106 Fun & Interesting Facts about New York

Are you ready to take a bite out of the Big Apple and dive into some amazing facts about New York? New York is not just a state; it’s a place of big dreams, towering skyscrapers, and lots of incredible history. From the bustling streets of New York City to the breathtaking views of Niagara Falls, there’s so much to discover. So, let’s start our adventure and find out what makes New York so special with these facts about New York!

Did you know that New York City is made up of five boroughs? That’s right! Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island all come together to create this vibrant city. Each borough has its own unique personality, from the bright lights of Times Square in Manhattan to the beautiful beaches in Brooklyn. New York City is known as “The City That Never Sleeps” because there’s always something exciting happening!

But New York isn’t just about the city. Did you know that New York State is home to the incredible Niagara Falls? These massive waterfalls are one of the natural wonders of the world. People come from all over to see the powerful water rushing down. It’s a sight you won’t forget!

Here’s a fun fact about New York: it is known as the Empire State. This nickname shows just how important New York has been in the history and culture of the United States. From being a leader in finance, fashion, and entertainment to its role in American history, New York truly is an empire of its own.

Are you excited to learn more facts about New York? From the hustle and bustle of its cities to the natural beauty of its landscapes, there’s so much to explore and discover in New York. Let’s keep our curiosity alive and uncover all the amazing things that make New York a fascinating place to learn about!

 Be sure to discover even more interesting facts with our Facts about Rhode Island  and Facts about North Dakota.

Facts about New York

1. The New York Public Library has over 50 million books.
2. Around 1626, Dutch residents who were living in what is currently New York City referred to the region as New Amsterdam.
3. Oysters were so popular in New York in the 19th century that the shells were used to pave Pearl Street. They were also used for lime for the masonry of the Trinity Church.
4. New York is the birthplace of LGBTQ+ rights in the USA.
5. Prior to Washington D.C, New York City was actually the first capital of the United States of America. On September 13, 1788, New York City was established as America’s first capital up until 1790.
6.  There are more than 800 languages spoken in New York City.
7. Westgate New York Grand Central was once known as the world-famous Tudor Hotel. The Tudor Hotel was built in 1927 and was one of the first hotels to ever grace the booming Tudor City, known today as Midtown Manhattan. 
8. New York City is home to the first pizzeria in America.
9. New York City’s Federal Reserve Bank is the world’s largest gold storage and holds over 7,000 tons of gold bars worth approximately $90 billion.
10. The Statue of Liberty is not naturally green it is originally copper. Copper turns green after years of exposure to the elements.
11. The route of the NYC Ferry covers 60 miles of waterway.
12. In 2018, New Yorkers celebrated a “Go Topless Day Parade” wherein participants walked around topless in the city.
13. New York City Subway Station is the busiest subway system in the United States.
14. NYC Public Library was opened in 1911, the building consists of 530,000 cu. ft. of marble including 12 inches of exterior marble. Its total area of 646,680 sq. ft. is equivalent to that of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
15. According to the Michelin Guide (2008) there are about 23,000 restaurants in New York City, with a total of 54 Michelin stars.
16. The Grand Central Information Booth Clock at Grand Central Station is estimated to be worth as much as $20 million.
17. The narrowest house in NYC is in the West Village. The house is located at 75 1/2 Bedford Street and is just over 9 feet wide.
18. New York City is home to more billionaires than anywhere else in the world. Forbes listed New York City with the most billionaires at 107 people, followed by Beijing with 83 billionaires.
19. New York City became the first capital of the United States in 1788.
20. The first pizzeria in the United States opened in NYC in 1895.

21.  Since the 1960s, the price of a slice of pizza has been roughly the same price as a subway ride, generating the idea of the “Pizza Principle” among economists.
22. France gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States in 1886 for its centennial celebration. The statue was shipped as 350 pieces in 214 crates and took 4 months to assemble at its current home on Ellis Island.
23. New York is a paradise for birdwatching — 275 of the 800 North American bird species that are known have been sighted at Central Park.
24. According to an NYC law, farting at church can be seen as a disturbance or a disruption: “when he or she makes unreasonable noise or disturbance while at a lawfully assembled religious service, funeral, burial or memorial service, or within one hundred feet thereof, with intent to cause annoyance or alarm or recklessly creating a risk thereof.”
25. Joseph Gayetty invented commercial toilet paper in NYC in 1857. He introduced his medical-purposed invention with his name printed on every sheet.
26. Among the rooftop bars in NYC, Castell is the only place that offers salted grapefruit.
27. Delivery companies in New York receive 7,000 parking tickets a day!
28. It’s illegal to have a puppet show in your window. Section 10-114 of the city administrative code expressly restricts the use of “any window… any performance of puppet or other figures,” A $25 fine and up to 30 days in jail are possible penalties.
29. There are fake buildings in the city.
30. In 1884, 21 elephants crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.
31. The tourism sector of NYC is one of the city’s most important contributors.
32. The first native people to occupy New York were the Lenape.
33. There are hot dog stands in almost every corner of NYC. However, owning a hot dog stand in the city is extremely expensive, and the permit to do so for a year can cost you anywhere from $700 to over $200,000 depending on where you choose to set up shop.
34. The MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) is home to the world’s oldest surviving piano.
35. The Statue of Liberty was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel, the French civil engineer who designed the Eiffel Tower.
36. The New York City Subway opened in 1904 and is considered the eighth oldest subway in the world. The NYC subway system is also the world’s most extensive metro system with 424 stations.
37. Manhattan is the best-known borough in New York. This is where you will find most of the city’s top attractions, such as the Empire State Building, Central Park, Times Square, the Chrysler Building, and more.
38. In total, about 2,702,957 New York residents speak Spanish, making it the second most spoken language in NYC after English.
39. More Chinese people live in New York City than any other city outside of Asia. More Jewish people live there than any other city outside of Israel.
40. New York City’s Federal Reserve Bank has the largest gold storage in the world. The vault is 80 feet below street level and contains $90 billion in gold.

41. New York’s famous nickname “Big Apple” originated in the 1920s. At that time, sports journalist John J. Fitzgerald wrote a column for the New York Morning Telegraph about the many popular horse races that happened in and around New York. He referred to the substantial prizes to be won as “the big apple,” symbolizing the biggest and best one can achieve.
42. The Central Park Mall is a scenic walkway that runs right in the middle of the park. It’s also the only straight path in the entire park leading up to Bethesda Terrace.
43. NYPL is home to more than 56 million items, with books and unusual objects, including a lock of Walt Whitman’s hair, Charlotte Bronte’s writing desk, and a P.L. Travers umbrella.
44. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the United States and also one of the most visited art museums in the world.
45. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, New Yorkers are the top consumers of hot dogs across the country.
46. NYC is the city with the most billionaires in the world. There are over 500,000 millionaires residing in the city as well. New York City is a hot spot for the world’s richest.
47. New York City legalized credit card minimums. Congress passed a law in 2010 legalizing a minimum of $10 in credit cards, and it still stands true today.
48. The Museum of the City of New York boasts over 1.5 million N.Y.-related objects.
49. The original Penn Station in New York was once among the world’s most beautiful train stations.
50. Madison Square Park was the first to host a public tree lighting. This occurred in 1912, followed by Washington Square Park in 1924.
51. The design of the Central Park Mall was meant for wealthy New Yorkers.
52. New York City is known for being one of the world’s largest cultural centers.
53. Located in the Little Italy section of Manhattan and inaugurated in 1905, Lombardi’s is said to be the first pizzeria in the United States.
54. There is a “whispering gallery” in the dining area of the Grand Central Terminal. In this gallery, people can stand on the opposite corners of the tiled wall and whisper their messages to each other.
55. The Statue of Liberty was given as a birthday gift from France to the United States on July 4, 1884.
56. In 1780, winter was so intense in New York City that New York harbor froze over. As a result, people could walk from Manhattan to Staten Island on ice.
57. If Brooklyn was its own city, instead of a borough of New York City, it would be the fourth largest city in the United States.
58. The city was named New York after King Charles II conquered the area, and gifted the city to his brother the Duke of York, who renamed it “New York.”
59. At the time it was completed, in 1883, the 3,460-foot Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world.
60. Standing at 1,250 feet tall, the Empire State Building is currently the 4th tallest building in New York City, the 6th tallest in the United States, and the 43rd tallest tower in the world.

61. The children’s book character Eloise lives in the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
62. November 28, 2012, is a historical day for New York. For the entirety of the day, it was the first time ever for the city to have zero (0) recorded reports of a stabbing, shooting, murder, or other violent crimes or incidents.
63. It Is illegal to honk your horn unless it’s an emergency. You can get a $350 fine for excessive use of your horn or for a rogue car alarm going off. It is clear though, for those here who reside in New York, that they take this piece of legislation rather lightly.
64. There are more undergraduate and graduate students in New York than there are people residing in Boston.
65. The deepest subway stop in NYC is the 191st St. Station at 180 ft. below street level.
66. Women were only allowed to enter McSorley’s starting in 1970.
67. New York City was witness to one of the first acts of domestic terrorism.
68. The iconic Empire State Building has its own zip code: 10118.
69. Brooklyn Bridge is 11 years older than London’s Tower Bridge.
70. More than 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world!
71. Times Square is named after the New York Times. It was originally called Longacre Square until the Times moved there in 1904.
72. The New York Stock Exchange, located on Wall Street, is the largest stock exchange in the world.
73. A Straw Hat Riot broke out in New York City in 1922.
74. The Lowline in New York is the first underground park on the planet.
75. New York City is home to more than 2,000 bridges and tunnels.
76. The Brooklyn Bridge is the first bridge to be lit using electricity.
77. There are over 600,000 dogs living in New York City.
78. The island of Manhattan was purchased for just $24!
79. New York City has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries.
80. The NYC power outage on July 13, 2019, brought darkness upon “The City that Never Sleeps”.

81. NYC parking tickets contribute around $120 million in revenue for the city. This collection comes from the 7,000 average parking tickets handed out per day to commercial delivery companies like FedEx and UPS.
82. The phrase “meet me at the clock” refers to Grand Central Station’s booth clock and is understood by every New Yorker.
83. The New York Public Library (NYPL) is the second-largest library system in the U.S. and the third-largest library in the world.
84. New York is the only state that borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes.
85. NYC is home to the highest Jewish population outside of Israel, the highest Hispanic population of any U.S. city, the highest Chinese population outside of Asia, and the highest Puerto Rican population in the world.
86. The Bronx borough of NYC was named after the first person who ever settled there: Swedish-born Jonas Bronck. His farmlands were called “Bronck’s Land,” and people eventually started calling it the Bronx, for short.
87. New York City boasts a 520-mile-long coastline. This distance goes longer than the combined coasts of Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco.
88. Two-hundred seventy-five out of 800 known North American bird species take shelter in NYC.
89. Fraunces Tavern, dating back to 1762, is considered to be the oldest restaurant in New York City.
90. Eggs Benedict, a famous American breakfast or brunch dish, was invented in NYC.
91. Credited in 532 movies, Central Park is the most filmed location in the world.
92. New York City is divided into five boroughs Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx, and the best-known of all, Manhattan.
93. New York City is home to the first headquarters of the United Nations.
94. In 1624, the Dutch West India Company sent people to modern-day Governors Island.
95. All subway stations have Wi-Fi access.
96. The musicians who perform in the NYC Subway system go through a competitive audition process.
97. New York City sees 15 times more snowfall than the South Pole each year.
98. Somewhere in New York City is a safe deposit box containing Albert Einstein’s brain and eyeballs. Thomas Harvey, a doctor at Princeton Hospital, performed an illegal autopsy on Einstein and kept the physicist’s brain and eyeballs.
99. The United Nations headquarters was established in New York City in 1952 after World War II.
100. Townsend Harris founded the City College of New York in 1847 as ‘The Free Academy.’

101. New York is home to large mammals such as black bears, bobcats, and moose, plus smaller mammals such as weasels, raccoons, and skunks.
102. It is reported that 80% of the items turned into Grand Central’s lost and found make it back to their owner.
103. The Lowline, located on Manhattan’s West Side, is the world’s first underground park.
104. Unclaimed bodies in NYC are buried in Hart Island.
105. New York City is the most populous city in the United States, with around 8.5 million residents
106. The Bronx Zoo is the largest in the United States, it contains over 500 species and 4,000 animals.

Do you have even more interesting facts about New York? Share them with us in the comments!