Location Information

New York City, United States of America
Language: English
Currency: Dollars

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated almost entirely in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and the capital district of Washington, D.C., lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The USA is boarded by Canada and Mexico.

The first known inhabitants of the area now known as the United States are believed to have arrived over a period of several thousand years beginning approximately 20,000 years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska. Relatively little is known of these early settlers compared to the Europeans who colonized the area after the first voyage of navigator Christopher Columbus in 1492 for Spain. The first European known to set foot in the continental U.S. was Juan Ponce de León, who arrived in Florida in 1513, though there is some evidence suggesting that he may have been preceded by John Cabot in 1497.

Due to the immense size and spread of topology in the US the climate is incredibly varied. If there is a "general" climate then it is temperate, but it is also tropical in Florida and Hawaii, arctic in Alaska, arid in the Great Basin of the southwest and semi-arid in the Great Plains to the west of the Mississippi River. The northern states are the coldest, with bitter, freezing winters - especially in the plains, Midwest and Northeast. Hot summers are the norm throughout the US, except in New England, Oregon and Washington State, all of which are rainier and less predictable than the rest of the country.

Ranging from New York in the north to Washington DC, the Mid-Atlantic is home to a number of the nation's most densely populated cities, but also rolling mountains and traditional seaside resorts like Long Island and the Jersey Shore. Northern Florida is similar to the rest of the South, but head further south into the megaresorts of Orlando, retirement communities, tropical Caribbean-influenced Miami, the Everglades swamp, and 1200 miles of sandy beaches. Texas, the second biggest state in the nation, it's like a whole other country (and in fact, once was). The terrain ranges from south-eastern swamplands to the cattle-ranching South Plains to the miles of sandy beaches of South Texas to the mountains and deserts of West Texas. The spectacular snow-covered Rockies offer outdoor pursuits such as hiking, rafting, and skiing on some of the greatest snow on Earth. There are also deserts and some large cities. California offers world-class cities, deserts, rain forests, snowy mountains, and a famous beach lifestyle. Northern California (centred around the Bay Area) and Southern California (centred around Los Angeles) are culturally very different.

Because the United States has long attracted immigrants from a wide variety of nations and cultures, the cuisine of the United States is diverse and can be difficult to define. Many of the American cuisines have origins from another nation, or part of the world, and have been Americanized.

New York City (officially The City of New York) is the largest city in the state of New York and the largest city in the United States. New York City is rated as an alpha world city for its global influences in media, politics, education, entertainment and fashion.

The region was inhabited by about 5,000 Lenape Native Americans at the time of its European discovery in 1524[9] by Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian explorer in the service of the French crown, who called it "Nouvelle Angoulême" (New Angoulême). European settlement began with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement, later called "Nieuw Amsterdam" (New Amsterdam), on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1614. Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape in 1626. In 1664, the English conquered the city and renamed it "New York" after the English Duke of York and Albany.

New York City is located in the Northeastern United States, in south-eastern New York State, approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston. The location at the mouth of the Hudson River, which feeds into a naturally sheltered harbour and then into the Atlantic Ocean, has helped the city grow in significance as a trading city.

New York has a humid continental climate. New York City has cold winters but the city's coastal position keeps temperatures slightly warmer than inland regions.

New York City has over 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland and 14 miles (22 km) of public beaches. Manhattan's Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, is the most visited city park in the United States.

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