Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Why is New York known as the Big Apple?
"The Big Apple" was popularized as a name for New York City by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number of horse-racing articles for the "New York Morning Telegraph" in the 1920s. The earliest of these was a casual reference on 3rd May, 1921:
New York City is the most populous city in the United States, with an estimated record high of 8,622,698 residents , incorporating more immigration into the city than outmigration since the 2010 United States Census. More than twice as many people live in New York City as in the second-most populous U.S. city (Los Angeles), and within a smaller area. New York City gained more residents between April 2010 and July 2014 (316,000) than any other U.S. city. New York City's population is about 43% of New York State's population and about 36% of the population of the New York metropolitan area.
One example of a conurbation is the expansive concept of the New York metropolitan area (the Tri-state region) centered on New York City, including 30 counties spread among New York State, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, with an estimated population of 21,961,994 in 2007. Approximately one-fifteenth of all U.S. residents live in the Greater New York City area. This conurbation is the result of several central cities whose urban areas have merged.
The largest urban area in the United States is the New York metropolitan area. The population of New York City, the core of the metropolitan area, exceeds 8.5 million people, its metropolitan statistical area has a population that is over 20 million, and its combined statistical area population is over 23 million. The next six largest urban areas in the U.S. are Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Houston. About 82 percent of the population of the United States lives within the boundaries of an urbanized area as of December, 2010. Combined, these areas occupy about 2 percent of the land area of the United States. Many Americans live in agglomerations of cities, suburbs, and towns that are adjacent to a metropolitan area's largest city.
New York is the largest city in the United States, with the city proper's population more than double the next largest city, Los Angeles (or roughly equivalent to the combined populations of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, the United States' second, third, and fourth most populous cities respectively). Demographers estimate New York's population will reach between 9.4 and 9.7 million by 2030.
In 2000 the reported life expectancy of New Yorkers was above the national average. Life expectancy for females born in 2009 in New York City is 80.2 years and for males is 74.5 years.
New York's two key demographic features are its density and diversity. The city has an extremely high population density of 26,403 people per square mile (10,194/km²), about 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest large American city, San Francisco. Manhattan's population density is 66,940 people per square mile (25,846/km²).
Rikers Island () is New York City's main jail complex, as well as the name of the island on which it sits, in the East River between Queens and the mainland Bronx, adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. Supposedly named after Abraham Rycken who bought the island in 1664, the island is home to one of the world's largest correctional institutions and mental institutions and has been described as New York's most famous jail. The island was originally under in size, but has since grown over four times to more than . Much of the first stages of expansion was accomplished by convict labor hauling in ashes for landfill. The island itself is politically part of the Bronx, though it is included as part of Queens Community Board 1 and has a Queens ZIP Code of 11370.
The history of Albany, New York, begins with the first interaction of Europeans with the native Indian tribes who had long inhabited the area. The area was originally inhabited by an Algonquian Indian tribe, the Mohican, as well as the Iroquois, five nations of whom the easternmost, the Mohawk, had the closest relations with traders and settlers in Albany.
Henry Hudson first claimed this area for the Dutch in 1609. Fur traders established the first European settlement in 1614; Albany was officially chartered as a city in 1686. It became the capital of New York in 1797. It is one of the oldest surviving settlements from the original thirteen colonies, and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States. Modern Albany was founded as the Dutch trading posts of Fort Nassau in 1614 and Fort Orange in 1624; the fur trade brought in a population that settled around Fort Orange and founded a village called Beverwijck. The English took over and renamed the town Albany in 1664, in honor of the then Duke of Albany, the future James II of England and James VII of Scotland. The city was officially chartered in 1686 with the issuance of the "Dongan Charter", the oldest effective city charter in the nation and possibly the longest-running instrument of municipal government in the Western Hemisphere.
During the late 18th century and throughout of the 19th century, Albany was a center of transportation. It is located on the north end of the navigable Hudson River, was the original eastern terminus of the Erie Canal, and was home to some of the earliest railroad systems in the world. Albany's main exports at the time were beer, lumber, published works, and ironworks. Beginning in 1810, Albany was one of the ten most populous cities in the nation, a distinction that it held until the 1860 census. In the 20th century, the city opened one of the first commercial airports in the world, the precursor of today's Albany International Airport. The 1920s saw the rise of a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party. The city's skyline changed in the 1960s with the construction of the Empire State Plaza and the uptown campus of SUNY Albany, mainly under the direction of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. While Albany experienced a decline in its population due to urban sprawl, many of its historic neighborhoods were saved from destruction through the policies of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, the longest-serving mayor of any city in the United States. More recently, the city has experienced growth in the high-tech industry, with great strides in the nanotechnology sector.
Albany has been a center of higher education for over a century, with much of the remainder of its economy dependent on state government and health care services. The city has experienced a rebound from the urban decline of the 1970s and 1980s, with noticeable development happening in the city's downtown and midtown neighborhoods. Albany is known for its extensive history, culture, architecture, and institutions of higher education. The city is home to the mother churches of two Christian dioceses as well as the oldest Christian congregation in Upstate New York. Albany has won the All-America City Award in both 1991 and 2009.
Columbus ( ) is the state capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a population of 879,170 as of 2017 estimates, it is the 14th-most populous city in the United States and one of the fastest growing large cities in the nation. This makes Columbus the third-most populous state capital in the US (after Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas) and the second-most populous city in the Midwest (after Chicago, Illinois). It is the core city of the Columbus, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses ten counties. With a population of 2,078,725, it is Ohio's second-largest metropolitan area.
According to the 2010 Census, New York City had the largest population of self-defined black residents of any U.S. city, with over 2 million within the city's boundaries, although this number has decreased since 2000. New York City had more black people than did the entire state of California until the 1980 Census. The black population consists of immigrants and their descendants from Africa and the Caribbean as well as native-born African-Americans. Many of the city's black residents live in Brooklyn and The Bronx. Several of the city's neighborhoods are historical birthplaces of urban black culture in America, among them the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford–Stuyvesant and Manhattan's Harlem and various sections of Eastern Queens and The Bronx. Bedford-Stuyvesant is considered to have the highest concentration of black residents in the United States. New York City has the largest population of black immigrants (at 686,814) and descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean (especially from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana, Belize, Grenada, and Haiti), and of sub-Saharan Africans. In a news item of April 3, 2006, however, the "New York Times" noted that for the first time since the American Civil War, the recorded African American population was declining, because of emigration to other regions, a declining African American birthrate in New York, and decreased immigration of blacks from the Caribbean and Africa.
In 2017, the city had an estimated population density of 28,491 people per square mile (11,000/km²), rendering it the most densely populated of all municipalities housing over 100,000 residents in the United States, with several small cities (of fewer than 100,000) in adjacent Hudson County, New Jersey having greater density, as per the 2010 Census. Geographically co-extensive with New York County, the borough of Manhattan's 2017 population density of makes it the highest of any county in the United States and higher than the density of any individual American city.
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco–style skyscraper located on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. At , the structure was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931. It is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel framework. , the Chrysler is the eighth-tallest building in the city, tied with The New York Times Building.
On June 1, 1940, the title of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation was transferred to the City of New York, signifying the first phase of unification of New York's subway system with the Independent Subway System as well as eventual public operation of the entire system. (The Interborough Rapid Transit Company would be merged on June 15 of the same year.) At midnight, a ceremony commemorating the transfer, with five hundred people in attendance, was held at the Times Square station. The last BMT train had left the 57th Street station five minutes earlier. When the train arrived at Times Square, BMT president William S. Menden handed over his company's properties to Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, who then gave them to New York City Board of Transportation chairman John H. Delaney. The Board of Transportation operated the New York City Transit System until the creation of the New York City Transit Authority in 1953.
Big Bus Tours (formerly "The Big Bus Company"), is an operator of open top bus sightseeing tours founded in London in 1991. The company operates in 20 cities of 11 countries with more than 150 buses around the world. The United States is the country with the largest number of cities with Big Bus Tours service. Typically, Big Bus Tours use open top double-decker buses in burgundy and cream-coloured livery.
MetLife Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, outside of New York City. It is part of the Meadowlands Sports Complex and serves as the home stadium for two National Football League (NFL) franchises: the New York Giants and the New York Jets. The stadium is owned by the MetLife Stadium Company, a joint venture of the Giants and Jets, who jointly built the stadium using private funds on land owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The stadium opened as New Meadowlands Stadium in 2010. In 2011, MetLife, an insurance company based in New York City, acquired the naming rights to the stadium. At a construction cost of approximately $1.6 billion, it was the most expensive stadium ever built, at the time it opened.
In 2004, after failing to secure a deal for a new arena in Newark, New Jersey (eventually a new arena, the Prudential Center, was built in Newark for the New Jersey Devils), the YankeeNets sold the franchise to a group headed by real estate developer Bruce Ratner for $300 million, beating out a group led by Charles Kushner and Jon Corzine. While Kushner and Corzine wanted to keep the Nets in New Jersey, Ratner planned to move the team back to New York. In 2005, the Nets announced plans to locate the team in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. One of the members of the ownership group at the time was rapper and Brooklyn native Jay-Z, who owned less than 0.07% but has been an outspoken face of the ownership team. The new arena, later named Barclays Center, would be the center of an extensive redevelopment project called the Atlantic Yards being constructed by Ratner's real estate development company. The new arena is located across the street from the site that Walter O'Malley wanted to use for a new stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 1950s. That plan was rejected and resulted in the team's relocation to Los Angeles in 1958. The Nets would not only return to New York for the first time since 1977 but also became the first major professional sports team to play home games in Brooklyn since the departure of the Dodgers.
NYCB still has the largest repertoire by far of any American ballet company. It often stages 60 ballets or more in its winter and spring seasons at Lincoln Center each year, and 20 or more in its summer season in Saratoga Springs. City Ballet has performed "The Nutcracker", "Romeo and Juliet", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and many more. City Ballet has trained and developed many great dancers since its formation. Many dancers with already developed reputations have also joined the ballet as principal dancers.
Bush spoke about the September 11 attacks of the previous year that killed thousands of people in New York City, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda carried out the attack with 19 hijackers that took over four commercial airline flights and crashed them into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City's Lower Manhattan, and into the Pentagon in Virginia's Arlington County.
As part of establishing a common corporate identity, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1994 assigned popular names to each of its subsidiaries and affiliates. The New York City Transit Authority is now known popularly as "MTA New York City Transit (NYCT)", (or more specifically on the vehicles, "MTA New York City Bus" and "MTA New York City Subway"), though the former remains its legal name for documents and contracts. Newer contracts and RFPs, however, have also used the popular name.
Outside Japan, the popularity of Fuji apples continues to grow. In 2016 and 2017, Fuji apples accounted for nearly 70% of China's 43 million tons grown. Since their introduction into the U.S. market in the 1980s, Fuji apples have gained popularity with American consumers — as of 2016, Fuji apples ranked number 3 on the US Apple Association's list of most popular apples, only trailing Red Delicious and Gala. Fuji apples are grown in traditional apple-growing states such as Washington, Michigan, New York, and California. Washington State, where more than half of America's apple crop is grown, produces about 135,000 tons of Fuji apples each year, third in volume behind Red Delicious and Gala varieties.
Raleigh was chosen as the site of the new capital in 1788, as its central location protected it from attacks from the coast. It was officially established in 1792 as both county seat and state capital (incorporated on December 31, 1792 – charter granted January 21, 1795). The city was named for Sir Walter Raleigh, sponsor of Roanoke, the "lost colony" on Roanoke Island.
After Constantine the Great made it the new eastern capital of the Roman Empire in 330 CE, the city became widely known as Constantinople, which, as the Latinized form of "" ("Konstantinoúpolis"), means the "City of Constantine". He also attempted to promote the name "Nova Roma" and its Greek version "" "Nea Romē" (New Rome), but this did not enter widespread usage. "Constantinople" remained the most common name for the city in the West until the establishment of the Turkish Republic, and "Kostantiniyye" () and "Be Makam-e Qonstantiniyyah al-Mahmiyyah" (meaning "the Protected Location of Constantinople") and "İstanbul" were the names used alternatively by the Ottomans during their rule. The use of "Constantinople" to refer to the city during the Ottoman period (from the mid-15th century) is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks.
The Big Apple Circus is a circus based in New York City. Opened in 1977, later becoming a nonprofit organization, it became a tourist attraction. The circus has been known for its community outreach programs, including Clown Care, as well as its humane treatment of animals. Big Apple Circus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2016 and exited bankruptcy in February 2017 after its assets were bought by Compass Partners. The Circus was renewed in October 2017 for its 40th anniversary season.
By the late 1920s, New York writers other than Fitz Gerald were starting to use "Big Apple" and were using it in contexts other than horse-racing. "The Big Apple" was a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Walter Winchell and other writers continued to use the term in the 1940s and 1950s, but by the 1960s it had generally come to be known as an old name for New York.
Uses of the term abound elsewhere in the names of cultural products and events in or concerning New York, including the Big Apple Anime Fest, the Big Apple Theater Festival, Jess Teong's The Kid from the Big Apple and Kajagoogoo's Big Apple, and playful uses of the nickname have been seen, such as Patrick Downey's 2008 historical study of New York City's criminal underworld, entitled "Bad Seeds in the Big Apple."
The Home Run Apple was originally installed at Shea Stadium in 1980 as a way to improve the atmosphere at New York Mets games, and an apple was chosen as a play on New York City's nickname of the "Big Apple". When it was first constructed, it was made of fiberboard and came out of a top hat with the slogan "Mets Magic" (this was replaced a few years later with the words "Home Run"). However, the Mets won only 67 games during the 1980 season and the Home Run Apple became known as "Harazin's folly". Often the Apple would get stuck, which necessitated an electrician to be sent to repair it. Over time the Apple became misshapen (due to periodic harsh weather conditions) and was hard to maintain, with a Mets executive stating, "It was just totally fabricated out of plaster layered on top of a metal screen with a wood frame inside".