15 Lesser Known Facts About New York City

Who doesn’t love New York City? The Big Apple. The city that never sleeps!
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

Talk of New York should probably start with its name “The Big Apple”, right? Well, this term was originally coined by a local newspaper’s horse racing column and referred to the big prize money in various horse races organised around the city.

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!

Every 4 out of 10 households in the NYC speak a language other than English.
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

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

The Big Apple is also the home to United States’ first pizzeria – Lombardi’s – opened in 1895, it still serves some of the best pizza in the city.

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.

 

14. There are more women than men in the NYC

15. The NYC homeowners can request for a tree to be planted outside their homes for free.