New York is the largest city in the United States, the home of the United Nations, and the center of global finance, communications, and business.

New York City is unusual among cities because of its high residential density, its extraordinarily diverse population, its hundreds of tall office and apartment buildings, its thriving central business district, its extensive public transportation system, and its more than 400 distinct neighborhoods.

The city’s concert houses, museums, galleries, and theaters constitute an ensemble of cultural richness rivaled by few cities. In 2000, the population of the city of New York was 8,008,278; the population of the metropolitan region was 21,199,865.

Located in the southeastern part of New York State just east of northern New Jersey, the city developed at the point where the Hudson and Passaic rivers mingle with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound.

The harbor consists of the Upper Bay (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean) as well as the East River and the various waterways that border the city. Its harbor is one of the largest and finest in the world and is ice-free in all seasons.

Although the Dutch founded the city in 1624 and called it Fort Amsterdam and then New Amsterdam, the English captured the settlement in 1664 and renamed it New York, after the Duke of York, who later became James II of England.

Unlike most American cities, which make up only a part of a particular county, New York is made up of five separate counties, which are called boroughs.

Originally the city included only the borough of Manhattan, located on an island between the Hudson and East rivers. In 1898, a number of surrounding communities were incorporated into the city as the boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island.

The Bronx is the only borough on the mainland of the United States. Manhattan and Staten Island are surrounded by water, while Queens and Brooklyn are part of Long Island.