New York is a state in the
NortheasternThe Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
region of the United States. It is the nation's
third most populous state. New York is bordered by
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
to the south, and by
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and
VermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
to the east. The state has a maritime border with
Rhode IslandThe state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
east of
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of
OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
to the north and west, and
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
to the north. The state of New York is often referred to as
New York State to distinguish it from the city of New York.
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, with a population of over 8.1 million, is the most populous city in the United States. It is known for its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center, and for its history as a
gateway for immigrationEllis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
to the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, it is also a destination of choice for many foreign visitors. Both the state and city were named for the 17th century
Duke of YorkThe Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...
, James Stuart, future
James II and VIIJames II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
of England and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
New York was inhabited by various tribes of
AlgonquianThe Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
and Iroquoian speaking
Native AmericanThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribes at the time Dutch settlers moved into the region in the early 17th century. In 1609, the region was first claimed by
Henry HudsonHenry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
for the Dutch. Fort Nassau was built near the site of the present-day capital of
AlbanyAlbany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
in 1614. The Dutch soon also settled
New AmsterdamNew Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
and parts of the Hudson River Valley, establishing the colony of
New NetherlandNew Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
. The
BritishThe former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
took over the colony by annexation in 1664.
The borders of the British colony, the
Province of New YorkThe Province of New York was an English and later British crown territory that originally included all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania...
, were roughly similar to those of the present-day state. About one third of all the battles of the
Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
took place in New York. The
state constitutionThe Constitution of the State of New York establishes the structure of the government of the State of New York, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of New York. Like most state constitutions in the United States, New York's constitution's provisions tend to be more detailed, and amended...
was enacted in 1777. New York became the 11th state to ratify the
United States ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
, on July 26, 1788.
17th century
See also:
Province of New YorkThe Province of New York was an English and later British crown territory that originally included all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania...
During the 17th century, Dutch
trading postA trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
s established for the trade of pelts from the
LenapeThe Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
,
IroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
and other indigenous peoples expanded into the colony of
New NetherlandNew Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
. The first of these trading posts were
Fort NassauFort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River in present-day Albany, New York, United States. The factorij was a small fortification which served as a trading post and warehouse...
(1614, near present-day
AlbanyAlbany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
);
Fort OrangeFort Orange was the first permanent Dutch settlement in New Netherland and was on the site of the present-day city of Albany, New York. It was a replacement for Fort Nassau, which had been built on nearby Castle Island in the Hudson River, and which served as a trading post until 1617 or 1618,...
(1624, on the
Hudson RiverThe Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
just south of the current city of Albany and created to replace Fort Nassau), developing into settlement Beverwijck (1647), and into what became Albany;
Fort AmsterdamFor the historic fort on the island of Saint Martin, see Fort Amsterdam Fort Amsterdam was a fort on the southern tip of Manhattan that was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then British rule of New York from...
(1625, to develop into the town
New AmsterdamNew Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
which is present-day New York City); and Esopus, (1653, now
KingstonKingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
). The success of the patroonship of Rensselaerswyck (1630), which surrounded Albany and lasted until the mid 19th century, was also a key factor in the early success of the colony. The British captured the colony during the
Second Anglo-Dutch WarThe Second Anglo–Dutch War was part of a series of four Anglo–Dutch Wars fought between the English and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes....
and governed it as the
Province of New YorkThe Province of New York was an English and later British crown territory that originally included all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania...
.
American Revolution
The
Sons of LibertyThe Sons of Liberty were a political group made up of American patriots that originated in the pre-independence North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists from the usurpations by the British government after 1766...
were organized in New York City during the 1760s, largely in response to the oppressive
Stamp ActA stamp act is any legislation that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents. Those that pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents, making them legal documents. The taxes raised under a stamp act are called stamp duty. This system of taxation was first devised...
passed by the
British ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
in 1765. The
Stamp Act CongressThe Stamp Act Congress was a meeting on October 19, 1765 in New York City of representatives from some of the British colonies of North America. They discussed and acted upon the Stamp Act recently passed by the governing Parliament of Great Britain overseas, which did not include any...
met in the city on October 19 of that year: a gathering of representatives from across the
Thirteen ColoniesThe Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
that set the stage for the
Continental CongressThe Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
to follow. The Stamp Act Congress resulted in the
Declaration of Rights and GrievancesThe Declaration of Rights and Grievances was a document created during the Committees of Correspondence declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional...
, which was the first written expression by representatives of the Americans of many of the rights and complaints later expressed in the
United States Declaration of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
, including the right to
representative government"No taxation without representation" is a slogan originating during the 1750s and 1760s that summarized a primary grievance of the British colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, which was one of the major causes of the American Revolution...
.
The
Capture of Fort TiconderogaThe Capture of Fort Ticonderoga occurred during the American Revolutionary War on May 10, 1775, when a small force of Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold overcame a small British garrison at the fort and looted the personal belongings of the garrison...
provided the
cannon and gunpowderThe Fortification of Dorchester Heights was a decisive action early in the American Revolutionary War that precipitated the end of the siege of Boston and the withdrawal of British troops from that city....
necessary to force a
BritishThe former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
withdrawal from the
Siege of BostonThe Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
in 1775.
New York endorsed the
Declaration of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
on July 9, 1776. The New York state constitution was framed by a
conventionA constitutional convention is now a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. A general constitutional convention is called to create the first constitution of a political unit or to entirely replace an existing constitution...
which assembled at
White Plains, New YorkWhite Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
on July 10, 1776, and after repeated adjournments and changes of location, terminated its labors at
Kingston, New YorkKingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
on Sunday evening, April 20, 1777, when the new constitution drafted by
John JayJohn Jay was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, and the first Chief Justice of the United States ....
was adopted with but one dissenting vote. It was not submitted to the people for ratification. On July 30, 1777,
George ClintonGeorge Clinton was an American soldier and politician, considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was the first Governor of New York, and then the fourth Vice President of the United States , serving under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He and John C...
was inaugurated as the first
Governor of New YorkThe Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...
at Kingston.
The first major battle of the
American Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
after independence was declared—and the largest battle of the entire war—was fought in New York at the
Battle of Long IslandThe Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, fought on August 27, 1776, was the first major battle in the American Revolutionary War following the United States Declaration of Independence, the largest battle of the entire conflict, and the...
(a.k.a
Battle of Brooklyn) in August of 1776. British victory made New York City their military and political base of operations in North America for the duration of the conflict, and consequently the center of attention for General
George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
's
intelligence networkLike many wars, much of the American Revolutionary War was fought by means other than the armies of the combatants ....
.
The notorious British prison ships of
Wallabout BayWallabout Bay is small body of water in Upper New York Bay along the northwest shore of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, between the present Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges, opposite Corlear's Hook on Manhattan to the west, across the East River...
saw more American combatants
die of intentional neglectHMS Jersey was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment of dimensions at Plymouth Dockyard, and launched on 14 June 1736. She is perhaps most noted for her service as a prison ship during the American Revolutionary War.-Early...
than were killed in combat in every battle of the war, combined.
The first of two major British armies were captured by the
Continental ArmyThe Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
at the
Battle of SaratogaThe Battles of Saratoga conclusively decided the fate of British General John Burgoyne's army in the American War of Independence and are generally regarded as a turning point in the war. The battles were fought eighteen days apart on the same ground, south of Saratoga, New York...
in 1777, influencing France to ally with the revolutionaries.
In an attempt to retain their sovereignty and remain an independent nation positioned between the new United States and British North America, four of the
IroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
nations fought on the side of the British; only the Oneidas and their dependents the Tuscaroras allied themselves to the Americans. The
Sullivan ExpeditionThe Sullivan Expedition, also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, was an American campaign led by Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton against Loyalists and the four nations of the Iroquois who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War.The...
of 1778 and 1779 destroyed nearly 50 Iroquois villages and adjacent croplands, forcing many refugees to British-held Niagara. As allies of the British, the Iroquois were resettled in Canada after the war. In the treaty settlement, the British ceded most Indian lands to the new United States. Because New York made treaty with the Iroquois without getting Congressional approval, some of the land purchases are the subject of modern-day claims by the individual tribes. More than 5 million acres (20,234.3 km²) of former Iroquois territory was put up for sale in the years after the Revolutionary War, leading to rapid development in upstate New York. As per the
Treaty of ParisThe Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on the one hand and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of...
, the last vestige of British authority in the former
Thirteen ColoniesThe Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
—their troops in New York City—departed in 1783, which was long afterwards celebrated as
Evacuation DayFollowing the American Revolution, Evacuation Day on November 25 marks the day in 1783 when the last vestige of British authority in the United States — its troops in New York — departed from Manhattan...
.
Following heated debate, which included the publication of the now quintessential constitutional interpretation—the
Federalist PapersThe Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788...
—as a series of installments in New York City newspapers, New York was the 11th state to ratify the
United States ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
, on July 26, 1788.
19th century
Transportation in western New York was difficult before canals were built in the early part of the 19th century. The
HudsonThe Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
and
MohawkThe Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...
Rivers could be navigated only as far as Central New York. While the St. Lawrence River could be navigated to
Lake OntarioLake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
, the way westward to the other
Great LakesThe Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
was blocked by
Niagara FallsThe Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...
, and so the only route to western New York was over land.
Governor
DeWitt ClintonDeWitt Clinton was an early American politician and naturalist who served as United States Senator and the sixth Governor of New York. In this last capacity he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal...
strongly advocated building a canal to connect the Hudson River with
Lake ErieLake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
, and thus all the
Great LakesThe Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
. Work commenced in 1817, and the
Erie CanalThe Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
was finished in 1825. It was considered an engineering marvel. Packet boats traveled up and down the canal with sightseers and visitors on board. The canal opened up vast areas of New York to commerce and settlement. It enabled Great Lakes port cities such as
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
and
RochesterRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
to grow and prosper. It also connected the burgeoning agricultural production of the Midwest and shipping on the Great Lakes, with the port of New York City. Improving transportation, it enabled additional population migration to territories west of New York.
Ellis Island
Ellis Island was the main facility for immigrants, entering the United States in the late 19th century to the mid 20th century. It was opened when the federal government took over the responsibility for processing immigrants, prior to that it was the responsibility of the states. It replaced the prior New York State immigration center located at
Castle ClintonCastle Clinton or Fort Clinton, once known as Castle Garden, is a circular sandstone fort now located in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, New York City, in the United States. It is perhaps best remembered as America's first immigration station , where more than 8 million...
, a
War of 1812The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
era fort located in what is today
Battery ParkBattery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...
, through which at least 8 million immigrants such as
Harry HoudiniHarry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts...
, passed through from 1855–1890.
Ellis Island operated as an immigration center from January 1, 1892, until November 12, 1954. It is owned by the Federal government and is now part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, under the jurisdiction of the
National Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
. It is situated in
New York HarborNew York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...
, between two states and cities,
Jersey CityJersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
, New Jersey and New York City, New York.
More than 12 million immigrants passed through
Ellis IslandEllis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
, between 1892 and 1954. After 1924, when the National Origins Act was passed, the only immigrants to pass through there were displaced persons or war refugees. Today, over 100 million Americans can trace their ancestry to the immigrants, who first arrived in America through Castle Clinton and Ellis Island, before dispersing to points all over the country. Ellis Island was the subject of a border dispute between New York State and New Jersey. The issue was settled in 1998 by the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled that the original 3.3 acre island was New York State territory and that the balance of the 27.5 acre (11 ha) added after 1834 by landfill was in New Jersey.
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States to mark the Centennial of the American Declaration of Independence. The idea of giving a colossal representation of republican virtues to a "sister" republic, across the sea, served as a focus for the republican cause against other politicians. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886.
Liberty IslandLiberty Island is a small uninhabited island in New York Harbor in the United States, best known as the location of the Statue of Liberty. Though so called since the turn of the century, the name did not become official until 1956. In 1937, by proclamation 2250, President Franklin D...
closed on
September 11, 2001The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
; the island reopened in December, the monument reopened on August 3, 2004, but the statue remained closed until the summer of 2009. The National Park Service claims that the statue is not shut because of a terrorist threat, but principally because of a long list of fire regulation contraventions, including inadequate evacuation procedures. The museum and ten-story pedestal are open for visitors, but are only accessible if visitors have a "Monument Access Pass", which is a reservation that visitors must make in advance of their visit and pick up before boarding the ferry. There are a maximum of 3000 passes available each day, with a total of 15,000 visitors to the island daily. The interior of the statue remains closed, although a glass ceiling in the pedestal allows for views of
Gustave EiffelAlexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French structural engineer from the École Centrale Paris, an architect, an entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...
's iron framework of Lady Liberty.
Geography
New York covers 54556 square miles (141,299.4 km²) and ranks as the 27th largest state by size. The
Great Appalachian ValleyThe Great Valley, also called the Great Appalachian Valley or Great Valley Region, is one of the major landform features of eastern North America. It is a gigantic trough — a chain of valley lowlands — and the central feature of the Appalachian Mountain system...
dominates eastern New York, while
Lake ChamplainLake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
is the chief northern feature of the valley, which also includes the
Hudson RiverThe Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
flowing southward to the Atlantic Ocean. The rugged
Adirondack MountainsThe Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
, with vast tracts of wilderness, lie west of the valley.
Most of the southern part of the state is on the
Allegheny PlateauThe Allegheny Plateau is a large dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Ohio...
, which rises from the southeast to the
Catskill MountainsThe Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
. The western section of the state is drained by the
Allegheny RiverThe Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
and rivers of the
SusquehannaThe Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
and
DelawareThe Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
systems. The Delaware River Basin Compact, signed in 1961 by New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the federal government, regulates the utilization of water of the Delaware system. The highest elevation in New York is
Mount MarcyMount Marcy is the highest point in New York State, with an elevation of . It is a popular destination for hikers due to its stature and great views, and the peak can get very crowded in the summer months...
in the Adirondacks.
New York's borders touch (clockwise from the west) two Great Lakes (
ErieLake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
and
OntarioLake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
, which are connected by the
Niagara RiverThe Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river...
); the provinces of
OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
in Canada;
Lake ChamplainLake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
; three
New EnglandNew England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
states (
VermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, and
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
); the Atlantic Ocean, and two
Mid-Atlantic StatesThe Mid-Atlantic states, also called middle Atlantic states or simply the mid Atlantic, form a region of the United States generally located between New England and the South...
,
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. In addition,
Rhode IslandThe state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
shares a water border with New York. New York is the only state that touches both the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, and is the second-largest of the original
Thirteen ColoniesThe Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
.
In contrast with New York City's urban atmosphere, the vast majority of the state is dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes. New York's Adirondack Park is the largest state park in the United States. It is larger than the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier and Olympic National Parks combined. New York established the first state park in the United States at Niagara Falls in 1885.
Niagara FallsThe Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...
, on the Niagara River as it flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, is a popular attraction.
The
Hudson RiverThe Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
begins at
Lake Tear of the CloudsLake Tear of the Clouds is a small tarn located in the town of Keene, in Essex County, New York, on the southwest slope of Mount Marcy; it is both the highest lake in the state and the highest source of the Hudson River via Feldspar Brook and the Opalescent River...
and flows south through the eastern part of the state without draining Lakes
GeorgeLake George, nicknamed the Queen of American Lakes, is a long, narrow oligotrophic lake draining northwards into Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River Drainage basin located at the southeast base of the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York, U.S.A.. It lies within the upper region of the...
or
ChamplainLake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
. Lake George empties at its north end into Lake Champlain, whose northern end extends into Canada, where it drains into the
RichelieuThe Richelieu River is a river in Quebec, Canada. It flows from the north end of Lake Champlain about north, ending at the confluence with the St. Lawrence River at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec downstream and northeast of Montreal...
and then the St. Lawrence Rivers. Four of New York City's five boroughs are on three islands at the mouth of the Hudson River: Manhattan Island; Staten Island; and Long Island, which contains
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and
QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
on its western end.
UpstateUpstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
and
downstateDownstate New York is a term denoting the southeastern portion of New York State, United States, in contrast to Upstate New York. The term "Downstate New York" has significantly less currency than its counterpart term "Upstate New York", and the Downstate region is often not regarded as one...
are often used informally to distinguish New York City or its greater metropolitan area from the rest of New York state. The placement of a boundary between the two is a matter of great contention. Unofficial and loosely defined regions of Upstate New York include the
Southern TierThe Southern Tier is a geographical term that refers to the counties of New York State west of the Catskill Mountains along the northern border of Pennsylvania. It is a loosely defined term that generally includes the counties that border Pennsylvania west of Delaware County inclusive...
, which often includes the counties along the border with Pennsylvania, and the
North CountryThe North Country is a region of the U.S. state of New York that encompasses the state's extreme northern frontier, bordering Lake Ontario on the west, the Saint Lawrence River and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec on the north and northwest, and Lake Champlain and Vermont on the east...
, which can mean anything from the strip along the Canadian border to everything north of the Mohawk River.
Climate
In general, New York has a
humid continental climateA humid continental climate is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters....
, though under the
Köppen climate classificationThe Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
, New York City has a
humid subtropical climateA humid subtropical climate is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters...
. Weather in New York is heavily influenced by two continental air masses: a warm, humid one from the southwest and a cold, dry one from the northwest.
The winters are long and cold in the Plateau Divisions of the state. In the majority of winter seasons, a temperature of -13 F or lower can be expected in the northern highlands (Northern Plateau) and 5 °F (-15 °C) or colder in the southwestern and east-central highlands (Southern Plateau). The summer climate is cool in the Adirondacks, Catskills and higher elevations of the Southern Plateau.
The New York City/Long Island area and lower portions of the
Hudson ValleyThe Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
have rather warm summers by comparison, with some periods of high, uncomfortable humidity. The remainder of New York State enjoys pleasantly warm summers, marred by only occasional, brief intervals of sultry conditions. Summer daytime temperatures usually range from the upper 70s to mid 80s °F (25 to 30 °C), over much of the state.
New York ranks 46th among the 50 states in the amount of
greenhouse gasA greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
es generated per person. This relative efficiency is primarily due to the state's higher rate of
mass transitPublic transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
use.
Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various New York Cities
(FahrenheitFahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...
)
| City |
|
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
AlbanyAlbany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
|
max
min |
31
13 |
34
16 |
44
25 |
57
36 |
70
46 |
78
55 |
82
60 |
80
58 |
71
50 |
60
39 |
48
31 |
36
20 |
BinghamtonBinghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
|
max
min |
28
15 |
31
17 |
41
25 |
53
35 |
66
46 |
73
54 |
78
59 |
76
57 |
68
50 |
57
40 |
44
31 |
33
21 |
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
|
max
min |
31
18 |
33
19 |
42
26 |
54
36 |
66
48 |
75
57 |
80
62 |
78
60 |
70
53 |
59
43 |
47
34 |
36
24 |
Long BeachLong Beach is a city in Nassau County, New York. Just south of Long Island, it is located on Long Beach Barrier Island, which is the westernmost of the outer barrier islands off Long Island's South Shore. As of the United States 2010 Census, the city population was 33,275...
|
max
min |
39
23 |
40
24 |
48
31 |
58
40 |
69
49 |
77
60 |
83
66 |
82
64 |
75
57 |
64
45 |
54
36 |
44
28 |
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
|
max
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38
26 |
41
28 |
50
35 |
61
44 |
71
54 |
79
63 |
84
69 |
82
68 |
75
60 |
64
50 |
53
41 |
43
32 |
RochesterRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
|
max
min |
31
17 |
33
17 |
43
25 |
55
35 |
68
46 |
77
55 |
81
60 |
79
59 |
71
51 |
60
41 |
47
33 |
36
23 |
| Syracuse Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
|
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31
14 |
34
16 |
43
24 |
56
35 |
68
46 |
77
55 |
82
60 |
80
59 |
71
51 |
60
40 |
47
32 |
36
21 |
Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various New York Cities
(Celsius)
| City |
|
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
AlbanyAlbany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
|
max
min |
31 °F (-.6 °C)
13 °F (-10.6 °C) |
34 °F (1.1 °C)
16 °F (-8.9 °C) |
44 °F (6.7 °C)
25 °F (-3.9 °C) |
57 °F (13.9 °C)
36 °F (2.2 °C) |
70 °F (21.1 °C)
46 °F (7.8 °C) |
78 °F (25.6 °C)
55 °F (12.8 °C) |
82 °F (27.8 °C)
60 °F (15.6 °C) |
80 °F (26.7 °C)
58 °F (14.4 °C) |
71 °F (21.7 °C)
50 °F (10 °C) |
60 °F (15.6 °C)
39 °F (3.9 °C) |
48 °F (8.9 °C)
31 °F (-.6 °C) |
36 °F (2.2 °C)
20 °F (-6.7 °C) |
BinghamtonBinghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
|
max
min |
28 °F (-2.2 °C)
15 °F (-9.4 °C) |
31 °F (-.6 °C)
17 °F (-8.3 °C) |
41 °F (5 °C)
25 °F (-3.9 °C) |
53 °F (11.7 °C)
35 °F (1.7 °C) |
66 °F (18.9 °C)
46 °F (7.8 °C) |
73 °F (22.8 °C)
54 °F (12.2 °C) |
78 °F (25.6 °C)
59 °F (15 °C) |
76 °F (24.4 °C)
57 °F (13.9 °C) |
68 °F (20 °C)
50 °F (10 °C) |
57 °F (13.9 °C)
40 °F (4.4 °C) |
44 °F (6.7 °C)
31 °F (-.6 °C) |
33 °F (0.555555555559977 °C)
21 °F (-6.1 °C) |
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
|
max
min |
31 °F (-.6 °C)
18 °F (-7.8 °C) |
33 °F (0.555555555559977 °C)
19 °F (-7.2 °C) |
42 °F (5.6 °C)
26 °F (-3.3 °C) |
54 °F (12.2 °C)
36 °F (2.2 °C) |
66 °F (18.9 °C)
48 °F (8.9 °C) |
75 °F (23.9 °C)
57 °F (13.9 °C) |
80 °F (26.7 °C)
62 °F (16.7 °C) |
78 °F (25.6 °C)
60 °F (15.6 °C) |
70 °F (21.1 °C)
53 °F (11.7 °C) |
59 °F (15 °C)
43 °F (6.1 °C) |
47 °F (8.3 °C)
34 °F (1.1 °C) |
36 °F (2.2 °C)
24 °F (-4.4 °C) |
Long BeachLong Beach is a city in Nassau County, New York. Just south of Long Island, it is located on Long Beach Barrier Island, which is the westernmost of the outer barrier islands off Long Island's South Shore. As of the United States 2010 Census, the city population was 33,275...
|
max
min |
39 °F (3.9 °C)
23 °F (-5 °C) |
40 °F (4.4 °C)
24 °F (-4.4 °C) |
48 °F (8.9 °C)
31 °F (-.6 °C) |
58 °F (14.4 °C)
40 °F (4.4 °C) |
69 °F (20.6 °C)
49 °F (9.4 °C) |
77 °F (25 °C)
60 °F (15.6 °C) |
83 °F (28.3 °C)
66 °F (18.9 °C) |
82 °F (27.8 °C)
64 °F (17.8 °C) |
75 °F (23.9 °C)
57 °F (13.9 °C) |
64 °F (17.8 °C)
45 °F (7.2 °C) |
54 °F (12.2 °C)
36 °F (2.2 °C) |
44 °F (6.7 °C)
28 °F (-2.2 °C) |
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
|
max
min |
38 °F (3.3 °C)
26 °F (-3.3 °C) |
41 °F (5 °C)
28 °F (-2.2 °C) |
50 °F (10 °C)
35 °F (1.7 °C) |
61 °F (16.1 °C)
44 °F (6.7 °C) |
71 °F (21.7 °C)
54 °F (12.2 °C) |
79 °F (26.1 °C)
63 °F (17.2 °C) |
84 °F (28.9 °C)
69 °F (20.6 °C) |
82 °F (27.8 °C)
68 °F (20 °C) |
75 °F (23.9 °C)
60 °F (15.6 °C) |
64 °F (17.8 °C)
50 °F (10 °C) |
53 °F (11.7 °C)
41 °F (5 °C) |
43 °F (6.1 °C)
32 °F (0 °C) |
RochesterRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
|
max
min |
31 °F (-.6 °C)
17 °F (-8.3 °C) |
33 °F (0.555555555559977 °C)
17 °F (-8.3 °C) |
43 °F (6.1 °C)
25 °F (-3.9 °C) |
55 °F (12.8 °C)
35 °F (1.7 °C) |
68 °F (20 °C)
46 °F (7.8 °C) |
77 °F (25 °C)
55 °F (12.8 °C) |
81 °F (27.2 °C)
60 °F (15.6 °C) |
79 °F (26.1 °C)
59 °F (15 °C) |
71 °F (21.7 °C)
51 °F (10.6 °C) |
60 °F (15.6 °C)
41 °F (5 °C) |
47 °F (8.3 °C)
33 °F (0.555555555559977 °C) |
36 °F (2.2 °C)
23 °F (-5 °C) |
| Syracuse Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
|
max
min |
31 °F (-.6 °C)
14 °F (-10 °C) |
34 °F (1.1 °C)
16 °F (-8.9 °C) |
43 °F (6.1 °C)
24 °F (-4.4 °C) |
56 °F (13.3 °C)
35 °F (1.7 °C) |
68 °F (20 °C)
46 °F (7.8 °C) |
77 °F (25 °C)
55 °F (12.8 °C) |
82 °F (27.8 °C)
60 °F (15.6 °C) |
80 °F (26.7 °C)
59 °F (15 °C) |
71 °F (21.7 °C)
51 °F (10.6 °C) |
60 °F (15.6 °C)
40 °F (4.4 °C) |
47 °F (8.3 °C)
32 °F (0 °C) |
36 °F (2.2 °C)
21 °F (-6.1 °C) |
| Converted from Fahrenheit data (above) |
State parks
New York has many state parks and two major forest preserves. Adirondack Park, roughly the size of the state of
VermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
and the largest state park in the United States, was established in 1892 and given state constitutional protection to remain "forever wild" in 1894. The thinking that led to the creation of the Park first appeared in
George Perkins MarshGeorge Perkins Marsh , an American diplomat and philologist, is considered by some to be America's first environmentalist, although "conservationist" would be more accurate...
's
Man and NatureMan and nature; or, Physical geography as modified by human action is a book written by George Perkins Marsh in 1864.It is one of the first works to document the effects of human action on the environment and it helped to launch the modern conservation movement. Marsh argued that ancient...
, published in 1864. Marsh argued that deforestation could lead to desertification; referring to the clearing of once-lush lands surrounding the Mediterranean, he asserted "the operation of causes set in action by man has brought the face of the earth to a desolation almost as complete as that of the moon."
The Catskill Park was protected in legislation passed in 1885, which declared that its land was to be conserved and never put up for sale or lease. Consisting of 700000 acres (2,832.8 km²) of land, the park is a habitat for bobcats, minks and fishers. There are some 400 black bears living in the region. The state operates numerous campgrounds and there are over 300 miles (482.8 km) of multi-use trails in the Park.
The
Montauk Point State ParkMontauk Point State Park is located in the hamlet of Montauk, at the eastern tip of Long Island in the Town of East Hampton, Suffolk County, New York. Montauk Point is the easternmost extremity of the South Fork of Long Island, and thus also of New York State...
boasts the 1797 Montauk Lighthouse, commissioned under
PresidentThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George WashingtonGeorge Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, which is a major tourist attraction on the easternmost tip of
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
.
Hither HillsHither Hills State Park is a state park located on the southern shore near the eastern tip of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York in the USA.The park is located on the South Fork of Long Island at Napeague, New York...
park offers camping and is a popular destination with surfcasting sport fishermen.
Counties
New York is divided into
62 counties:
Regions
New York State is divided into eleven regions by the Department of Economic Development:
- Chautaugua–Allegheny
- Niagara Frontier
The Niagara Frontier refers to the stretch of land south of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and extending westward to Cleveland, Ohio. The term dates to the War of 1812. This only includes the land east of the Niagara River and south of Lake Erie within the United States...
- Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States. They are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are long and thin , each oriented roughly on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in...
- Thousand Islands
The Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago of islands that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario, the...
- Central Region
The Central New York Region is a term used by the New York State Department of Economic Development to broadly describe the central region of New York State for tourism purposes. The region roughly corresponds to the upper Susquehanna and Mohawk Valleys...
(formerly Central-Leatherstocking)
- Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
- Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
- Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
- Capital District
New York's Capital District, also known as the Capital Region, is a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County...
- New York City
- Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
|
New York State is sometimes divided into eight major regions:
- North Country New York
- Western New York
Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
- Central New York
Central New York is a term used to broadly describe the central region of New York State, roughly including the following counties and cities:...
- Capital District
New York's Capital District, also known as the Capital Region, is a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County...
- Southern Tier
The Southern Tier is a geographical term that refers to the counties of New York State west of the Catskill Mountains along the northern border of Pennsylvania. It is a loosely defined term that generally includes the counties that border Pennsylvania west of Delaware County inclusive...
- Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
- New York City
- Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
|
Cities
There are 62 cities in New York. The largest city in the state and the most populous city in the United States is New York City, which comprises five counties (boroughs): the Bronx, New York (Manhattan), Queens, Kings (Brooklyn), and Richmond (Staten Island). New York City is home to more than two-fifths of the state's population.
The following are the ten largest cities in New York:
- New York City (8,175,133)
- Buffalo
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
(261,310)
- Rochester
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
(210,565)
- Yonkers
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
(195,976)
- Syracuse
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
(145,170)
- Albany
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
(97,856)
- New Rochelle
New Rochelle is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state.The town was settled by refugee Huguenots in 1688 who were fleeing persecution in France...
(77,062)
- Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It lies on the border of the New York City borough of The Bronx.-Overview:...
(67,292)
- Schenectady
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
(66,135)
- Utica
Utica is a city in and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 62,235 at the 2010 census, an increase of 2.6% from the 2000 census....
(62,235) |
The location of these cities within the state stays remarkably true to the major transportation and
trade routeA trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...
s in the early 19th century, primarily the
Erie CanalThe Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
and railroads paralleling it. Today,
Interstate 90Interstate 90 is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Seattle, Washington, to Boston, Massachusetts. In the U.S. state of New York, I-90 extends from the Pennsylvania state line at Ripley to the Massachusetts state line at Canaan...
acts as a modern counterpart to commercial water routes.
Grouped by metropolitan statistical area, the following are the twelve largest population centers in the state are:
- New York City
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
(18,815,988 in NY/NJNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
/PAThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, 12,381,586 in NY)
- Buffalo-Niagara Falls (1,128,183)
- Rochester (1,030,495)
- Albany and the Capital District (853,358)
- Poughkeepsie and the Hudson Valley (669,915)
- Syracuse (645,293)
- Utica-Rome (294,862)
- Binghamton (246,426)
- Kingston (181,860)
- Glens Falls (128,886)
- Ithaca (101,055)
- Elmira (88,015)
|
The smallest city is
Sherrill, New YorkSherrill is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States. With a population of 3,147 , it is the least populous city in the state. Sherill is located at the western end of the Town of Vernon on Route 5. Sherrill is referred to as The Silver City.-History:Sherrill was founded in 1916 through a...
, located just west of the
Town of VernonVernon is a town in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 5,335 at the 2000 census.The Town of Vernon is on the western border of the county...
in
Oneida CountyOneida County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 234,878. The county seat is Utica. The name is in honor of the Oneida, an Iroquoian tribe that formerly occupied the region....
.
AlbanyAlbany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
is the state capital, and the
Town of HempsteadHempstead is one of the three towns in Nassau County, New York, United States, occupying the southwest part of the county. There are twenty-two incorporated villages completely or partially in the town. Hempstead's combined population was 759,757 at the 2010 Census, the majority of the population...
is the civil township with the largest population. If it were a city, it would be the second largest in the state with over 700,000 residents.
The southern tip of New York State—
New York CityThe geography of New York City is characterized by its coastal position at the meeting of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean in a naturally sheltered harbor. The city's geography, with its scarce availability of land, is a contributing factor in making New York City the most densely populated...
, its suburbs including
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, the southern portion of the Hudson Valley, and most of northern
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
—can be considered to form the central core of the
Northeast megalopolisThe Northeast megalopolis or Boston–Washington megalopolis is the heavily urbanized area of the United States stretching from the the northern suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts to the southern suburbs of Washington, D.C. On a map, the region appears almost as a perfectly straight line. As of 2000,...
", a super-city stretching from the northern suburbs of Boston south to the
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
suburbs of Washington D.C..
Demographics
Population
As of 2006, New York was the third largest state in population after California and Texas, with an estimated population of 19,541,453 as of July 1, 2009. This represents an increase of 513,481, or 2.7%, since the last census in 2000. It includes a natural increase since the last census of 803,680 people (that is 2,072,765 births minus 1,269,085 deaths) and a decrease due to net migration of 698,895 people out of the state.
ImmigrationImmigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...
from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 876,969 people, and migration within the country produced a net loss of 1,575,864 people.
In spite of the open land in the state, New York's population is very urban, with 92% of residents living in an urban area.
New York is a slow growing state with a large rate of domestic migration to other states. In 2000 and 2005, more people moved from New York to Florida than from any one state to another. However, New York state is one of the leading destinations for international immigration and thus has the second largest immigrant population in the country (after California) at 4.2 million as of 2008. Although
Upstate New YorkUpstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
receives considerable immigration, most of the state's immigrants settle in and around New York City, due to its more vibrant economy and cosmopolitan culture.
The
center of populationIn demographics, the center of population of a region is a geographical point that describes a centerpoint of the region's population...
of New York is located in
Orange CountyOrange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley...
, in the town of
DeerparkDeerpark is a town in the western part of Orange County, New York. The population was 7,858 at the 2000 census. As of July 2009, population at 8,524. The center of population of New York is located in Cuddebackville, a hamlet in Deerpark.__toc__...
. New York City and its eight suburban counties (excluding those in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania) have a combined population of 13,209,006 people, or 68.42% of the state's population.
Racial and ancestral makeup
According to the US Census Bureau, the 2010 racial makeup of New York State was as follows:
- White – 65.7%
- Hispanic or Latino
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
(of any race) – 17.6%
- Black or African American – 15.9%
- Asian
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
– 7.3% (3.0% Chinese, 1.6% Indian, 0.7% Korean, 0.5% Filipino, 0.3% Pakistani, 0.3% Bangladeshi, 0.2% Japanese, 0.1% Vietnamese)
- Two or more races – 3.0%
- Native American/American Indian
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
– 0.6%
The major ancestry groups in New York state are
African AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(15.8%), Italian (14.4%), Irish (12.9%), German (11.1%) and
EnglishEnglish Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
(6%). According to a 2004 estimate, 20.4% of the population is foreign-born.
New York is home to the
largest African American population and the second largest Asian American population in the United States. In addition it is home to the largest
Puerto RicanA Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
,
DominicanA Dominican American is any American who has origins in the Dominican Republic.Immigration records of Dominicans in the United States date from the late 19th century, and New York City has had a Dominican community since the 1930s...
and
Jamaican AmericanJamaican Americans are Americans of Jamaican heritage or Jamaican-born people who live in the United States of America. American citizenship is not a prerequisite of being a Jamaican American as permanent residents are also given this title....
populations in the continental United States. The New York City neighborhood of
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
has historically been a major cultural capital for African-Americans of sub-Saharan descent, and Bedford Stuyvesant is the largest such population in the United States.
QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, also in New York City, is home to the state's largest Asian-American population, and is also the most diverse county in the United States. The second concentration of Asian-Americans is in Manhattan's Chinatown.
QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
is home to the largest
AndeanThe Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
population (
ColombianColombian Americans are citizens of the United States who trace their nationality or heritage from the South American nation of Colombia. They are the largest South American ethnic group in the United States.-Causes of migration:...
,
EcuadorianAn Ecuadorian American is any person in the United States who is of Ecuadorian ancestry. Ecuadorian Americans can be Mestizo, White, Afro-Ecuadorian, Indigenous, Mulato, or Zambo. Many Ecuadorians are of Lebanese descent...
,
PeruvianA Peruvian American , mestizo, Amerindian, and Afro-Peruvian descent, as well as others, including Italian, French, and German or a mix of any of these. A significant number are of pure or mixed Chinese or/and Japanese heritage....
and
BolivianBolivian American is a compound term that applies to American citizens of Bolivian origin. Racially, Bolivian Americans are identified as Indigenous, European , Afro Bolivian, or a combination of any or all three races in varying degrees of admixture...
) population in The United States of America.
In the 2000 Census, Italian Americans made up the largest ancestral group in Staten Island and Long Island, followed by Irish Americans. Albany and southeast-central New York also have populations with many of Irish-American and Italian-American descent. In Buffalo and western New York, German Americans are the largest group; in the northern tip of the state, French Canadians are. Americans of
EnglishEnglish Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
ancestry are present throughout all of upstate New York. New York State has a higher number of Italian Americans than any other U.S. state.
6.5% of New York's population were under 5 years of age, 24.7% under 18, and 12.9% were 65 or older. Females made up 51.8% of the population.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 13.61% of the population aged 5 and over speak Spanish at home, while 2.04% speak Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin), 1.65% Italian, and 1.23% Russian.
Religion
CatholicsThe Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Christian Church in full communion with the Pope. With more than 68.5 registered million members, it is the largest single religious denomination in the United States, comprising about 22 percent of the population...
comprise more than 40% of the population in New York.
ProtestantsThe Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
are 30% of the population, Jews 8.4%, Muslims 3.5%,
BuddhistsBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
1%, and 13% claim no religious affiliation. The largest Protestant denominations are the
United Methodist ChurchThe United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
with 403,362; the
American Baptist Churches USAThe American Baptist Churches USA is a Baptist Christian denomination within the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The organization is usually considered mainline, although varying theological and mission emphases may be found among its...
with 203,297; and the
Episcopal ChurchThe Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
with 201,797 adherents.
Economy
New York's gross state product in 2010 was $1.16 trillion, ranking third in size behind the larger states of California and Texas. If New York were an independent nation, it would rank as the 16th largest economy in the world behind
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Its 2007 per capita personal income was $46,364, placing it sixth in the nation behind Maryland, and eighth in the world behind Ireland. New York's agricultural outputs are dairy products, cattle and other livestock, vegetables,
nurseryA nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size. They include retail nurseries which sell to the general public, wholesale nurseries which sell only to businesses such as other nurseries and to commercial gardeners, and private nurseries which supply the needs of...
stock, and apples. Its industrial outputs are printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric equipment, machinery, chemical products, and tourism.
A recent review by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found 13 states, including several of the nation's largest, face budget shortfalls for FY2009. New York faces a deficit that could be as large as $4.3 billion.
New York exports a wide variety of goods such as foodstuffs, commodities, minerals, computers and electronics, cut diamonds, and automobile parts. In 2007, the state exported a total of $71.1 billion worth of goods, with the five largest foreign export markets being Canada ($15 billion), United Kingdom ($6 billion), Switzerland ($5.9 billion), Israel ($4.9 billion), and Hong Kong ($3.4 billion). New York's largest imports are oil, gold, aluminum, natural gas, electricity, rough diamonds, and lumber.
Canada is a very important economic partner for the state. 21% of the state's total worldwide exports went to Canada in 2007. Tourism from the north is also a large part of the economy. Canadians spent US$487 million in 2004 while visiting the state.
New York City is the leading center of banking, finance and
communicationMass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
in the United States and is the location of the
New York Stock ExchangeThe New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
, the largest stock exchange in the world by dollar volume. Many of the world's largest corporations are based in the city.
The state also has a large manufacturing sector that includes printing and the production of garments, furs, railroad equipment and bus line vehicles. Many of these industries are concentrated in upstate regions. Albany and the Hudson Valley are major centers of nanotechnology and microchip manufacturing, while the Rochester area is important in photographic equipment and imaging.
New York is a major agricultural producer, ranking among the top five states for agricultural products such as dairy, apples, cherries, cabbage, potatoes, onions, maple syrup and many others. The state is the largest producer of cabbage in the U.S. The state has about a quarter of its land in farms and produced US$3.4 billion in agricultural products in 2001. The south shore of Lake Ontario provides the right mix of
soilSoil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
s and
microclimateA microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
for many apple, cherry,
plumA plum or gage is a stone fruit tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. The subgenus is distinguished from other subgenera in the shoots having a terminal bud and solitary side buds , the flowers in groups of one to five together on short stems, and the fruit having a groove running down one...
, pear and
peachThe peach tree is a deciduous tree growing to tall and 6 in. in diameter, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach...
orchardAn orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...
s. Apples are also grown in the Hudson Valley and near Lake Champlain.
New York is the nation's third-largest grape-producing state, behind California, and second-largest wine producer by volume. The south shore of Lake Erie and the southern
Finger LakesThe Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States. They are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are long and thin , each oriented roughly on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in...
hillsides have many vineyards. In addition, the
North ForkThe North Fork is a 30-mile-long peninsula in the northeast part of Suffolk County, New York, roughly parallel with an even longer peninsula known as the South Fork...
of
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
developed vineyards, production and visitors' facilities in the last three decades of the 20th century. In 2004, New York's wine and grape industry brought US$6 billion into the state economy.
The state has 30000 acres (121.4 km²) of vineyards, 212 wineries, and produced 200 million bottles of wine in 2004. A moderately sized saltwater commercial fishery is located along the Atlantic side of Long Island. The principal catches by value are clams, lobsters, squid, and flounder. These areas of the economy have been increasing as environmental protection has led to an increase in ocean wildlife.
As of January 2010, the state's unemployment rate was 8.8%.
Transportation
New York has one of the most extensive and one of the oldest transportation infrastructures in the country. Engineering difficulties because of the terrain of the state and the unique issues of the city brought on by urban crowding have had to be overcome since the state was young. Population expansion of the state generally followed the path of the early waterways, first the
Hudson RiverThe Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
and then the
Erie CanalThe Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
. Today, railroad lines and the
New York State ThruwayThe New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
follow the same general route. The
New York State Department of TransportationThe New York State Department of Transportation is responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports, waterways and aviation facilities in the U.S...
is often criticized for how they maintain the roads of the state in certain areas and for the fact that the tolls collected along the roadway have long passed their original purpose. Until 2006, tolls were collected on the Thruway within
The City of BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. They were dropped late in 2006 during the campaign for Governor (both candidates called for their removal).
In addition to New York City's famous
mass transit subwayThe New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
, four suburban commuter railroad systems enter and leave the city: the
Long Island Rail RoadThe Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
,
Metro-North RailroadThe Metro-North Commuter Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, or, more commonly, Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service that is run and managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , an authority of New York State. It is the busiest commuter railroad in the United...
,
Port Authority Trans-HudsonPATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey...
, and five of
New Jersey Transit's rail linesNew Jersey Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of New Jersey Transit. It provides regional rail service in New Jersey, with most service centered around transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken, and Newark...
. Many other cities have urban and regional public transportation. In Buffalo, the
Niagara Frontier Transportation AuthorityThe Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is a public authority responsible for the public transportation oversight of Erie and Niagara counties in the State of New York...
runs the
Buffalo Metro RailThe NFTA has a fleet of 26 rigid-bodied LRVs for the Metro Rail system, numbered sequentially from 101 to 127. They were built by Tokyu Car Corporation of Japan. One car was damaged in transit and later purchased by a restaurateur, Bertrand H. Hoak, of Hamburg, as an addition to Hoak's Armor Inn...
light-rail system; in Rochester, the
Rochester SubwayThe Rochester Subway or Rochester Industrial and Rapid Transit Railway was an underground rapid transit line in the city of Rochester, New York from 1927 to 1956. Contemporary photos show it used single streetcars, like Boston's Green Line, as a light rail line, with a large portion underground...
operated from 1927 until 1956 but has fallen into disuse.
The
New York State Department of Motor VehiclesThe New York State Department of Motor Vehicles is the governmental agency responsible for registering and inspecting automobiles and other motor vehicles as well as NYS Enhanced Driver License/Driver License and Enhanced Non-Driver Photo ID Card/Non-Driver Photo ID Card in the U.S...
(NYSDMV or DMV) is the governmental agency responsible for registering and inspecting automobiles and other motor vehicles as well as licensing drivers in the State of New York. As of 2008, the NYSDMV has 11,284,546 drivers licenses on file and 10,697,644 vehicle registrations in force. All gasoline powered vehicles registered in New York State must get an emissions inspection every 12 months. Diesel powered vehicles with a Gross Weight Rating over 8 500 lb that are registered in the NY Metropolitan Area must get an annual emissions inspection. All vehicles registered in NYS must get an annual safety inspection.
Portions of the transportation system are
intermodalIntermodal passenger transport involves more than one mode of transport of passengers. Some modes of transportation have always been intermodal; for example, most major airports have extensive facilities for automobile parking and have good rail or bus connections to the cities nearby. Urban bus...
, allowing travelers to easily switch from one mode of transportation to another. One of the most notable examples is
AirTrain JFKAirTrain JFK is a 3-line, -long people mover system and elevated railway in New York City providing service to John F. Kennedy International Airport...
which allows rail passengers to travel directly to terminals at
John F. Kennedy International AirportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
.
In May 2009 the
New York City Department of TransportationThe New York City Department of Transportation is responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure...
under the control of Transportation Commissioner
Janette Sadik-KhanJanette Sadik-Khan is the current Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, appointed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on April 27, 2007, to replace Iris Weinshall....
banned cars from
Times SquareTimes Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
. The move designed to reduce pollution and pedestrian accidents looks likely to be implemented permantly, and will last at least until the end of the year.
Politics and government
Under its present
constitutionThe Constitution of the State of New York establishes the structure of the government of the State of New York, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of New York. Like most state constitutions in the United States, New York's constitution's provisions tend to be more detailed, and amended...
(adopted in 1938), New York is governed by the same three branches that govern all fifty states of the United States: the
executive branchExecutive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...
, consisting of the
Governor of New YorkThe Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...
and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch, consisting of the bicameral New York State Legislature (senate and
assemblyThe New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
); and the judicial branch, consisting of the state's highest court, the
New York Court of AppealsThe New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...
, and lower courts. The state has two U.S. senators, 29 members in the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, and 31
electoral votesThe Electoral College consists of the electors appointed by each state who formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Since 1964, there have been 538 electors in each presidential election...
in national presidential elections (a drop from its 47 votes during the 1940s).
New York's capital is
AlbanyAlbany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
. The state's subordinate political units are its 62 counties. Other officially incorporated governmental units are towns, cities, and villages. New York has more than 4,200 local governments that take one of these forms. About 52% of all revenue raised by local governments in the state is raised solely by the
government of New York CityThe government of New York City is organized under the City Charter and provides for a "strong" mayor-council system. The government of New York is more centralized than that of most other U.S...
, which is the largest municipal government in the United States, whereas New York City houses only 42% of the state population.
The state has a strong imbalance of payments with the federal government. New York State receives 82 cents in services for every $1 it sends in taxes to the federal government in Washington. The state ranks near the bottom, in 42nd place, in federal spending per tax dollar.
Many of New York's public services are carried out by public benefit corporations, frequently called
authorities or
development corporations. Well known public benefit corporations in New York include the
Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityThe Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S...
, which oversees New York City's public transportation system, and the
Port Authority of New York and New JerseyThe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...
, a bi-state transportation infrastructure agency.
New York's legal system is explicitly based upon English common Law.
Federal representation
As of the 2000 census and the redistricting for the 2002 elections, the state has 29 members in the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, and two U.S. senators. Two seats in the House will be lost in 2013 due to a decline in the state's rate of population growth. New York has 31
electoral votesThe Electoral College consists of the electors appointed by each state who formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Since 1964, there have been 538 electors in each presidential election...
in national presidential elections (a drop from its 47 votes during the 1940s).
New York is represented by Chuck Schumer and
Kirsten GillibrandKirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand is an attorney and the junior United States Senator from the state of New York and a member of the Democratic Party...
in the
United States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
and has 29 representatives to the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, behind California's 53 congressional districts and Texas' 32 congressional districts.
Capital punishment
Capital punishmentCapital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
was reintroduced in 1995 under the Pataki administration but the statute was declared unconstitutional in 2004, when the
New York Court of AppealsThe New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...
ruled in
People v. LaVallePeople v. LaValle, 3 N.Y.3d 88 , was a landmark decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the U.S. state of New York, in which the court ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because of the statute's direction on how the jury was to be instructed...
that it violated the state constitution. The remaining death sentence was commuted by the court to
life imprisonmentLife imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
in 2007, in
People v. John Taylor, and the death row was disestablished in 2008, under executive order from
Governor PatersonDavid Alexander Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, from 2008 to 2010. During his tenure he was the first governor of New York of African American heritage and also the second legally blind governor of any U.S. state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting...
. No execution has taken place in New York since 1963. Legislative efforts to amend the statute have failed, and death sentences are no longer sought at the state level, though certain crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government are subject to the federal death penalty.
Politics
In the last few decades, New York State has generally supported candidates belonging to the
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in national elections. Democratic presidential candidate
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
won New York State by 25 percentage points in 2008, a bigger margin than
John KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
in 2004. New York City is a major Democratic stronghold with liberal politics. Many of the state's other urban areas, such as
AlbanyAlbany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
,
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
,
RochesterRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, and
SyracuseSyracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
are also Democratic. Rural upstate New York, however, is generally more conservative than the cities and tends to favor
RepublicansThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. Heavily populated Suburban areas such as Westchester County and
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
have swung between the major parties over the past 25 years, but more often than not support Democrats.
Same-sex marriages in New YorkSame-sex marriage in the U.S. state of New York became legal on July 24, 2011, under the Marriage Equality Act, which was passed on June 24, 2011, by the New York State Legislature and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on the same day...
were legalized on June 24, 2011 and were authorized to take place beginning 30 days thereafter.
New York City is the most important source of political fund-raising in the United States for both major parties. Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code, 10021 on the
Upper East SideThe Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
, generated the most money for the 2000 presidential campaigns of both
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and
Al GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
.
Education
The
University of the State of New YorkThe University of the State of New York is the State of New York's governmental umbrella organization responsible for most institutions and people in any way connected with formal educational functions, public and private, in New York State...
oversees all public primary, middle-level, and secondary education in the state, while the
New York City Department of EducationThe New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. It is the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,700 separate schools...
manages the public school system in New York City. In 1894, reflecting general racial discrimination, the state passed a law that allowed communities to set up schools for children of African-American descent. In 1900, the state passed another law requiring integrated schools.
At the college level, the statewide public university system is the
State University of New YorkThe State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
(SUNY). The
City University of New YorkThe City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
(CUNY) is the public university system of New York City. The SUNY system consists of 64 community colleges, technical colleges, undergraduate colleges and universities. The four university centers are University at Albany,
Binghamton UniversityBinghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...
, University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University.
In addition there are many notable private universities, including the oldest Catholic institution in the
NortheastThe Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
,
Fordham UniversityFordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
. New York is home to both
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York City and
Cornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in
IthacaThe city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, making it the only state to contain more than one
Ivy LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
school. West Point, the service academy of the U.S. Army is located just south of
NewburghNewburgh is a city located in Orange County, New York, United States, north of New York City, and south of Albany, on the Hudson River. Newburgh is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metropolitan area, which includes all of Dutchess and Orange counties. The Newburgh area was...
, on the banks of the
Hudson RiverThe Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
.
During the 2007–2008 school year, New York spent more per pupil on public education than any other state.
Sports
New York hosted the
1980 Winter OlympicsThe 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, was a multi-sport event which was celebrated from 13 February through 24 February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932...
at
Lake PlacidLake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638....
, the Games known for the USA–USSR hockey game dubbed the "
Miracle on IceThe "Miracle on Ice" is the name in American popular culture for a medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, on Friday, February 22...
" in which a group of American college students and amateurs defeated the heavily favored Soviet national ice hockey team 4–3 and went on to win the gold medal against
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. Lake Placid also hosted the
1932 Winter OlympicsThe 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4 and closed on February 15. It would be the first winter olympics held in the United...
. Along with St. Moritz, Switzerland and Innsbruck, Austria, it is one of the three places to have twice hosted the Winter Olympic Games.
New York is the home of one
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
team, the
Buffalo BillsThe Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
(based in the suburb of
Orchard ParkOrchard Park is a town in Erie County, New York, a suburb southeast of Buffalo, New York. According to the 2010 census, the population is 29,054. This represents an increase of 5.13% from the 2000 census figure. The town contains a village also named Orchard Park. Orchard Park is one of the...
). Although the
New York GiantsThe New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and
New York JetsThe New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
represent the
New York metropolitan areaThe New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
and were previously located in New York City, they play in
New Meadowlands StadiumMetLife Stadium is a stadium in the New York City Metropolitan Area, part of the MetLife Sports Complex, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It is the home of the New York Giants and New York Jets of the National Football League and is adjacent to the site of the former Giants Stadium, which was home...
, located in
East RutherfordEast Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,913. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan....
, New Jersey. The Meadowlands stadium will host
Super Bowl XLVIIISuper Bowl XLVIII will be the 48th edition of the Super Bowl in American football, and the 44th annual championship game of the modern-era National Football League . It will be held on February 2, 2014 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey...
in 2014. There has been much controversy over several proposals for a new New York Jets
football stadiumThe West Side Stadium was a proposed football stadium to be built on a platform over the rail yards on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City....
. The owners of the New York Jets were willing to split the $1.5 billion cost of building a new football stadium over Manhattan's West Side rail yards, but the proposal never came to fruition.
New York also has two
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
teams, the
New York YankeesThe New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
(based in
the BronxThe Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
) and the
New York MetsThe New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
(based in
QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
). New York is home to three
National Hockey LeagueThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
franchises: the
New York RangersThe New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
in
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, the
New York IslandersThe New York Islanders are a professional ice hockey team based in Uniondale, New York. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
on
Long IslandLong Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
and the
Buffalo SabresThe Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League .-Founding and early success: 1970-71—1980-81:...
in
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. New York has a
National Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
team, the
New York KnicksThe New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
, in Manhattan. The former New York Nets from 1968 to 1977 is now titled as a New Jersey team; however, plans to relocate to New York City are in the works. There are a variety of minor league teams that can be found all through the State of New York, such as the
Long Island DucksThe Long Island Ducks is an American professional baseball team based in Central Islip, New York. They are a member of the Liberty Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...
.
| List of all New York State professional sports teams |
| Club |
Sport |
League |
Buffalo BillsThe Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
|
FootballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
|
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
|
| New York Red Bulls |
Soccer |
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
|
New York KnicksThe New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
|
Basketball |
National Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
|
New York LibertyThe New York Liberty is a professional basketball team based in New York City, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was one of the eight original franchises of the league...
|
Basketball |
Women's National Basketball AssociationThe Women's National Basketball Association is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of twelve teams. The league was founded on April 24, 1996 as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association...
|
Rochester Raging RhinosThe Rochester Rhinos are an American professional soccer team based in Rochester, New York, United States. Founded in 1996, the team plays in the National Division of the new USL Professional Division, the third tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, having self-relegated from the USSF D2 Pro League...
|
Soccer |
USL First DivisionThe United Soccer Leagues First Division was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico....
|
Buffalo SabresThe Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League .-Founding and early success: 1970-71—1980-81:...
|
Ice hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
|
National Hockey LeagueThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
|
New York IslandersThe New York Islanders are a professional ice hockey team based in Uniondale, New York. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
|
Ice Hockey |
National Hockey League |
New York RangersThe New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
|
Ice Hockey |
National Hockey League |
| Adirondack Phantoms The Adirondack Phantoms are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League , who began play in the 2009–10 AHL season. The Phantoms are based in Glens Falls, New York, playing home games at the Glens Falls Civic Center. The Phantoms are the AHL affiliate of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers...
|
Ice Hockey |
American Hockey LeagueThe American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
|
| Albany River Rats The Albany River Rats were an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Albany, New York at the Times Union Center.- Founding to 2010 :...
|
Ice Hockey |
American Hockey LeagueThe American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
|
| Binghamton Senators The Binghamton Senators are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League . Nicknamed the B-Sens, they play in Binghamton, New York at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. Along with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL, the B-Sens are minor league affiliates of the Ottawa Senators...
|
Ice Hockey |
American Hockey League |
Elmira JackalsThe Elmira Jackals are an ice hockey team that play in the ECHL. Their home games are played in First Arena in Elmira, New York and they refer to themselves as "the beasts of the east"...
|
Ice Hockey |
ECHL The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...
|
| Rochester Americans The Rochester Americans are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, and a top affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. The team plays its home games in Rochester, New York, at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial...
|
Ice Hockey |
American Hockey League |
| Syracuse Crunch The Syracuse Crunch are a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They play in Syracuse, New York, at the War Memorial at Oncenter...
|
Ice Hockey |
American Hockey League |
New York MetsThe New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
|
Baseball |
National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
|
New York YankeesThe New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
|
Baseball |
American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
|
| Brooklyn Cyclones The Brooklyn Cyclones is a minor league baseball team in the Short-Season A classification New York - Penn League, affiliated with the New York Mets. The Cyclones play at MCU Park just off the Coney Island boardwalk in the New York City borough of Brooklyn....
|
Baseball |
New York – Penn League |
| Staten Island Yankees The Staten Island Yankees are a minor league baseball team, located in the New York City borough of Staten Island. Nicknamed the "Baby Bombers," the Yankees are a Short-Season A classification affiliate of the New York Yankees and play in the New York - Penn League at Richmond County Bank Ballpark...
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Baseball |
New York – Penn League |
| Jamestown Jammers The Jamestown Jammers are a minor league baseball team in Jamestown, New York, United States. The team is the Short-Season A classification affiliate of the Miami Marlins and plays in the New York - Penn League...
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Baseball |
New York – Penn League |
| Batavia Muckdogs The Batavia Muckdogs are a minor league baseball team based in Batavia, a city in Genesee County, New York, United States. The Muckdogs are the current Short-Season A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals...
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Baseball |
New York – Penn League |
| Auburn Doubledays The Auburn Doubledays are a minor league baseball team in Auburn, New York, USA, that is owned and operated by Auburn Community Baseball. They are a member of the Short-Season Class A New York-Penn League and have been a farm team of the Houston Astros , the Toronto Blue Jays , and Washington...
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Baseball |
New York – Penn League |
| Oneonta Tigers The Oneonta Tigers were a minor league baseball team located in Oneonta, New York. They were members of the New York - Penn League. The Tigers were the Short-Season A classification affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, and played their home games at Damaschke Field...
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Baseball |
New York – Penn League |
Tri-City Valley CatsThe Tri-City ValleyCats are a minor league baseball team based in Troy, New York and the 2010 champions of the New York – Penn League . The ValleyCats are the Short-Season A classification affiliate of the Houston Astros Major League Baseball club. The name Tri-City is based on the three nearby...
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Baseball |
New York – Penn League |
| Hudson Valley Renegades The Hudson Valley Renegades are a minor league baseball team, affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays. The team is a member of the New York - Penn League, a Class A Short Season league. The Renegades play at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, NY....
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Baseball |
New York – Penn League |
Binghamton MetsThe Binghamton Mets are a U.S. minor league baseball team based in Binghamton, New York. The team, which plays in the Eastern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the New York Mets major-league club...
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Baseball |
Eastern League |
Buffalo BisonsThe Buffalo Bisons are a minor league baseball team based in Buffalo, New York. They currently play in the International League and are the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets...
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Baseball |
International League The International League is a minor league baseball league that operates in the eastern United States. Like the Pacific Coast League and the Mexican League, it plays at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball. It was so named because it had teams in both the United States...
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| Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a minor league baseball team based in Rochester, New York. The team plays in the International League and is the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins major-league club. The Red Wings play in Frontier Field, located in downtown Rochester.The Red Wings were an...
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Baseball |
International League |
| Syracuse Chiefs |
Baseball |
International League |
Long Island DucksThe Long Island Ducks is an American professional baseball team based in Central Islip, New York. They are a member of the Liberty Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...
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Baseball |
Atlantic League of Professional Baseball The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball is a professional, independent baseball organization located primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, especially the greater metropolitan areas of the Northeast megalopolis. It operates in cities not served by Major or Minor League...
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| New York Dragons The New York Dragons were an Arena Football League team based in the New York metropolitan area. The team was founded in as the original incarnation of the Iowa Barnstormers, and relocated to New York in . They played in New York until 2008, when the league folded...
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Arena footballArena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League . It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game....
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Arena Football League |
Albany ConquestThe Albany Firebirds are a professional arena football team of the af2 based in Albany, New York. Albany was granted an expansion team in 2002 and began play as the Albany Conquest. The Firebirds play their home games at the Times Union Center...
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Arena footballArena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League . It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game....
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af2AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...
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| Long Island Lizards The Long Island Lizards are a Major League Lacrosse professional men's field lacrosse team based in Hempstead, New York, USA, located on Long Island. They are original members of the MLL and lost in the league's inaugural game on June 7, 2001 to the Baltimore Bayhawks , 16-13...
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LacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
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Major League Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse, or MLL, is a professional men's field lacrosse league that is made up of five teams in the United States and one team in Canada.- History :...
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Rochester RattlersThe Rochester Rattlers are a Major League Lacrosse professional men's field lacrosse team based in Rochester, New York. They are a charter member of the MLL. From their inaugural season in 2001 to 2005, they were in the National Division. From 2006 to 2008, they were a member of the Eastern...
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Lacrosse |
Major League Lacrosse |
Buffalo BanditsThe Buffalo Bandits are a team in the National Lacrosse League . They play at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. The Bandits played in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League from 1992 to 1997, until the MILL turned into the NLL in 1998....
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Lacrosse |
National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League is a men's professional indoor lacrosse league in North America. It currently has nine teams; three in Canada and six in the United States. Unlike other lacrosse leagues which play in the summer, the NLL plays its games in the winter and spring. Each year, the playoff...
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| Rochester Knighthawks The Rochester Knighthawks are a professional lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League. They play in Rochester, New York at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. The Knighthawks were previously members of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League from 1995 to 1997...
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Lacrosse |
National Lacrosse League |
| New York Titans The New York Titans were a professional lacrosse team based in the New York metropolitan area. The team was a member of the Eastern Division of the National Lacrosse League from 2006 to 2009...
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Lacrosse |
National Lacrosse League |
| Brooklyn Wonders The Westchester Phantoms are a professional basketball team in the Blue Conference of the American Basketball Association based in Westchester County, New York...
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Basketball |
American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association, often abbreviated as ABA, is a semi-professional men's basketball league that was founded in 1999. The current ABA has no affiliation with the original American Basketball Association that merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976...
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| Buffalo Silverbacks |
Basketball |
American Basketball Association |
| Rochester Razorsharks The Rochester Razorsharks are a professional basketball team based in Rochester, New York. They are members of the Premier Basketball League and play their home games at the Blue Cross Arena in downtown Rochester. The Razorsharks were founded in 2005 as a member of the American Basketball...
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Basketball |
American Basketball Association |
| Strong Island Sound The Strong Island Sound were an American Basketball Association team, that played their home games at Suffolk County Community College in Long Island, New York's Suffolk County...
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Basketball |
American Basketball Association |
| Albany Patroons The Albany Patroons were a professional basketball team that played in the Continental Basketball Association ....
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Basketball |
Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association was a professional men's basketball league in the United States, which has been on hiatus since the 2009 season.- History :...
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| New York |
Gaelic footballGaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...
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Gaelic Athletic AssociationThe Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...
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| New York |
hurlingHurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. Hurling is the national game of Ireland. The game has prehistoric origins, has been played for at least 3,000 years, and...
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Gaelic Athletic Association |
See also
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