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Prior to 1898, Manhattan was the city of New York (except for a sliver
of the Bronx that was annexed in 1873). Brooklyn was a separate City,
Queens was part of Long Island, and the Bronx was largely part of Westchester
County.
The first settlement of New York was 1624, fifteen years after (Henry)
Hudson sailed up the river in 1609. New York was originally called New
Amsterdam by the Dutch governors. In 1664, Great Britain's Duke of York
sent a fleet that quietly seized the settlement from the Dutch without
bloodshed and rechristened the colony in honor of the duke.
A quarter of the city was burned down in 1776 after the start of the
British occupation. After the evacuation of the British on November 25,
1783 (Evacuation Day), the city was rebuilt and became briefly the national
capital (1785-1790), which was moved to Philadelphia in 1790 and Washington
D.C. in 1800. After the victory of the Jeffersonian faction, which today
is the Democratic Party, in the local election elections in 1800, City
Hall (begun in 1803 by McComb and Mangan) was constructed.
The City remained roughly the same size as other major eastern seaport
cities, such as Boston and Philadelphia, until the opening of the Erie
Canal in 1825 which created a direct water route to the midwest and caused
the city to triple in size in the next twenty-five years, creating an
economic boom that attracted immigrants from around the world. By the
time of the Greater Consolidation of 1898, New York City became five
counties (Manhattan a.k.a. New York County; Brooklyn a.k.a. Kings County;
The Bronx a.k.a. Bronx County; Queens a.k.a. Queens County; and Staten
Island a.k.a. Richmond County) and was clearly the nation's largest city
and one of the best economic and cultural capitals of the world.
New York City came to be known as "The Big Apple" in the city's
horse racing scene during the late 1800's. A decade later jazz musicians
began calling the City "The Big Apple" to refer to New York
City (especially Harlem) as the jazz capital of the world.
In the early 1970's, the name played an important role in reviving New
York's tourist economy through a campaign led by the New York Convention
and Visitors Bureau. During this decade, New Yorkers gave the capital
of the world the name of "The Big Apple."
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