that the bridge was totally safe. Peregrine falcons the fastest animals on
record nest on the bridge and all around the city. The One World Trade Center was
built to be 1776 feet to pay homage to the signing of the Declaration of
Independence in the year 1776 originally called Longacre square Times Square was
renamed after the New York Times moved there in 1904 1 Times Square is now mostly
empty but it still contains the New Year's Eve Ball which drops and then it
also has a wall of billboards which generate 23 million dollars
annually. The Nasdaq sign is 37 feet tall making it the largest LED sign in the
world. Times Square's bright lights can be seen from outer space. Times Square's
Embassy Theatre was a first all newsreel theater and before that it was run
almost exclusively by women. New Year's Eve was originally celebrated downtown
with the bells of Trinity Church and sometimes in some years they had 15,000
people legally drinking and celebrating by cranking noisemakers the first 87
years of the New Year's Eve Ball Drop was lowered by hand by rope it is now
electronically controlled from Boulder Colorado
through an atomic clock. Grand Central Terminal was saved through Jackie
Kennedy's letter to the mayor and a press conference speech. St. Patrick's
Cathedral is a largest Gothic Roman Catholic Church in America. F Scott
Fitzgerald married Zelda in the cathedrals adjoining rectory. You can
visit the oldest piano in existence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The NY
Public Library is the second largest in the US after the Library of Congress and
is the fourth largest in the world. You can visit the original Winnie the Pooh
animals that were donated to the near public library in 1987. Credit cards were
invented by John Biggins in 1946. The first money dispensing ATM was invented
in New York and it was called the Bancograph. It is illegal to honk your car horn
in New York City unless it's an emergency. If you do it unnecessarily you
might be charged at 350 dollar fine. Air conditioning was not actually invented
for people but 1902 it was invented in Brooklyn in a printing company to combat
humidity. The East River is not a river but actually a saltwater estuary. One out
of every 21 people living in New York are millionaires. Alligators in the New
York subways is not a myth there have actually been 12 notable sightings and
there was a headline in the New York Times as far back as 1935. Thank you so
much for watching I have a ton more New York City videos so just keep watching
please click that subscribe button share with friends if you enjoyed it click the
like button and one last thing comment down below if you have any other
amazing facts or if you have your favorite I'd love to hear it. I comment
back for everything as always say yes a new adventures
and I'll see you next time bye! :)