Sporting Geography: New York
February 19, 2003 10:11 AM | General
February 19, 2003
This week the women’s basketball team plays host to the St. John’s University Red Storm. Let’s take a time out to learn more about the city of New York.
Although Giovanni da Verrazano was probably the first European to explore the region and Henry Hudson certainly visited the area, it was with Dutch settlements on Manhattan and Long Island that the city truly began to emerge. In 1664 the English, at war with the Netherlands, seized the colony for the duke of York, for whom it was renamed.
Throughout the 18th century, New York was an expanding commercial and cultural center. The city's first newspaper, the New York Gazette, appeared in 1725.
New York was active in the colonial opposition to British measures after trouble in 1765 over the Stamp Act. As revolutionary sentiments increased, the New York Sons of Liberty forced Governor William Tryon and the British colonial government from the city.
Although many New Yorkers were Loyalists, Continental forces commanded by George Washington tried to defend the city. After the patriot defeat in the battle of Long Island and the succeeding actions at Harlem Heights and White Plains, Washington gave up New York, and the British occupied the city until the end of the war for independence. Under the British occupation two mysterious fires in 1776 and 1778 destroyed a large part of the city. After the Revolution, New York was briefly the first capital of the United States and was the state capital until 1797. President Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall.
The great metropolis of New York City is the nerve center of the nation.
It is a leader in manufacturing, foreign trade, commerce and banking, book and magazine publishing, and theatrical production.
A leading seaport, its John F. Kennedy International Airport is one of the busiest in the world. New York is also home to the New York Stock Exchange -- the largest in the world.
The printing and publishing industry is the city's largest manufacturing employer, with the apparel industry second.
Visit us again next week when we learn more about the city of Syracuse, NY.
Let’s Goooooo Mountaineers!
