New York City is a city in the southern end of the state of New York, and is the most populous city in the United States of America.
New York City is a global economic center, with its business, finance, trading, law, and media organizations influential worldwide. The city is also an important cultural center, with many museums, galleries, and performance venues.
Home of the United Nations, the city is a hub for international diplomacy. With over 8.2 million residents within an area of 322 square miles (830 km²), New York City has the highest population density of major cities in the United States. The New York metropolitan area, with a population of 18.8 million, ranks among the largest urban areas in the world.
Giovanni da Verrazano was born sometime around 1485 in his family’s castle (Castello Verrazzano) in Val did Greve, Italy. In 1507, Verrazano moved to Dieppe in the hopes of pursuing a career in navigation.
While in Dieppe, he made voyages to the Eastern Mediterranean. He spent many years as a pirate, preying on Spanish and Portuguese sea vessels.
He was responsible for stealing nearly two million dollars worth of gold from Spanish vessels that were bringing gold and jewels back from Mexico, stolen from the Aztec Empire.
In 1524, Verrazano was chosen by king Francis I of France to search for a “Northwest Passage” to Asia through North America. He left aboard La Dauphine in January of 1524.
On March 1, 1524, he reached Cape Fear, North Carolina and proceeded north to explore the coastline. Verrazano believed he saw the Pacific Ocean as he explored the North Carolina coast on the other side of a narrow strip of land.
He had actually found the Pamlico Sound, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. Verrazano’s error in judgment resulted in erroneous maps printed in Europe. The maps depicted North America as being split into two parts, connected by a narrow strip of land. The error took over a century to correct.
As Verrazano explored the Atlantic coast of North America farther north, he discovered New York Harbor, Block Island and Narragansett Bay.
Because he often anchored far off-shore, Verrazano missed discovering the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays.
He sailed farther north to Maine and Newfoundland before returning to France. Verrazano would make two more trips to the Americas. On the second trip, he was killed by natives on the island of Guadalupe. Today, New York
Harbor’s Verrazano Narrows Bridge commemorates his epic journey.
The statue was designed by a young French sculptor, Frеdеric-Auguste Bartholdi, who was striving to build a statue like the great Colossus that once stood at the Greek island Rhodes.
The statue's face was modeled after his mother's and the story goes that the body was modeled after a prostitute.
The crown of Lady Liberty, as the statue is often affectionately called, has seven spikes, symbolizing the Seven Seas across which liberty should be spread. In her left hand she holds a tablet with the Declaration of Independence and in her right hand a torch, symbolizing Enlightenment.
The Statue of Liberty was constructed in Paris, France. It took nine years before it was completed in 1884 after which it was sent to the USA in 214 crates.
Even before the arrival of the statue, Bartholdi himself had traveled to the United States to discuss the location of the statue with president Ulysses S. Grant. Eventually it was decided tot erect the statue at a small island in the harbor of New York City. Today the island is known as Liberty Island.
The Statue of Liberty is 46,5 meters (151ft) tall and together with the pedestal it reaches a height of 93 meters (305ft). You can take the staircase inside the statue and walk all the way up the 354 steps to the crown from where you have a nice view over New York City.