It has been shown in countless movies, has its name all around the world, and maybe you have already visited or planned a visit to NYC. It is surely a place of many wonders and many lesser-known facts about New York City!
To get you, even more, intrigued, here we have compiled a list of 15 lesser-known facts about the Big Apple that will keep you hooked to your love for this place. Having said that, you can never learn enough about this amazing place!
1. New York City, and not Washington D.C., was the first capital of the United States in 1789.
2. The name “The Big Apple” referred to horse racing
3. The United Nations Headquarters was established in NYC in 1952, after the World War – II
4. NYC Taxis were originally Red & Green
Although the yellow cab is an easily recognisable entity in the buzzing streets of NYC, the first cabs were actually Red and Green. The yellow color was only adopted in around 1912, as it was used in a number of other cities around the United States.
5. The Land of more than 800 Languages!
Not only that, in total, more than 800 languages are spoken all across the city, making the Big Apple the most linguistically diverse city in the world!
6. France Gifted the Statue of Liberty to NYC
Did you think the great Statue of Liberty was built in New York? Well, it’s time to bid farewell to that misinformation!
In 1886, France gifted the iconic Statue of Liberty to New York City for its centennial celebration. The structure was shipped in 350 separate pieces and it took almost 4 months to assemble at its current home – on Ellis Island.
7. First ever pizzeria in the United States
You probably know that NYC is famous for its pizza, right? (if you didn’t know, you just got a bonus fact!)
Talking of pizza and NYC, there’s something more to it: The price of a pizza slice and a single subway ride has relatively remained the same for over 50 years! When the price of one goes up, so does the other!
8. Highest Population Density among any American City
With over 27,000 people per square mile, New York City is the densest of them all in America, and that shows when you try navigating around the city during rush hours.These numbers aren’t much of a shock when you know that there’s a birth in NYC every 4.4 minutes! Now that’s a lot of babies!
9. Honking your car horn is Illegal!
Well this one is hard to believe if you’ve already experienced the NYC roads and traffic, right? But it is, in fact, illegal to honk the car horn, except for an emergency. Though it is pretty much evident that most people, if not all, don’t really care and you won’t be going far without hearing someone honking!10. Largest gold storage in the world
The Federal Reserve Bank of NYC is the largest gold storage in the world! The vault holds gold worth around $90 billion dollars and is situated at 80-feet below the ground level.
11. The Empire State Building gets hit by lightning around 23 times a year!
12. Times Square is named after the New York Times
The former name of Times Square was Longacre Square until the New York Times moved there in 1904.
13. New York gets 15 times as much snow as the South Pole.