NEW YORK CITY

New York City is one of the most famous cities in the world. We see the Statue of Liberty, Times Square and the Empire State Building as iconic American images. But did you know that New York was controlled by England from 1664 to 1776? And did you realize that New York is named after York, a city in England? Can you believe that New York was called New Amsterdam from 1609 to 1664? And before that, it was an island full of green hills and rivers, controlled by the Canarsee tribe of Native Americans. The Canarsees sold the island to the Dutch for 24 dollars!

New York has gone through countless changes over the years. It was a city full of small businesses, street vendors, poor immigrants and rich bankers. You could haggle over the price of anything in the markets. Today you can’t haggle over anything. There are no small markets. Every store in New York is part of a large chain. In fact, the only things left from old New York are antiques and souvenirs!