Manhattan
Manhattan (/mænˈhætən, mən-/ ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is coextensive with New York County, the smallest county by geographical area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area.[6] Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world.[7][8][9][10]
This article is about the New York City borough. For other uses, see Manhattan (disambiguation).
Manhattan
New York County
New York County (coterminous)
1624
Mark Levine (D)
— (Borough of Manhattan)
Alvin Bragg (D)
— (New York County)
33.58 sq mi (87.0 km2)
22.83 sq mi (59.1 km2)
10.76 sq mi (27.9 km2) 32%
13 mi (21 km)
2.3 mi (3.7 km)
265 ft (81 m)
1,694,250
1,596,273
74,781.6/sq mi (28,873.3/km2)
Manhattanite[4]
Knickerbocker (historical)
US$780.966 billion (2022) · 2nd by U.S. county; 1st per capita
UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Present-day Manhattan was originally part of Lenape territory.[11] European settlement began with the establishment of a trading post by Dutch colonists in 1624 on southern Manhattan Island; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The territory and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York.[12] New York, based in present-day Lower Manhattan, served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790.[13] The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor greeted millions of arriving immigrants in the late 19th century and is a world symbol of the United States and its ideals.[14] Manhattan became a borough during the consolidation of New York City in 1898, and houses New York City Hall, the seat of the city's government.[15] The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, part of the Stonewall National Monument, is considered the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement, cementing Manhattan's central role in LGBT culture.[16][17] It was also the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed during the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, the borough is bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers and includes several small adjacent islands, including Roosevelt, U Thant, and Randalls and Wards Islands. It also includes the small neighborhood of Marble Hill now on the U.S. mainland. Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each cutting across the borough's long axis: Lower Manhattan, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan. Manhattan is one of the most densely populated locations in the world, with a 2020 census population of 1,694,250 living in a land area of 22.66 square miles (58.69 km2),[3][18] or 72,918 residents per square mile (28,154 residents/km2), and coextensive with New York County, its residential property has the highest sale price per square foot in the United States.[19] Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere.[20]
Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial and fintech center of the world,[21][22][23] and Manhattan is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.[24] Many multinational media conglomerates are based in Manhattan, as are numerous colleges and universities, such as Columbia University and New York University; the headquarters of the United Nations is also located in the borough. Manhattan hosts three of the world's most-visited tourist attractions in 2013: Times Square, Central Park, and Grand Central Terminal.[25] Penn Station is the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere.[26] The borough hosts many prominent bridges and tunnels, and skyscrapers including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and One World Trade Center.[27] It is also home to the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks and the National Hockey League's New York Rangers.
