Fifteen facts you didn’t know about New York

We’re looking at some crazy facts you didn’t know about New York. The city that never sleeps has earned a reputation for being one of America’s wealthiest cities, and about a quarter of a million people move there every year, and quite a few of them have lots of money to spend. When people refer to New York, they generally mean Manhattan the most renowned of New York’s five boroughs. Many consider NYC to be the financial cultural and cinematic capital around the world with the well-known streets and taxis. We all can so easily picture New York’s amazing reputation is well-earned. Anyone who’s visited or lived there can testify how wonderfully chaotic, diverse New York is.

That being said let’s take a look at 15 things you probably didn’t know about New York:

1. Manhattan’s most expensive apartment recently sold for 250 million dollars.
   

   The quadruplex apartment, that’s right it’s a thing, is on Central Park South and has more than doubled in value since it was originally bought last year. The quadruplex has 16 bedrooms sized balconies and a huge terrace for entertaining all of your rich friends into the early hours.

2. A 26th course tasting menu from Masa in the Time Warner Center makes it the most expensive restaurant in a city.

   Masa has just 26 seats in the whole place and 26 courses to work your way through. It’s all about the numbers at Masa and the biggest number of all is the bill. At the end, you can expect to pay between 400 and 700 dollars per person for this menu, which is selected by the chef and extremely exclusive.

3. The famous Empire State Building is so big it has its own zip code!

   The 1250-foot building used to be the tallest in the world, but it was since beaten by the first World Trade Center tower in 1970. The Empire State Building has its own zip code “10118”. It houses one thousand different businesses and has starred in over 50 movies.

4. The five-star Waldorf-Astoria hotel has an abandoned train platform underneath it.

   It’s a bit of a wreck now, but it used to be Franklin D. Roosevelt private train platform and a way for him to get to his presidential suite at the Waldorf without being harassed by the press. The bulletproof carriage is still down there though it hasn’t been used for quite a long time.

5. An island in the middle of the East River was sold at ten dollars in 1975!

   South Brother Island is in between Bronx and queens and is probably the cheapest real estate in NYC. The buyer never built anything on it and it now functions as a nature sanctuary overseen by the city’s Parks Department.

6. Explorer “Peter Minuit” who supposedly bought Manhattan Island “Nieuw Amsterdam” from the Native American population in 1626 for goods worth one thousand dollars in today’s money.
   

   Dutch colonists Peter Minuit apparently made the purchase and became the first leader of the New Netherland when he was 46 years old. There’s no official documentation to prove it just a letter referencing it, and it’s suggested by historians that the indigenous people would have been unlikely to sell their lands just like that.

7. The most expensive hotel suite in the city is the Time Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons.

   The suite costs forty-five-thousand dollars. If you can afford it this suite includes a 360-degree view of Manhattan and 24-hour access to your own personal Rolls Royce Butler and a personal trainer. It also includes a couple of pretty interesting design features including a grand piano and leather walls – perhaps in case you want to film a rap video!

8. You can treat yourself to a pamper session at New York’s most expensive spa inside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

   The Mandarin Oriental hosts both private spa experiences in a luxury suite for $1,700. You and your partner can enjoy four hours of treatments beginning with an essential oil bath and a variety of Thai-inspired facials. Four handed massages and body wraps. Not falling asleep during it will be real hard.

9. The 18k skyscraper in Tribeca has absolutely no windows!

   Built in 1974 it was designed to store technical telephone switching equipment. Its architects created it to survive nuclear fallout hence no windows, and each floor is 18 feet high. It’s not exactly pretty, but if a nuclear war ever hits Manhattan at least no one will lose phone signal.

10. Running a hot dog stand in a prime spot near Central Park can cost $300,000 a year!

    They might look like tiny enterprises, but it’s big business to run a hot dog stand in an area of the city where you get a lot of football carts. On Fifth Avenue and near various entrances to Central Park, the stands need permits, and once the sellers have got one they can turn a surprising amount of profit.

11. A quarter of the world’s gold bullion is stored underneath Wall Street!

    The Federal Reserve Bank has a very impressive gold vault containing over 500,000 bars. You can even go for a tour there. None of the gold actually belongs to the Federal Reserve Bank. It’s all the property of various other banks and governments.

12. 800 languages are spoken in New York making it the most diverse linguistic population around the world!

    Just 51 percent of New Yorkers speak English at home. New York is one of the most famous cities of immigrants where people come from all over the world to live the American dream. As a result, the population is extremely diverse. Spanish, French, Creole, Russian and Yiddish are some of the most common languages spoken.

13. Somewhere in the city Einstein’s eyes are stored in a safe deposit when Einstein died in 1955.

    His brain was removed so it could be studied during the autopsy. They also took his eyes, for some reason, and they were given to his optician as a gift. No one knows where the safe-deposit box is now, but they will surely be up for auction the moment they’re found.

14. One in 21 New Yorkers is a millionaire!

    The average price of an apartment in Manhattan is now one point eight seven million dollars. So you literally need to be a multi-millionaire to buy a property in the city. Once you’ve got the apartment ticked off though it’s a millionaire’s playground with the most famous street’s restaurants and department stores in the world.

15. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the richest person in New York with an estimated net worth of 43 billion dollars.

    Former Mayor Bloomberg is one of the most famous New Yorkers and definitely the richest. He was the mayor of the city for over ten years but now he just does a bit of casual entrepreneurship and philanthropy.

Thank you for spending some to read the “15 Facts You Didn’t Know About New York”! I am sure there are plenty more amazing unknown things about New York. Feel free to share more things we usually don’t know about New York.