Concerning New York

The other day I was reading an interesting article about New York City, which is a city that has always aroused my curiosity. Here is a brief summary of it:

Grand Central Terminal is the biggest train station in the world. It was built in 1913, and even today is the biggest in the whole planet: it has got 44 platforms with 67 railways in two levels. And there is not only usability, its Beaux Arts style is an important feature: the very high main hall with the ceiling vaulted and illuminated over three great 23-metre wide windows. This space, where 500.000 people transit every day through, is a symbol of New York and has been used several times as a set in many films.

New York underground (“NYC Subway”) has amazing numbers too: over 1.300 kilometers of rails, 26 lines (most of them working 24 hours a day), 468 stations and 1,6 billion displacements a year. Most of the platforms exceed 200 meters long in order to host ten or eleven wagons that compose every cowboy.

The Statue of Liberty, whose real name is Liberty Enlightening the World, is a 46 meter-high neoclassical sculpture placed on Liberty Island. It was given as a present by the French government to commemorate the centenary of the American Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776). It was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and was built by Gustave Eiffel in France with 31 tons of copper. It was sent in 350 parts packet in 214 boxes and was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

Central Park is a great green lung placed in the middle of Manhattan. It was built between 1860 and 1870 above a swamp zone. Its 3,5 km2 are taken every day by thousands of New Yorkers and visitors to repose in the grass, take photos or simply walk around. There is the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, a great water reservoir that covers 43 ha and holds over 3,8 million m3 of water. A path surrounds the lake, where lots of people usually go running and biking in; actually, there is too many people, that authorities established to run only in clockwise direction, in order to avoid crashes.

The Empire State was the highest building in the world since its construction in 1931 until 1972, when Twin Towers were built. After 11-S attacks, the Empire State was the highest building in the city again. It is 443-meter high and has 102 floors. But nowadays is not the highest in the world any more; this honor is occupied by Burj Khalifa (“Khalifa tower”) in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) with 830 meters high. However, the issues required to build the Empire State are equally amazing: 60.000 tons of steel, 10 million bricks, 6.500 windows, 113 kilometers of pipes, 9.000 taps, 73 elevators and over 41 million dollars. The Empire State hosts 1.000 offices and has got its own postal code. Last 30 floors can change the light color: there is a LED lighting system that is capable of displaying 16 million colors, which can change instantaneously. From the top of the building you can see the whole city, and that must be an incredible experience.