NYC Fun Facts

Here is a list of NYC Trivia you may not have known. This page is a fun way to learn the history of NY. So test your NY state of mind.

The oldest building in NYC is a farmhouse in Flatbush built in the year 1652. Its now a museum located at 5816 Clarendon Road.
New York became known as the "Empire State" after our founding father General & later President George Washington praise NY for it's resilience during the Revolutionary War in a letter.
The first apartment building was the Stuyvesant building erected in 1869 at 143 E 18th St.
Brownstone wasn't always NY's favorite building material. Limestone, marble, & granite was preferred for a long time.
The NY Yankees Baseball Team wasn't always called the Yankees. It used to be called "The Highlanders" ,it changed in 1913 which many people believe because they needed a short name & it was a civil war era moniker for northerners.
Cowboys once roamed Manhattan's West Side to clear the way for freight trains along Eleventh Avenue which was dubbed "death Avenue" for it's dangerous & crowded conditions before an elevated line was erected in 1934.
Broadway runs at a diagonal because it originally followed an Indian path called the Wickquasgeck Trail. The Dutch settlers called it Heere Street. The English named Broadway.
Nearly 500 tons of horse manure were collected daily from the streets of the 19- century New York. produced by 62,000 horses living in 1,307 stables.
Although midtown manhattan is on a grid, its avenues are not spaced equally apart. The avenues closest to the rivers are closest together, with East Side avenues spaced at 680 ft followed by West Side avenues separated by 800 ft. Furthest apart are the middle blocks that once stretched 920 feet apart, with the longest crosstown block between 5th ave & 5th ave. Why did the mappers of 1811 do this? Money. They wanted to to create property lots near the waterfront.
On Sept 13, 1899, businessman Henry H. Bliss was struck & killed by an automobile when he stepped out of a streetcar on 8th Ave ( now called Central Park West) at 74th St. He became the first automobile fatality in North America.
When did the Statue of liberty become green? Lady liberty brown copper turned green after about 25 years of oxidation. The statue was dedicated in 1886 by France, & there are colored postcards dating from as late as 1909 that show it as brown.
Manhattan got its name from the Munsee Indian Tribe, which referred to it as Mentay island.
Staten Island got its name from Henry Hudson, who referred to it as "Staten Eylandt" in honor of the Staten General or the Dutch Parliament that had sponsored his voyage.
The Bronx got its name from sea captain Jonas Bronck, who established a farm close to present-day Mott Haven in 1639.
Queens got its name by Catherine of Braganza, wife of King Charles II of England.
Brooklyn got its name from a small village in the Netherlands called Breukelen. Later, the English named it Kings, but it never really stuck.
There are over 18 named gates in Central Park that were designated to thank certain citizens for their role in shaping the city when the park was created in the 1860s.

References: These fun facts were research from several sources such as the NYC almanac, NY Post, & the internet.

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