New York - Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Ontario (NW), and the province of Quebec (N).
Facts and Figures Area, 49,576 sq mi (128,402 sq km). Pop. (2000) 18,976,457, a 5.5% increase since the 1990 census. Capital, Albany. Largest city, New York City. Statehood, July 26, 1788 (11th of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution). Highest pt., Mt. Marcy, 5,344 ft (1,630 m); lowest pt., sea level. Nickname, Empire State. Motto,Excelsior [Ever Upward]. State bird, bluebird. State flower, rose. State tree, sugar maple. Abbr., N.Y.; NY Geography Eastern New York is dominated by the Great Appalachian Valley. Lake Champlain is the chief northern feature of the valley, which also includes the Hudson River. The Hudson is noted for its beauty, as are Champlain and neighboring Lake George. West of the lakes are the rugged Adirondack Mts., another major vacationland, with extensive wildernesses and sports centers like Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. Mt. Marcy (5,344 ft/1,629 m), the highest point in the state, is near Lake Placid. The rest of NE New York is hilly, sloping gradually to the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, both of which separate it from Ontario. The Mohawk River, which flows from Rome into the Hudson north of
Albany, is part of the
New York State Canal System's Erie Canal, once a major route to the Great Lakes and the midwestern United States as well as the only complete natural route through the Appalachian Mts. Most of the southern part of the state is on the Allegheny plateau, which rises in the SE to the Catskill Mts., an area that attracts many vacationers from
New York City and its environs. New York City, in turn, attracts tourists from all over the world. On the extreme SE, the state extends into the Atlantic Ocean to form
Long Island, which is separated from Connecticut on the N by Long Island Sound. The western extension of the state to Lakes Ontario and Erie contains many bodies of water, notably Oneida Lake and the celebrated Finger Lakes. In the northwest the Niagara River, with scenic
Niagara Falls, forms the border with Ontario between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The western region has resorts as well as large, traditionally industrial cities such as
Buffalo on Lake Erie,
Rochester on Lake Ontario,
Syracuse, and
Utica. The western section is drained by the Allegheny River and rivers of the Susquehanna and Delaware systems. The
Delaware River Basin Compact, signed in 1961 by New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the federal government, regulates the utilization of water of the Delaware system. In addition to the great forest preserves of the Adirondacks and Catskills, New York has many state parks, among them Jones Beach State Park and Allegany State Park. Part of Fire Island, which lies off Long Island, is a national seashore. The racetrack at
Saratoga Springs, a pleasure and health resort, and the
Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River are popular with summer vacationers. Among the places of historic interest in the state under federal administration (see
National Parks and Monuments, table) are those at
Hyde Park, with the burial place of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Vanderbilt Mansion. Albany is the capital; New York City is the largest city, followed by Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse. Economy Schenectady, Albany, and New York City, once the major industrial cities of the lower Mohawk and the Hudson, continue their long-time manufacturing decline. Except in the mountain regions, the areas between cities are rich agriculturally. The
Finger Lakes region has orchards producing apples, one of New York's leading crops; vineyards here and on Long Island make the state famous for its wines. The state produces other, diverse crops, especially grapes, strawberries, cherries, pears, onions, and potatoes (grown especially on E Long Island); maple syrup is extracted, and New York is the third leading U.S. producer of dairy goods. New York's mineral resources include crushed stone, cement, salt, and zinc. The state has a complex system of railroads, air routes, and modern highways, notably the New York State Thruway. The New York State Canal System, an improvement of the old
Erie Canal, is now mainly used for recreational travel; the Hudson and some other rivers still carry freight. Ocean shipping is handled by the port of New York City and, to a much lesser extent, by Buffalo. Hydroelectricity for N New York is produced by the St. Lawrence power project and by the Niagara power project, which began producing in 1961. In spite of significant decline, New York has retained some important manufacturing industries, and, by virtue of New York City, it has strengthened is position as a commercial and financial leader. Although the largest percentage of the state's jobs lie in the service sector, its manufactures are extremely diverse and include printed materials, apparel, food products, machinery, chemicals, paper, electrical equipment (notably at Schenectady), computer equipment (Poughkeepsie), optical instruments and cameras (Rochester), sporting goods, and transportation equipment. Printing and publishing, mass communications, advertising, and entertainment are among New York City's notable industries. Long Island has aircraft plants (although these have declined sharply since the 1970s) and Brookhaven National Laboratory, a research center. Many corporate headquarters and research facilities have relocated in Westchester co., N of New York City. Some commercial fishing is pursued in Lakes Erie and Ontario and in the waters around Long Island. The state has c.18,775,000 acres (7,294,000 hectares) of forest, but forestry is no longer a major industry. Government, Politics, and Higher Education Under its present constitution (adopted 1894), New York is run by a governor, who is elected to a four-year term and may be reelected, and by a bicameral legislature made up of a 61-member senate and a 150-member assembly. Republican George Pataki was elected governor in 1994 and reelected in 1998 and 2002. Members of both branches of the legislature are elected to two-year terms. The state has 2 U.S. senators and 31 representatives and has 33 electoral votes in national presidential elections (a drop from its 41 votes in 1970). Apart from New York City (see separate articles for educational and cultural institutions in New York City and its boroughs), institutions of higher education in the state include Alfred Univ., Bard College, Colgate Univ., Cornell Univ., Hobart College, Iona Univ., Long Island Univ., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, Skidmore College, Syracuse Univ., the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Military Academy, Univ. of Rochester, Vassar College, and Wells College. The State Univ. of New York has major campuses at Stony Brook, Albany, Binghamton, and Buffalo. History The Algonquians and the Iroquois Before Europeans began to arrive in the 16th cent., New York was inhabited mainly by Algonquian- and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans. The Algonquians, including the Mohegan, Lenni Lenape, and Wappinger tribes, lived chiefly in the Hudson valley and on Long Island. The Iroquois, living in the central and western parts of the state, included the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca tribes, who joined c.1570 to form the
Iroquois Confederacy. French and Dutch Claims Europeans first approached New York from both the sea and from Canada. Giovanni da
Verrazano, a Florentine in the service of France, visited (1524) the excellent harbor of New York Bay but did little exploring. In 1609, Samuel de
Champlain, a Frenchman, traveled S on Lake Champlain from Canada, and Henry
Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch, sailed the Hudson nearly to Albany. The French, who had allied themselves with the Hurons of Ontario, continued to push into N and W New York from Canada, but met with resistance from the Iroquois Confederacy, which dominated W New York. The Dutch early claimed the Hudson region, and the
Dutch West India Company (chartered in 1621, organized in 1623) planted (1624) their colony of New Netherland, with its chief settlements at New Amsterdam on the lower tip of present-day Manhattan island (purchased in 1626 from the Canarsie tribe for goods worth about 60 Dutch guilders) and at Fort Nassau, later called Fort Orange (present-day Albany). To increase the slow pace of colonization the Dutch set up the patroon system in 1629, thus establishing the landholding aristocracy that became the hallmark of colonial New York. The last and most able of the Dutch administrators, Peter
Stuyvesant (in office 1647–64), captured New Sweden for the Dutch in 1655. An English Colony The English, claiming the whole region on the basis of the explorations of John
Cabot, made good their claim in the Second Dutch War (1664–67). In 1664 an English fleet sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam, and Stuyvesant surrendered without a struggle. New Netherland then became the colonies of New York and New Jersey, granted by King
Charles II to his brother, the duke of York (later
James II). Except for brief recapture (1673–74) by the Dutch, New York remained English until the
American Revolution. After the early days of the colony, the popular governor Thomas
Dongan (1683–88) put New York on a firm basis and began to establish the alliance of the English with the Iroquois, which later played an important part in New York history. The attempt in 1688 to combine New York and New Jersey with New England under the rule of Sir Edmund
Andros was a failure, turning almost all the colonists against him. The threat of the French was continuous, and New York was involved in a number of the
French and Indian |
