New York + USA

New York is situated on the eastern coast of the USA. It is the biggest city in the USA. It is an important seaport and financial and business centre. There are four airports and it has the largest subway system in the world, which is very untidy. There are four tunnels under New York. You can also take taxis, but the taxi drivers never speak. New York is called the Big Apple. Famous sports in New York are ice-hockey, tennis, and baseball. New York consists of five boroughs. Brooklyn is the largest of the five. It is situated on Long Island. Richmond is on Staten Island in the south. Manhattan is where there are luxury shops, hotels, and offices on Fifth Avenue (Saks Fifth Avenue). In Manhattan, there is also Broadway and Wall Street. The Bronx has a reputation of being a poor area. The last borough is Queens. Manhattan was originally inhabited by Indians. In 1626, they sold it to the Dutch and the Dutch called it New Amsterdam. Most streets go from east to west and have numbers. Most avenues go from north to south. In Central park, there is the Lincoln center, which is a cultural point of pride to the New Yorker. Central Park is the largest park in New York. It comprises of the magnificent Metropolitan opera (the Met), the House with Chagall’s paintings, and the Philharmonic opera. The most famous places are St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is the largest Catholic cathedral in the USA, Radio City Music Hall, and Rockefeller center. New York is famous for being a financial center. There is the famous New York Stock Exchange. The first skyscraper was built there in 1903. Now we can find the world’s highest concentration of skyscrapers there. The highest skyscraper in New York was The World Trade Center. It was built in 1973 and had 110 floors. On Tuesday, September 11^th, 2001, terrorists hijacked jet airplanes and crashed them into the twin towers of the WTC in New York as well as into the Pentagon in Washington DC. Thousands of innocent people died.

Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492. In 1607, the first English colony was founded in Virginia. In 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place. Between 1775 and 1783, the War of Independence took place. The Declaration of Independence was signed by on July 4^th in 1776 as well the American Constitution being developed. Between 1861 and 1865, there was a civil war between the South and the North regarding the abolition of slavery, which the North was in favor of. The first settlers of the USA were puritans. They became to the USA because they were religiously persecuted in their countries of origin as well as disapproving of the ways of infidelity there. When people came to the USA, specifically the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower, they had nothing and there was a harsh winter. They didn’t have any food, so the Indians gave them some. Every year on the 4th Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in honor of the first Thanksgiving feast that was held to thank the Indians. In 1773, young people disguised themselves as Indians and threw all of the tea which had just arrived from Britain into the ocean, because they didn´t want to pay the English king the duty on tea. This event is called the Boston Tea Party. After this, the USA fought with England for its freedom. The French helped the English colonies and so they won their freedom from England. The first president was George Washington. They wrote their own Constitution where it was included, that everybody can have a life and privilege if they work for it. It was written by Thomas Jefferson. In the USA there are a lot of immigrants. They came to the USA for work, for infidelity reasons, because of the gold fever, famines in Europe, during World War II, or during the Russian revolution. All of the people came to America without money, but they had a dream that they would be successful and rich. They thought that in America everything would be easy and better. Now it is called the American Dream. It is also called the Melting Pot because people came there without anything and all of the nationalities joined together into one big melting pot. During the Civil War, The United States of America was separated into two countries. The Northern states were called the Union and consisted of 26 states. The Southern states were called the Confederation and consisted of 11 states. Each country had its own parliament, government, rules, and army. At the beginning of the war, the Confederation was more successful. Its army was smaller, but the soldiers were braver. The turning point in the war was the abolishing of slavery in 1863. The Confederation lost this war. From this point in time, the economy of America grew. In the 20^th century, America was affected with immigrants, mainly during World War II and the Cold War, which was a conflict between the democratic countries in the West and the Communist region under Soviet rule. A very important point in this conflict was the birth of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. The Korean War and the Vietnam War are examples of this conflict, too. The northern parts of these countries were under the communist regime, and the USA wanted to rule in the democratic southern parts and let them enter into NATO.

The United States of America has 50 states. 48 states are situated in the southern part of North America. Alaska is situated in the North and Hawaii in the Mid-Pacific. Its neighbors are Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The population is about 250.000.000. Around 79 per cent of the inhabitants live in urban areas. The main language spoken here is American English, but various ethnic minorities speak their original languages. The Central Plains are bounded by the Rocky Mountains and the Coastal Mountains in the west, the Appalachian Mountains in the east and the alluvial plains around the Gulf of Mexico. The highest mountain in the USA is Mount McKinley in the Alaskan Range. The largest rivers are the Mississippi and the Missouri. The border with Canada is made by the Great Lakes Region in the central part. The Great Lakes are: Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. Between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are the world known Niagara Falls. There are many national parks in the USA, such as Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains NP, and Grand Canyon NP. The winters are cold in most parts and there is heavy snow. The summers are hot and dry.

The USA can be divided into four parts. The 1^st area is the North and the North East with centers of heavy and light industry. The biggest cities here are New York - the biggest port, and Philadelphia. The capital, Washington D.C., is also situated here. The 2^nd are is the Middle West, the area of the Great Lakes. Here, agriculture is closely connected with industry. The biggest city here is Chicago, where the highest skyscraper in the USA is situated, Sears Tower. The 3^rd area is the agricultural South with a mainly black population. Another big city here is New Orleans, the home of jazz. The 4^th area is the Far West, which is the largest area, but has the smallest population. San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego are the largest cities here, as well as Las Vegas, where you can win a lot of money. The most interesting places are the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and Niagara falls. I would like to see the Grand Canyon because I saw it in a picture and it looks fantastic.