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Revision as of 18:05, 1 October 2002 by JDG (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)This article is about the borough of Manhattan in New York City. For other uses see: Manhattan (disambiguation)
Manhattan is one of the five "boroughs" that form the City of New York, coterminous with New York County. It consists mainly of a small island between the Hudson River to the west, the East River to the east, and the Harlem River to the northeast, connected by bridges and tunnels to New Jersey (west), the Bronx (northeast) and Brooklyn and Queens on Long Island (east and south).
In addition to the island of Manhattan, the borough includes a few much smaller islands, and a small piece of the mainland (Marble Hill), which is geographically part of the Bronx but legally belongs to Manhattan (this area was originally part of Manhattan Island; a canal was dug in the late 19th century separating it from the remainder of Manhattan, and eventually the part of the Harlem River separating Marble Hill from the Bronx was filled in.)
The Empire State Building, the theater district around Broadway, Columbia University, the financial center around Wall Street, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Harlem, Chinatown, and Central Park (near the Murray Hill area) are all located on this densely populated island. When one refers to a New York Minute, one refers to the extremely rapid pace of living in Manhattan.
Manhattan is 21.5 km long and has an area of 59 km².
The name of the island is from the Algonquian languages of the earliest known inhabitants of the area. It was settled by the Dutch in 1624 (see New Amsterdam). Also see New York, New York.
Letter of 1626 stating that Manhattan Island had been purchased for the value of 60 guilders (PD)