Portal:New York City

The Offerman Building is a historic building at 503–513 Fulton Street in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Danish architect Peter J. Lauritzen in a Romanesque Revival style, the eight-story building was built between 1890 and 1892 as a commercial structure, housing the S. Wechsler & Brother department store. Although the lower stories remain in commercial use, the upper stories were converted into a 121-unit residential complex in the 2010s. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The building has three distinct sections: the original wings on Fulton Street to the south and Duffield Street to the east, as well as a three-story glass annex on Bridge Street to the west that dates from the 2010s. On the Fulton and Duffield Street wings, the first and second stories of the facade are clad in stone, while brick and terracotta were used on the upper stories. The Fulton Street wing is mostly seven stories high (except for the central eight-story section), while the Duffield Street wing is six stories high. Inside, the building was originally used in its entirety as a department store, with various selling departments on each floor, as well as a small mechanical plant in the basement. The building's interior has been rearranged multiple times throughout the years; by the 2010s, only the basement and first two stories remained in retail use.

The building was developed by Brooklyn Sugar Refining Company president Henry Offerman, who agreed in late 1889 to lease the entire structure to S. Wechsler & Bro. (later Wechsler Bros. & Co.). The Offerman Building opened on May 1, 1891, and was expanded along Duffield Street in 1892 after the store's business grew significantly. Wechsler Bros. & Co. occupied the building until 1895, when Offerman took over the store. Joseph H. Bauland operated the store from 1897 to 1903, and Chapman & Co. then operated the store until 1907. The structure was then used as offices from 1909 to 1922, when Martin's department store moved into the building. Martin's occupied the Offerman Building for nearly six decades, moving out during 1979, after which the Laboz family's company United American Land bought the building. In the first two decades of the 21st century, the Laboz family leased out the lowest floors as retail space and converted the upper stories to apartments. (Full article...)

The Edward S. Harkness House (also 1 East 75th Street and the Harkness Mansion) is a Modern Renaissance–style mansion at the northeastern corner of Fifth Avenue and 75th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Built between 1907 and 1909, it was designed by James Gamble Rogers for the philanthropist and oil heir Edward Harkness and his wife Mary Harkness. The mansion, which has been the Commonwealth Fund's headquarters since 1952, is a New York City designated landmark.

The Harkness House is five stories tall and has a facade made of Tennessee marble, with few exterior decorations. Because the mansion has a longer frontage along 75th Street than on Fifth Avenue, the main entrance is through a portico on 75th Street. The rest of the facade has windows with carved sills and lintels. The house retains most of its original interiors, which were designed in a much more elaborate manner than the facade, though these spaces have been converted to offices. The ground floor contained a reception room and dining room, and the second floor had a salon, music room, and library. There were also servants' rooms in the basement and attic, as well as bedrooms for the Harkness family on the third and fourth floors.

Edward Harkness acquired the site at the northeast corner of 75th Street and Fifth Avenue in January 1907. When the house was completed, it was one of seven residences that the Harkness family owned. Edward lived there until his death in 1940. When Mary died ten years later, she bequeathed the house to the Commonwealth Fund, an organization founded by Edward's mother. After the Commonwealth Fund converted the house into offices, the organization used the building as its headquarters. By the late 20th century, the Harkness House was one of a relatively small number of pre–World War I mansions remaining in the area. Commentary of the house's design has been largely positive, focusing on the simplicity of the facade. (Full article...)

The Todd Haimes Theatre (previously known as the American Airlines Theatre and originally the Selwyn Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 227 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1918, it was designed by George Keister and developed by brothers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, for whom the theater was originally named. The theater is owned by the city and state governments of New York and leased to New 42nd Street. It has 740 seats across two levels and is operated by Roundabout Theatre Company.

The Selwyn Theatre was designed in the Italian Renaissance style, with a brick-and-terracotta facade. The auditorium, which is on 43rd Street, had been accessed from the six-story Selwyn Building on 42nd Street, which collapsed at the end of 1997. The modern theater is accessed through the ten-story New 42nd Street Building, which has an illuminated steel-and-glass facade. The fan-shaped auditorium is designed in a blue-and-gold color scheme and has a shallow balcony, box seats, and murals. There are lounges for Roundabout subscribers above the auditorium and technical spaces in the basement. In addition, the New 42nd Street Building contains offices, rehearsal rooms, and an off-Broadway theater above the lobby.

The theater opened on October 2, 1918, with Jane Cowl's Information Please, and it initially hosted legitimate musical and dramatic productions. Arch Selwyn presented revues such as Wake Up and Dream (1929) and Three's a Crowd (1930). After Arch Selwyn's bankruptcy in 1934, the Selwyn became a cinema; the Brandt family took over the theater in 1937 and operated it for the next five decades. The Selwyn largely showed movies, except in 1949–1950, when legitimate plays alternated with film screenings. There were several proposals to redevelop theaters along 42nd Street in the 1980s. New 42nd Street took over the Selwyn and several neighboring theaters in 1990, leasing the Selwyn to the Roundabout Theatre Company in 1997. Following the collapse of the Selwyn Building, the theater was redesigned as part of the New 42nd Street Building. The theater reopened on June 30, 2000, after being renamed for American Airlines, which had bought the theater's naming rights. In June 2023, Roundabout announced that the theater would be renamed after Roundabout's artistic director, Todd Haimes, who had died in April of that year. (Full article...)

Pier 40 (officially known as Pier 40 at Hudson River Park) is a parking garage, sports facility, and former marine terminal at the west end of Houston Street in Manhattan, New York, within Hudson River Park. It is home to the New York Knights of the USA Rugby League, though it is primarily used by youth and high school athletics.

Pier 40 was originally one of five "finger" piers numbered 37 through 41, which were owned by the government of New York City, and were used by various transport companies. In 1956, the city announced a plan to consolidate the five piers into a single large passenger and cargo terminal serving the Holland America Line. Construction began in 1958 and the terminal was opened in 1962. When the Holland America Line moved to the New York Passenger Ship Terminal in 1974, the pier continued to be used by ships until 1983. Afterward, the New York State Department of Transportation purchased the pier as part of its failed Westway expressway proposal, with plans to use the pier for parking. Pier 40 was redesignated as parkland in 1998; several options for the structure were proposed, including redevelopment as a soccer stadium or an entertainment complex. It reopened in 2005 as a sporting complex within Hudson River Park.

The former cargo terminal is the largest structure in Hudson River Park, with an area of 14.5 acres (5.9 ha), and houses the Hudson River Park Trust's offices. Various park tenants host activities in Pier 40 as well. Sports include baseball, football, soccer, boat building, rowing, trapeze arts, and rugby among others. Despite its popularity, the terminal is dilapidated and sinking into the Hudson River, and was previously proposed for closure due to its deteriorated condition. (Full article...)

The Intrepid Museum (originally the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum) is an American military and maritime history museum in New York City. It is located at Pier 86 at 46th Street, along the Hudson River, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan. The museum is mostly composed of exhibits, aircraft, and spacecraft aboard the museum ship USS Intrepid, a World War II–era aircraft carrier, as well as a cruise missile submarine named USS Growler and exhibits on Pier 86. The Intrepid Museum Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization established in 1979, operates the museum.

The museum was proposed in the late 1970s as a way to preserve Intrepid, and it opened on August 3, 1982. The Intrepid Museum Foundation filed for bankruptcy protection in 1985 after struggling to attract visitors. The foundation acquired USS Growler and the destroyer USS Edson in the late 1980s to attract guests and raise money, although it remained unprofitable through the 1990s. The museum received a minor renovation in 1998 after it started turning a profit. Between 2006 and 2008, the Intrepid Museum was completely closed for a $115 million renovation. A new pavilion for the Space Shuttle Enterprise opened in 2012.

The Intrepid Museum spans three of the carrier's decks; from top to bottom, they are the flight, hangar, and gallery decks. Most of the museum's collection is composed of aircraft, which are exhibited on the flight deck. Among the museum's collection are a Concorde SST, a Lockheed A-12 supersonic reconnaissance plane, and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. The hangar and gallery decks contain a variety of attractions such as exhibit halls, a theater, and flight simulators, as well as individual objects like a cockpit and an air turbine. Several craft and other objects have been sold off or removed from the museum's collection over the years. The museum serves as a space for community and national events, such as Fleet Week and awards ceremonies. (Full article...)

The 59th Street station is an express station on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at 59th Street and Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, it is served by the N and R trains at all times. During rush hours, several W trains also serve the station.

The 59th Street station was constructed as part of the Fourth Avenue Line, which was approved in 1905. Construction on the segment of the line that includes 59th Street started on March 15, 1913, and was completed in 1915. The station opened on June 22, 1915, as the southernmost station of the initial portion of the BMT Fourth Avenue Line. The station's platforms were lengthened in 1926–1927, and again during the 1960s. Elevator access was added in late 2020, in tandem with a station renovation between 2018 and 2020 to make the station compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. (Full article...)

Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85-acre (34 ha) park on the Brooklyn side of the East River in New York City. Designed by landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the park is located on a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) plot of land from Atlantic Avenue in the south, under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and past the Brooklyn Bridge, to Jay Street north of the Manhattan Bridge. From north to south, the park includes the preexisting Empire–Fulton Ferry and Main Street Parks; the historic Fulton Ferry Landing; and Piers 1–6, which contain various playgrounds and residential developments. The park also includes Empire Stores and the Tobacco Warehouse, two 19th-century structures, and is a part of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a series of parks and bike paths around Brooklyn.

The park's first portion, Pier 1, opened in 2010. The land for the park was formerly an industrial stretch of waterfront owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. After the city and state signed a joint agreement in 2002, site planning and project funding proceeded. The first work, undertaken in 2007, involved the demolition of a warehouse under the Brooklyn Bridge. Since the opening of Pier 1, several other portions of the park have been completed. The park was finished in December 2021. There have been disputes and lawsuits over several aspects of Brooklyn Bridge Park, including the construction of residential developments to help pay for the project.

Brooklyn Bridge Park is overseen by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that operates and maintains the park, as well as oversees its construction. The park is served by several bus, subway, and ferry routes. (Full article...)

The Chanin Building (/ˈtʃænɪn/ CHAN-in), also known as 122 East 42nd Street, is a 56-story office skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is on the southwest corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, near Grand Central Terminal to the north and adjacent to 110 East 42nd Street to the west. The building is named for Irwin S. Chanin, its developer.

The structure was designed in the Art Deco style by John Sloan and T. Markoe Robertson of the firm Sloan & Robertson, with the assistance of Chanin's architect Jacques Delamarre. It incorporates architectural sculpture by Rene Paul Chambellan, as well as a facade of brick and terracotta. The skyscraper reaches 680 feet (210 m), with a 649-foot-tall (198 m) roof topped by a 31-foot (9.4 m) spire. The Chanin Building includes numerous setbacks to conform with the 1916 Zoning Resolution.

The Chanin Building was constructed in 1927–1929 on the site of a warehouse, one of the last remaining undeveloped sites around Grand Central Terminal. Upon opening, the building was almost fully rented, and it was the third-tallest building in New York City. Over the years, the upper floors have contained a movie theater, observation deck, and radio broadcast station, while the lower floors were used as offices and a bus terminal. The building was designated a New York City landmark in 1978, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. (Full article...)

Elmer Cecil Stoner (October 20, 1897 – December 16, 1969) was an American comics artist and commercial illustrator. Stoner was one of the first African-American comic book artists, and is believed to have created the iconic Mr. Peanut mascot. He produced pencil art for the first issue of Detective Comics, published by National Comics Publications (the company that later became DC Comics), and worked for a variety of other golden age companies such as Timely Comics, Street & Smith, EC Comics, Fawcett Comics, and Dell Comics. Near the end of his life, Stoner was also a spokesman for Gordon's Gin. (Full article...)

The North Shore Branch is a partially abandoned branch of the Staten Island Railway in New York City, which operated along Staten Island's North Shore from Saint George to Port Ivory. The line continues into New Jersey via the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge to Aldene Junction in Cranford.

The line started construction in 1884, and rapid transit service on the line started on February 23, 1886. Passenger service on the North Shore Branch ended on March 31, 1953, although freight service continued to run along part of the North Shore Branch until 1989. In 2001, part of the line on the east end was reactivated for a short extension to Ballpark, which was in use from 2001 to 2010. In 2005, freight service on the western portion of the line was reactivated, and there are proposals to reactivate the former passenger line for rail or bus service. (Full article...)

The history of the New York Yankees Major League Baseball (MLB) team spans more than a century. Frank J. Farrell and William Stephen Devery bought the rights to an American League (AL) club in New York City after the 1902 season. The team, which became known as the Yankees in 1913, rarely contended for the AL championship before the acquisition of outfielder Babe Ruth after the 1919 season. With Ruth in the lineup, the Yankees won their first AL title in 1921, followed by their first World Series championship in 1923. Ruth and first baseman Lou Gehrig were part of the team's Murderers' Row lineup, which led the Yankees to a then-AL record 110 wins and a Series championship in 1927 under Miller Huggins. They repeated as World Series winners in 1928, and their next title came under manager Joe McCarthy in 1932.

The Yankees won the World Series every year from 1936 to 1939 with a team that featured Gehrig and outfielder Joe DiMaggio, who recorded a record hitting streak during New York's 1941 championship season. New York set a major league record by winning five consecutive championships from 1949 to 1953, and appeared in the World Series nine times from 1955 to 1964. Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford were among the players fielded by the Yankees during the era. After the 1964 season, a lack of effective replacements for aging players caused the franchise to decline on the field, and the team became a money-loser for owners CBS while playing in an aging stadium.

George Steinbrenner bought the club in 1973 and regularly invested in new talent, using free agency to acquire top players. Yankee Stadium was renovated and reopened in 1976 as the home of a more competitive Yankees team. Despite clubhouse disputes, the team reached the World Series four times between 1976 and 1981 and claimed the championship in 1977 and 1978. New York continued to pursue their strategy of signing free agents into the 1980s, but with less success, and the team eventually sank into mediocrity after 1981. In the early 1990s, the team began to improve as their roster was rebuilt around young players from their minor league system, including Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. After earning a playoff berth in 1995, the Yankees won four of the next five World Series, and the 1998–2000 teams were the last in MLB to win three straight Series titles. (Full article...)

The Ed Sullivan Theater (originally Hammerstein's Theatre; later the Manhattan Theatre, Billy Rose's Music Hall, CBS Radio Playhouse No. 3, and CBS Studio 50) is a theater at 1697–1699 Broadway, between 53rd and 54th streets, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1926 to 1927 as a Broadway theater, the Sullivan was developed by Arthur Hammerstein in memory of his father, Oscar Hammerstein I. The two-level theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp with over 1,500 seats, though the modern Ed Sullivan Theater was downsized to 370 seats by 2015^[update]. The neo-Gothic interior is a New York City designated landmark, and the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Ed Sullivan Theater was built in conjunction with a 13-story Gothic-style office building facing Broadway. An entrance vestibule and two lobbies lead from the main entrance on Broadway to the auditorium on 53rd Street. The auditorium was purposely designed to resemble a cathedral, unlike other structures that were designed as Broadway theaters. It has a domed ceiling with ribs, as well as walls with stained glass. Though the seating arrangement and stage have been heavily modified from their original design, many of the design elements in the lobbies and auditorium are intact.

Hammerstein operated the theater from 1927 to 1931, when he lost it to foreclosure. For the next five years, the theater was leased to multiple operators as both a theater and a music hall. The theater became a venue for CBS radio broadcasts in 1936, and it was converted to TV broadcasting in 1950. Under the Studio 50 name, the theater housed The Ed Sullivan Show from 1953 to 1971, as well as other shows such as The Garry Moore Show and The Jackie Gleason Show. Studio 50 was renamed after Ed Sullivan in 1967, and Reeves Entertainment used the Sullivan in the 1980s as a broadcast facility. The Sullivan has staged CBS's The Late Show franchise since 1993, first under David Letterman, then under Stephen Colbert since 2015. (Full article...)

The Yankees–Red Sox rivalry is a Major League Baseball (MLB) rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Both teams have competed in MLB's American League (AL) for over 120 seasons and have since developed what is arguably the fiercest rivalry in all of American sports. In 1919, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold star player Babe Ruth to the Yankees, which was followed by an 86-year period in which the Red Sox did not win a World Series. This led to the popularization of a superstition known as the "Curse of the Bambino," which was one of the most well-known aspects of the rivalry.

The rivalry is often a heated subject of conversation, especially in the home region of both teams, the Northeastern United States.
Until the 2014 season, every season's postseason had featured one or both of the AL East rivals since the inception of the wild card format and the resultant additional Division Series in 1995; they have faced each other in the AL Championship Series (ALCS) three times. The Yankees won twice, in 1999 and 2003; while the Red Sox won in 2004. The two teams have also met once in the AL Division Series (ALDS), in 2018, with Boston winning 3–1, a series which included a 16–1 Red Sox win in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, the most lopsided postseason loss for the Yankees in their history. The Red Sox also beat the Yankees in the 2021 American League Wild Card Game.

In addition, the teams have twice met in the last regular-season series to decide the AL pennant, in 1904 (when the Red Sox, then known as the Americans, won) and 1949 (when the Yankees won). (Full article...)

American Airlines Flight 1 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from New York International (Idlewild) Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. During takeoff on March 1, 1962, flight, the Boeing 707 rolled over and crashed into Jamaica Bay in New York City two minutes after taking off, killing all 87 passengers and eight crew members aboard. A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation determined that a manufacturing defect in the autopilot system led to an uncommanded rudder control system input, causing the accident. A number of notable people died in the crash. It was the fifth fatal Boeing 707 accident, and at the time, the deadliest. It was third of three fatal crashes during an operation of American Airlines Flight 1, and the third fatal crash involving one of American's 707s in the New York area within a three-year period after Flight 514 and Flight 1502. (Full article...)

The Q79 bus route constituted a public transit line in Queens, New York City. It ran primarily along Little Neck Parkway between Little Neck station and Jamaica Avenue. Service on the route, initially known as the Q12A, began on June 4, 1950, following a request made by Queens Borough President Maurice A. FitzGerald. In 1990, the route was renumbered the Q79. In 1996, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposed extending the route to Floral Park, but this extension was canceled to community opposition. This route was operated by the New York City Transit brand until June 27, 2010, when it was discontinued under system-wide service cuts. (Full article...)

Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the sixth-largest park in the city, containing 843 acres (341 ha), and the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016^[update]. It is also one of the most filmed locations in the world.

The creation of a large park in Manhattan was first proposed in the 1840s, and a 778-acre (315 ha) park approved in 1853. In 1858, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition for the park with their "Greensward Plan". Construction began in 1857; existing structures, including a majority-Black settlement named Seneca Village, were seized through eminent domain and razed. The park's first areas were opened to the public in late 1858. Additional land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in 1859, and the park was completed in 1876. After a period of decline in the early 20th century, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses started a program to clean up Central Park in the 1930s. The Central Park Conservancy, created in 1980 to combat further deterioration in the late 20th century, refurbished many parts of the park starting in the 1980s.

The park's main attractions include the Ramble and Lake, Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and Sheep Meadow; amusement attractions such as Wollman Rink, Central Park Carousel, and the Central Park Zoo; formal spaces such as the Central Park Mall and Bethesda Terrace; and the Delacorte Theater. The biologically diverse ecosystem has several hundred species of flora and fauna. Recreational activities include carriage-horse and bicycle tours, bicycling, sports facilities, and concerts and events such as Shakespeare in the Park. Central Park is traversed by a system of roads and walkways and is served by public transportation. (Full article...)

The Fulton Street station is a major New York City Subway station complex in Lower Manhattan. It consists of four linked stations on the IND Eighth Avenue Line, the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the BMT Nassau Street Line and the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. The complex is served by the 2, 4, A, and J trains at all times. The 3, 5, and C trains stop here at all times except late nights, and the Z stops during rush hours in the peak direction.

The Lexington Avenue Line station was built for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line, and opened on January 16, 1905. The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line station, built for the IRT as part of the Dual Contracts, opened on July 1, 1918. The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT)'s Nassau Street Line station was also built under the Dual Contracts and opened on May 29, 1931. The Independent Subway System (IND)'s Eighth Avenue Line station, originally known as the Broadway–Nassau Street station, was the latest in the complex to be completed, opening on February 1, 1933. Several modifications have been made to the stations over the years, and they were connected within a single fare control area in 1948. The station was renovated during the 2000s and early 2010s, becoming part of the Fulton Center complex, which opened in 2014.

The Lexington Avenue, Nassau Street, and Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line stations run north–south under Broadway, Nassau Street, and William Street respectively. The Eighth Avenue Line station is underneath Fulton Street, running west–east between Broadway and Nassau Streets. The Lexington Avenue and Nassau Street Line stations both have two tracks and two side platforms, while the Broadway–Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue Line stations both have two tracks and one island platform. The complex is connected to the nearby Chambers Street–World Trade Center/Park Place/Cortlandt Street station complex and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub through the Dey Street Passageway, which is outside of the station's fare control area. The station was the fifth busiest in the system in 2019 with 27,715,365 passengers. (Full article...)

The A. L. Bazzini Company, commonly known as Bazzini, is an American nut, fruit, and chocolate company headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in New York City in 1886, it is the oldest nut company in the United States. It began on Park Place in the Washington Market neighborhood of Manhattan. Upon the market's demolition in 1968, the company moved to a large nut-processing facility on Greenwich Street. In 1983, the Bazzini family sold the business to Rocco Damato, who has owned and operated it since. The company moved to the Bronx in 1997, and to Allentown in 2011. In addition to being sold through retail shops, its nuts are sold in venues like Yankee Stadium; it has supplied both the original and current stadiums of that name since the original opened in 1923. The company's former factory on Greenwich Street is still known as the Bazzini Building, although it has been turned in to condominiums, and is part of the Tribeca West Historic District. (Full article...)

The Park Avenue Viaduct, also known as the Pershing Square Viaduct, is a roadway in Manhattan, New York City. It carries vehicular traffic on Park Avenue from 40th to 46th Streets. The viaduct is composed of two sections: a steel viaduct with two roadways from 40th to 42nd Streets, as well as a pair of roadways between 42nd and 46th Streets. The section from 40th to 42nd Streets was designated a New York City landmark in 1980 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The street-level service roads of Park Avenue, which flank the viaduct between 40th and 42nd Streets, are called Pershing Square. The section of the viaduct between 42nd and 46th Streets travels around Grand Central Terminal and the MetLife Building, then through the Helmsley Building; all three buildings lie across the north–south axis of the avenue.

The viaduct was first proposed by New York Central Railroad president William J. Wilgus in 1900 as part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal. Construction on the viaduct's western leg began in 1917, after the terminal had opened, and was completed in 1919. The western leg initially carried two-way traffic, so the eastern leg was completed for northbound traffic in 1928, and the western leg was reconfigured to carry southbound traffic only. An information booth was established in 1939 beneath the viaduct, and the city renovated the viaduct in the early 1990s. (Full article...)

Giosuè Gallucci (Italian pronunciation: [dʒozuˈɛ ɡɡalˈluttʃi]; December 10, 1864 – May 21, 1915), also known as Luccariello, was a crime boss of Italian Harlem in New York City affiliated with the Camorra. He dominated the area from 1910–1915 and was also known as the undisputed "King of Little Italy" or "The Boss", due to his power in the criminal underworld and political connections. He held strict control over the policy game (numbers racket), employing Neapolitan and Sicilian street gangs as his enforcers.

Born in Naples, Italy, Gallucci became one of the most powerful Italians politically in the city. With his ability to mobilize the vote in Harlem and register immigrants, he delivered a significant number of ballots. He gained near immunity from law enforcement by allying with Tammany Hall, a Democratic political machine that ruled Manhattan and New York City politics almost unopposed. Despite his power and political clout, Gallucci was subject to Black Hand extortion and his rule was challenged frequently. In 1915, he was killed by a rival gang. The fight over the lucrative numbers rackets left behind by Gallucci was known as the Mafia-Camorra War. (Full article...)

Queens is the largest by area of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn and by Nassau County to its east, and shares maritime borders with the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as with New Jersey. Queens is the most linguistically and ethnically diverse place in the world.

With a population of 2,405,464 as of the 2020 census, Queens is the second-most populous county in New York state, behind Kings County (Brooklyn), and is therefore also the second-most populous of the five New York City boroughs. If Queens were its own city, it would be the fourth most-populous in the U.S. after the rest of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated borough in New York City and the fourth-most densely populated U.S. county. As approximately 47% of its residents are foreign-born, Queens is highly diverse. (Full article...)

Staten Island (/ˈstætən/ STAT-ən) is the southernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York. The borough is separated from the adjacent state of New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 495,747 in the 2020 Census, Staten Island is the least populated New York City borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km²); it is also the least densely populated and most suburban borough in the city.

A home to the Lenape Native Americans, the island was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. It was one of the 12 original counties of New York state. Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898. It was formerly known as the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Borough of Staten Island. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government and the media. It has also been referred to as the "borough of parks" due to its 12,300 acres of protected parkland and over 170 parks. (Full article...)

The Bronx (/brɒŋks/ BRONKS) is the northernmost borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York City borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx, the only New York City borough not primarily located on an island, has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km²) and a population of 1,472,654 at the 2020 census. Of the five boroughs, it has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density.

The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County (modern-day Manhattan) in 1914. About a quarter of the Bronx's area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center. The Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden is thousands of years old and is New York City's largest remaining tract of the original forest that once covered the city. These open spaces are primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. The Bronx is also home to Yankee Stadium of Major League Baseball. (Full article...)

Brooklyn is a borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelve original counties established under British rule in 1683 in the then Province of New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the population stood at 2,736,074, making it the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City, and the most populous county in the state. Brooklyn, at 37,339.9 inhabitants per square mile (14,417.0/km²), is the second most densely populated county in the U.S. after Manhattan (New York County), as of 2022. Had Brooklyn remained an independent city, it would now be the fourth most populous American city after the rest of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Named after the Dutch town of Breukelen in the Netherlands, Brooklyn shares a land border with the borough and county of Queens. It has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan, across the East River (most famously, the architecturally significant Brooklyn Bridge), and is connected to Staten Island by way of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. With a land area of 69.38 square miles (179.7 km²) and a water area of 27.48 square miles (71.2 km²), Kings County is the state of New York's fourth-smallest county by land area and third smallest by total area. (Full article...)

Manhattan (/mænˈhætən, mən-/ ^ⓘ man-HAT-ən, mən-) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world.

Present-day Manhattan was originally part of Lenape territory. European settlement began with the establishment of a trading post by Dutch colonists in 1624 on Manhattan Island; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The territory came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York, based in present-day Lower Manhattan, served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor greeted millions of arriving immigrants in the late 19th century and is a world symbol of the United States and its ideals. Manhattan became a borough during the consolidation of New York City in 1898, and houses New York City Hall, the seat of the city's government. Harlem in Upper Manhattan became the center of what is now known as the cultural Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, part of the Stonewall National Monument, is considered the birthplace in 1969 of the modern gay-rights movement, cementing Manhattan's central role in LGBT culture. Manhattan was the site of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (Full article...)