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Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.

United States · New York

Where to Stay in New York City, New York

New York City sits at the mouth of New York Harbor, the largest city in the United States, known for its five boroughs and the Brooklyn Bridge.

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Where to stay in New York City

Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.

Aerial view over Laurelton, Queens, with detached houses, tree-lined streets and a large cemetery beyond.New York CityUnited States

Laurelton

Laurelton is a district of New York City, one of the named neighbourhoods that make up the borough of Queens.Laurelton →
Brooklyn, New York rooftops and brownstones with the downtown skyline and Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower beyondNew York CityUnited States

Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Bridge crosses the East River into Brooklyn, the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City, at the western end of Long Island.Brooklyn →
The Brooklyn Bridge spanning the East River with the Lower Manhattan skyline and One World Trade Center behind it.New York CityUnited States

Manhattan

Skyscrapers crowd Manhattan Island, the urban core of New York City and its financial and cultural center, known for the Museum of Modern Art.Manhattan →
The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side.New York CityUnited States

Upper West Side

Brownstone blocks run between Central Park and the Hudson River on the Upper West Side, a residential quarter of Manhattan in New York City.Upper West Side →
Low-rise rooftops and leafy streets of Astoria, Queens, with a distant cluster of towers on the horizon.New York CityUnited States

Astoria

Astoria is a neighborhood in the western part of Queens, bounded by the East River and known for the Museum of the Moving Image.Astoria →
Lawn and bare plane trees in a Bushwick park facing a brick school building, Brooklyn, New YorkNew York CityUnited States

Bushwick

Bushwick fills the northern part of Brooklyn, its avenues running between Williamsburg, Ridgewood in Queens, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.Bushwick →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Corona

Corona is a Queens neighborhood dating from 1854, spread between Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and the avenues running toward Jackson Heights.Corona →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Flatbush

Flatbush dates from 1651 and spreads across central Brooklyn, bounded by Prospect Park, Midwood, Kensington and East Flatbush.Flatbush →
ChinatownNew York CityUnited States

Chinatown

Chinatown takes up a stretch of Lower Manhattan between Tribeca and the Lower East Side, its centre shifted east from Mott Street toward East Broadway.Chinatown →
A Brownsville street corner in Brooklyn, with an arched mosaic-fronted brick hall beside older walk-up houses.New York CityUnited States

Brownsville

Founded in 1858, Brownsville is a residential district of eastern Brooklyn, hemmed by Crown Heights, East New York, and Canarsie.Brownsville →
Brownstone row houses and spring trees along a quiet corner in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City.New York CityUnited States

Park Slope

Park Slope climbs from Fourth Avenue to Prospect Park, a Brooklyn neighborhood of brownstone side streets and two long shopping avenues.Park Slope →
Tenement rooftops and fire escapes above a tree-lined avenue in Manhattan's East VillageNew York CityUnited States

East Village

The East Village covers part of the East Side of Lower Manhattan, east of the Bowery and south of 14th Street.East Village →
Brick early-20th-century public school building on a sunny street corner in Sunnyside, Queens, New York City.New York CityUnited States

Sunnyside

Sunnyside occupies the western portion of the Queens borough of New York City, with the Sunnyside Yard rail complex along its northern edge.Sunnyside →
All neighbourhoods (85)
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Maspeth

Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the New York City borough of Queens, founded in 1642 by Dutch and English settlers.Maspeth →
Yellow taxis passing a steel-and-glass terminal building on a Hell's Kitchen corner in Manhattan, New York CityNew York CityUnited States

Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen runs up the West Side of Midtown Manhattan, from 34th Street to 59th Street, between Eighth Avenue and the Hudson River.Hell's Kitchen →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Kensington

Kensington is a central Brooklyn neighbourhood, lying just south of Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery in New York City.Kensington →
Greenpoint rooftops in Brooklyn facing the Manhattan skyline with the Empire State and Chrysler buildings.New York CityUnited States

Greenpoint

Greenpoint is the northernmost neighbourhood of Brooklyn, a Polish-marked grid of streets between the East River and Newtown Creek.Greenpoint →
Glass residential towers along the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn, New York, with a ferry on the East River.New York CityUnited States

Williamsburg

Williamsburg is a Brooklyn neighborhood on the East River, one subway stop from Manhattan and an independent city until Brooklyn annexed it in 1855.Williamsburg →
One Court Square's blue glass tower rising above Long Island City warehouses and a bare billboard frame.New York CityUnited States

Long Island City

Long Island City, or LIC, occupies the western tip of Long Island, an East River frontage of Queens between Astoria and Newtown Creek.Long Island City →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

East Elmhurst

The Louis Armstrong House and LaGuardia Airport share one Queens neighborhood, East Elmhurst, between Jackson Heights and Bowery Bay.East Elmhurst →
The Brooklyn Heights Promenade in New York, with benches facing the Lower Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn Bridge.New York CityUnited States

Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood above the East River, running from the Brooklyn Bridge south to Atlantic Avenue.Brooklyn Heights →
Aerial over Tribeca's brick loft blocks and rooftop water tanks toward the Hudson River in New York.New York CityUnited States

Tribeca

Tribeca is a loft quarter of Lower Manhattan, its name short for Triangle Below Canal, running west from Broadway to the Hudson River.Tribeca →
Battery Park City's Hudson River waterfront in Manhattan, with One World Trade Center rising behind the esplanade.New York CityUnited States

Battery Park City

Battery Park City is a planned neighborhood on the Hudson River waterfront at Manhattan's southern tip, on land held by New York State.Battery Park City →
Italian flags and green-white-red garlands strung above a Little Italy street in Manhattan, New York.New York CityUnited States

Little Italy

Little Italy is an Italian ethnic enclave in New York City, its parish anchored by St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.Little Italy →
Aerial view over the low-rise residential sprawl of Queens, New York, toward a distant shore.New York CityUnited States

Queens

Immigrant kitchens and ballfields fill Queens, the largest borough of New York City by area and the most linguistically diverse place in the world.Queens →
A Bronx roadway crossing beside a cluster of red high-rise residential towers under constructionNew York CityUnited States

The Bronx

Home crowds fill Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, known too for the Bronx Zoo.The Bronx →
Lower Manhattan's skyline and One World Trade Center seen across the harbor from the Staten Island Ferry.New York CityUnited States

Staten Island

Ferries cross New York Harbor to Staten Island, the southernmost and greenest of New York City's boroughs, known for Historic Richmond Town.Staten Island →
JamaicaNew York CityUnited States

Jamaica

Jamaica is a district of Queens, part of New York City, where the First Reformed Church stands.Jamaica →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

East Flatbush

East Flatbush fills a stretch of Brooklyn between Crown Heights and Flatlands, edged by Empire Boulevard and New York Avenue.East Flatbush →
A green elevated subway structure crosses above a car-lined street in East New York, Brooklyn.New York CityUnited States

East New York

East New York is a residential neighbourhood of Brooklyn, reaching from the Cemetery Belt south to Jamaica Bay.East New York →
Prewar apartment blocks line a Washington Heights street in Manhattan, with the George Washington Bridge at its end.New York CityUnited States

Washington Heights

Washington Heights runs along the high ridge of northern Manhattan, held between the Hudson River and the Harlem River, just north of Harlem.Washington Heights →
Row houses with roof decks and bay windows lining a residential street in Borough Park, Brooklyn.New York CityUnited States

Borough Park

Borough Park occupies the southwestern part of Brooklyn, a New York City district set between Sunset Park, Bensonhurst, and Green-Wood Cemetery.Borough Park →
Fishing boats moored at floating docks in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, with low-rise buildings across the waterNew York CityUnited States

Sheepshead Bay

Sheepshead Bay fronts the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean Parkway bounds it west, Kings Highway north, and Nostrand Avenue and Gerritsen Avenue east.Sheepshead Bay →
Harlem Meer lake framed by trees with Harlem apartment blocks and twin towers rising behind, New York.New York CityUnited States

Harlem

Jazz and brownstones define Harlem, a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan known worldwide as a center of African American culture.Harlem →
A row of brownstones with colourful cornices and stoops on a sunlit East Harlem street in New York.New York CityUnited States

East Harlem

East Harlem, also called Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, runs north from 96th Street through Upper Manhattan as far as the Harlem River.East Harlem →
Aerial over Elmhurst's Queens rowhouse grid toward LaGuardia Airport and Flushing Bay, New York City.New York CityUnited States

Elmhurst

Elmhurst dates to 1652 and holds a square of Queens between Roosevelt Avenue and the Long Island Expressway.Elmhurst →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Gravesend

Gravesend is a south-central Brooklyn neighbourhood on the southwestern edge of Long Island, boxed in between Ocean Parkway and Bay Parkway.Gravesend →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Richmond Hill

Richmond Hill is a commercial and residential neighbourhood in the southwestern section of Queens, between Forest Park and South Ozone Park.Richmond Hill →
Brick waterfront pavilion and lamp-lined promenade beside the bay at Canarsie, Brooklyn, New York.New York CityUnited States

Canarsie

Canarsie runs down to Jamaica Bay in the southeastern portion of Brooklyn, a residential district edged by Paerdegat Basin and Fresh Creek Basin.Canarsie →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

South Ozone Park

South Ozone Park sits in the southwestern section of Queens, in New York City, just north of John F. Kennedy International Airport.South Ozone Park →
Yellow-brick rowhouses with awnings and stoops line a leafy residential street in Ridgewood, Queens.New York CityUnited States

Ridgewood

Ridgewood is a Queens neighbourhood that historically straddled the Brooklyn boundary, bordered by Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale and Bushwick.Ridgewood →
Tudor-style buildings and the arched overpass at Station Square, Forest Hills, Queens, New York City.New York CityUnited States

Forest Hills

Forest Hills sits in the central portion of Queens, a neighbourhood known above all for the West Side Tennis Club.Forest Hills →
Tree-lined street of prewar brick garden apartments in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City.New York CityUnited States

Jackson Heights

Jackson Heights is a neighbourhood of Queens whose kitchens run from Indian and Thai to Peruvian and Argentine.Jackson Heights →
Aerial view of Bayside, Queens with Little Neck Bay, Clearview golf course and the Throgs Neck Bridge.New York CityUnited States

Bayside

Bayside sits on the Queens shore of Little Neck Bay, bounded by Whitestone, Douglaston and Fresh Meadows within New York City.Bayside →
Brick rowhouses and storefronts at a signalised intersection in Flatlands, Brooklyn.New York CityUnited States

Flatlands

Avenue U, Ralph Avenue and Flatbush Avenue draw the edges of Flatlands, a southeast Brooklyn neighborhood holding four historic named sites.Flatlands →
Lower Manhattan's Financial District skyline led by One World Trade Center, seen across the Hudson River in New York City.New York CityUnited States

Financial District

The Financial District, or FiDi, fills the southern tip of Manhattan between the Hudson River and the East River.Financial District →
Coney Island's Wonder Wheel and Cyclone coaster behind the beach and brick apartment towers in Brooklyn.New York CityUnited States

Coney Island

The Wonder Wheel turns above the sand at Coney Island, the amusement quarter on the Brooklyn oceanfront of New York City.Coney Island →
Sunlit three-storey brick and limestone corner building on a residential street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City.New York CityUnited States

Bensonhurst

Bensonhurst is a residential Brooklyn neighborhood between 86th Street and 14th Avenue, keeping the New Utrecht Reformed Church.Bensonhurst →
Aerial view of Cypress Hills, New York City, its cemeteries and parkland with the Manhattan skyline beyond.New York CityUnited States

Cypress Hills

Cypress Hills is a residential corner of the eastern section of Brooklyn, pressed against the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough line.Cypress Hills →
Aerial view over Aqueduct Racetrack and the rowhouse streets of Ozone Park, Queens, with the Manhattan skyline beyond.New York CityUnited States

Ozone Park

Ozone Park is a residential neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York City, next to the Aqueduct Racetrack and its Thoroughbred racing.Ozone Park →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Queens Village

Queens Village is a mostly residential neighbourhood in the eastern part of the borough of Queens, running out to the Nassau County line at Elmont.Queens Village →
Shopfronts, awnings and a fruit stand on a wide commercial street in Rego Park, Queens.New York CityUnited States

Rego Park

Rego Park is a Queens neighbourhood of high-rise blocks and detached houses, framed by Queens Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway.Rego Park →
Brick garden-apartment blocks around a landscaped courtyard with benches and clipped hedges in Woodside, Queens.New York CityUnited States

Woodside

Quiet streets, one busy avenue. Woodside sits in the western portion of Queens, with Astoria to the north, Maspeth to the south and Sunnyside just west.Woodside →
Aerial view of Far Rockaway, New York, its beach peninsula, apartment towers and bayside marshesNew York CityUnited States

Far Rockaway

Far Rockaway is the easternmost section of the Rockaways, a Queens shore quarter running from Beach 32nd Street to the Nassau County line.Far Rockaway →
The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge rises over the water beside Whitestone's wooded shoreline in Queens, New York.New York CityUnited States

Whitestone

Whitestone is a residential neighborhood in the northernmost part of Queens, edged by the East River and by Francis Lewis Boulevard.Whitestone →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Woodhaven

Woodhaven is a residential neighborhood in southwestern Queens, running from Forest Park down to Atlantic Avenue and the edge of Ozone Park.Woodhaven →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Dyker Heights

Dyker Heights is a residential neighborhood on a Brooklyn hill, ringed by Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Borough Park and Gravesend Bay.Dyker Heights →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Bath Beach

Bath Beach fronts Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn, bounded by 86th Street, 14th Avenue and Stillwell Avenue.Bath Beach →
The wooden boardwalk and brick apartment blocks along the seafront at Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.New York CityUnited States

Brighton Beach

Brighton Beach fronts the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, between Coney Island at Ocean Parkway and Manhattan Beach at Corbin Place.Brighton Beach →
Aerial over Springfield Gardens, Queens, with JFK Airport runways and Jamaica Bay beyond.New York CityUnited States

Springfield Gardens

Springfield Gardens lies in the southeastern area of the Queens borough of New York City, with Farmers Boulevard on its western side.Springfield Gardens →
Row of three-storey brick townhouses with balconies along a quiet street in Middle Village, Queens.New York CityUnited States

Middle Village

Middle Village occupies the central section of Queens, walled by the Long Island Expressway, Woodhaven Boulevard, Cooper Avenue and Mount Olivet Cemetery.Middle Village →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Fort Hamilton

Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of Brooklyn, with Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights around it.Fort Hamilton →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Fresh Meadows

Fresh Meadows fills a stretch of northeastern Queens between the Horace Harding Expressway and the Grand Central Parkway, once part of Flushing.Fresh Meadows →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

College Point

College Point is a working-middle-class neighborhood in Queens, wrapped by the East River to the north and Flushing Bay to the west.College Point →
Aerial view of Howard Beach on Jamaica Bay, with the subway trestle crossing the marsh channels.New York CityUnited States

Howard Beach

Howard Beach lies in the southwestern portion of Queens, a low-rise neighbourhood of detached houses facing Jamaica Bay.Howard Beach →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Rosedale

Rosedale is a New York City neighborhood in the southeastern portion of the borough of Queens, running out to the Nassau County line.Rosedale →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Hillside

Hillside is a corner of Queens in New York City, where the Long Island Rail Road once worked a junction of the same name.Hillside →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

East Tremont

East Tremont Avenue runs through the West Bronx neighborhood that shares its name, between East 180th Street and the Cross Bronx Expressway.East Tremont →
Aerial view of Cambria Heights, New York City, rows of houses stretching to the distant Manhattan skyline.New York CityUnited States

Cambria Heights

Cambria Heights is a residential neighborhood in the southeastern portion of Queens, held between Springfield Boulevard and the Nassau County line.Cambria Heights →
Stone church with a slender spire on a quiet residential corner in Hollis, Queens, New York City.New York CityUnited States

Hollis

Hollis is a residential neighborhood in the southeastern section of Queens, set between Jamaica and Queens Village in New York City.Hollis →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens lies in central Queens. Forest Park edges it to the west, the Van Wyck Expressway to the east, and Hillside Avenue to the south.Kew Gardens →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Baychester

Baychester is a neighborhood in the northeast part of the Bronx, framed by Gun Hill Road, Boston Road and the New England Thruway.Baychester →
Early-20th-century brick shopfront row and parked cars along Douglaston's main street in Queens.New York CityUnited States

Douglaston

Douglaston lies on the North Shore of Long Island, a Queens neighborhood between Bayside and the Nassau County line at Great Neck.Douglaston →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Arverne

Arverne takes in the stretch of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens running from Beach 54th Street to Beach 79th Street along Beach Channel Drive.Arverne →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Bergen Beach

Bergen Beach occupies a peninsula on Jamaica Bay in southeastern Brooklyn, ringed by Mill Basin, Flatlands, Canarsie and the Belt Parkway.Bergen Beach →
Aerial view of Seaside in the Rockaways, New York City, with the elevated rail line and Atlantic beachfront.New York CityUnited States

Seaside

Seaside is a section of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens, wedged between Rockaway Beach and Rockaway Park.Seaside →
Northern Manhattan rooftops and apartment blocks seen across treetops from the heights of Inwood, New York.New York CityUnited States

Inwood

Inwood is the neighbourhood at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, the last stretch of the borough before Marble Hill.Inwood →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Little Neck

Little Neck sits on the North Shore of Long Island, in the northeastern part of Queens, hard against the Nassau County line at Great Neck.Little Neck →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Belle Harbor

Belle Harbor is a small residential neighborhood on the western half of the Rockaway Peninsula, the southernmost part of Queens in New York City.Belle Harbor →
Aerial sweep of tree-lined single-family streets and a tower cluster in Glen Oaks, Queens, New York City.New York CityUnited States

Glen Oaks

Glen Oaks sits at the eastern limit of Queens against the Nassau County line, with the Queens County Farm Museum inside its bounds.Glen Oaks →
Elevated subway tracks in Dutch Kills, Queens, with the Long Island City high-rise skyline behind.New York CityUnited States

Dutch Kills

Dutch Kills is a small neighbourhood in the Long Island City section of Queens, in New York City.Dutch Kills →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Bellerose

Bellerose is a quiet residential district of New York City, edged by Belmont Park and the UBS Arena.Bellerose →
Brick residential high-rise towers on the East River waterfront with the Lower Manhattan skyline behind in Peter Cooper Village, New York.New York CityUnited States

Peter Cooper Village

Peter Cooper Village is a post-war residential enclave on Manhattan's East Side, the northern half of the Stuyvesant Town complex in New York City.Peter Cooper Village →
Aerial view of Highbridge in the Bronx, New York City, with a baseball field, mid-rise apartment blocks and cylindrical high-rise towersNew York CityUnited States

Highbridge

Highbridge is a Bronx neighbourhood of New York City wrapped around Yankee Stadium, home of Monument Park.Highbridge →
Busy Bowery street corner beside Manhattan's Chinatown with brick buildings, shop signs and a rooftop water tower.New York CityUnited States

Bowery

The Bowery is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, running through the old heart of New York City.Bowery →
Lower Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, dominated by One World Trade Center under a blue sky.New York CityUnited States

Breuckelen

Breuckelen is the Dutch spelling behind Brooklyn, a New York City district along Fulton Street between Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene.Breuckelen →

About New York City

What is New York City known for?

New York City is known as the largest city in the United States, spread over five boroughs at the mouth of New York Harbor. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island each stand as a county in their own right. Finance runs deep here.

The towers of the financial district rise near One World Trade Center, while the headquarters of the United Nations put world diplomacy on the water's edge. The Brooklyn Bridge ties the boroughs. Trade and immigration made the city.

What are the main landmarks in New York City?

New York City's landmarks crowd the southern tip of Manhattan and the harbour around it. One World Trade Center rises beside the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a short walk from the old Trinity Church and the waterfront fort at Castle Clinton. Ferries leave from there.

South Street Seaport and the harbour piers send boats out to Ellis Island, while the Brooklyn Bridge arches across to Brooklyn. Museums range wider, from the Whitney Museum of American Art to the New Museum and the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

What is the history of New York City?

New York City traces its start to 1624, when a port took root at the southern tip of Manhattan on New York Harbor. The harbour did the rest. Counted among the largest natural harbors anywhere, it drew ships, cargo, and arrivals, and the port at the river mouth spread outward across the generations.

Trade built the city. Wave after wave of newcomers crowded the docks, and the streets pushed north up the island of Manhattan as the port thrived. From that single foothold it grew into the largest city in the United States.

The five boroughs came together as one city, each of them also a county: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The Brooklyn Bridge stitched Manhattan to Brooklyn across the water. Bridges and tunnels followed.

New arrivals kept coming, filling out the boroughs beyond the old core. Finance and commerce settled downtown, and the towers climbed higher over the harbour until One World Trade Center topped them all. The United Nations chose the city for its headquarters, setting world diplomacy on the waterfront.

The port that began it never stopped shaping it.

Where is New York City?

New York City sits at the southern tip of New York State, built around New York Harbor at the mouth of the river. The city splits across five boroughs, each also a county: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Islands and waterways define it.

Manhattan and Staten Island sit on islands, Brooklyn and Queens share a larger one, and the Bronx alone joins the mainland. Bridges and ferries hold it together.

What is the climate of New York City?

New York City has a temperate climate, tempered by the sea at New York Harbor. Winters turn cold, with snow blowing between the towers and wind funnelling down the avenues of Manhattan off the water. Summers run hot and humid.

The harbour keeps the edges of each season a little milder than the inland cities, though the swings still cut sharp. The shoulder seasons pass quickly here.

How do you get to New York City?

New York City is one of the most connected places to reach in the country. Several major airports ring the metro, feeding flights from around the world into the boroughs. Trains pour in as well.

Rail lines run down the coast and inland to Manhattan, while bridges, tunnels, and harbour ferries link the five boroughs across the water. Most visitors arrive by air or rail.

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More cities in New York

Updated September 2026