New York

Introduction

Located at the mouth of the Hudson River in southeastern New York state, New York is one of the world's great cities. It has the largest population of any city in the United States, and it is unrivaled in the diversity of its neighborhoods and their often-colorful residents. New York runs the gamut from great concentrations of wealth, epitomized by luxury apartment buildings and hotels and mammoth corporate headquarters, to the grinding urban poverty of its ethnic and racial ghettos. A major financial and economic center, it is also a cultural mecca that has attracted generations of artists and intellectuals and draws millions of tourists every year. In its 400-year history the city has grown and changed rapidly, repeatedly renewing itself through successive waves of immigration and urban development. As a new century approaches, it remains, perhaps more than anything else, a city on the move.