I Never Knew That about New York

by Christopher Winn

Christopher Winn digs beneath the gleaming towers and mean streets of New York and discovers its secrets and its hidden treasures. Learn about the extraordinary people who built New York into one of the world's great cities in just 400 years. Winn unearths much that is unexpected and unremembered in this fast moving, ever changing metropolis where history is made on a daily basis!

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, New York, History, Audiobook

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2013

Reviews

[Purrfect Novels · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️

As a New Yorker myself, I enjoyed this books thoroughly.

Here are some facts about New York that I found interesting and cool:

The Statue of Liberty - The statue's real name is "Liberty Enlightening the World"- Statue of Liberty is a nickname.
The Statue of Liberty was constructed in Paris over nine years.
The seven spikes on Liberty's crown are said to represent the seven seas.

Staten Island Ferry - The ferry has been free since 1997.

More Italians entered New York through Ellis Island than any other nationality.

Today Broadway runs all the way to the state capital, Albany.

There have been more songs written about Broadway than about any other street in the world.

New York has more skyscrapers than any other city on the earth except Hong Kong.

West of Broadway - TriBeCa means "Triangle Below Canal" and refers to the area south of Canal and north of Chambers between Broadway and the Hudson River.
Today TriBeCa is a neighborhood of cobbled streets, expensive restaurants, art galleries, and million-dollar lofts - one of America's most expensive zip codes.

Chinatown - New York's Chinatown is the largest in America and has the largest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere.

The Duane Reade drugstore chain opened its first full-service drugstore on Broadway between Duane and Reade streets in 1960.

SoHo - SoHo stands for South of Houston.

First Cappuccino - Across from there is the Café Reggio, established in 1927 and the first café in America to serve Cappuccino.

Macy's red star logo was inspired by a tattoo that the store's founder Rowland Macy had on his forearm, a souvenir of his days as a whaler.

High Line - The High Line was built in the 1930s to remove dangerous railroad freight traffic from Tenth Avenue, known then as Death Avenue for all the accidents that occurred along its route.
The last train to run along the High Line was in 1980.

Chelsea Market - Chelsea Market is a complex of shops, restaurants, offices, and television studios located in the old factory, build 1898, of the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco. America's most popular cookie, the Oreo, was invented here and introduced in 1912.

Empire State Building - The Empire State Building has 102 floors, the first building in the world to have more than 100 floors.
It was the tallest building in the world for longer than any other building in the 20th century, just over 40 years, until the completion of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 1972.

Times Square - It is New York's busiest traffic intersection and has New York's busiest subway station.
Times Square is the heart of New York's Theater District, known to the world as Broadway.

Columbus Circle - In 1892 the Great Circle was renamed Columbus Circle to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the Americas.

Grand Central Terminal - Grand Central Terminal is the largest railway station in the world.

Central Park - Central Park is now perhaps the most famous urban park in the world. It is certainly the most visited - some 25 to 30 million visitors a year make it the second most visited tourist attraction in America after Times Square.
One of the reasons Central Park is so famous across the world is because it has been filmed more often than any other location in the world.

[Ashlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. As I read, I made lists of all the places I want to see in NYC now. I've lived here for almost 4 years now and don't feel like I've even touched the surface of all the history and artifacts of the city.

[Cassidy Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m absolutely insufferable after reading this book because I will tell you about my new york facts at every turn. Very factual book but I enjoyed learning about my new home!

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatly appreciated 👍🏼 So many fascinating aspects of New York! Describing with enthusiasm, knowledge and fascination. It motivates to come back to visit NY again and again to discover new places and to revive the places described in this book. 🗽

[Charlotte]

I read it to help me to be prepared for the NYC guide licence.
Interesting !

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick overview of history and sights of New York. Reading it filled me with nostalgia, but also made me realize that I had been almost fully converted to a West coaster now

[Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took my time to read and enjoy this fantastic book. I'm not sure how I ended up buying it... I've been in love with New York since my first visit, and I thought this book containing multiple facts about the City would be fun to read.
To my surprise, I found much more than fun facts... I found about NY's architecture and society, about NY's hidden treasures, and History all along the streets of Manhattan. I got to know about many people who contributed to this beautiful City. Some of the stories were fun, others so heart wrenching. New York had gilded and splendid times, and also hard times, fires, attacks. And still, the city stands glorious.

The book is organized in chapters where you can discover the different neighborhoods in Manhattan, with Broadway as a reference . At the end of the book, you've walked the entire lenght of Broadway.

As I'm not in the US, this is the way I found to follow to book: my e-reader in one hand, and a computer with Google Maps in the other. I could feel I really was in New York. This was fantastic!! Each time I grabbed the book it was like enjoying a trip to the City. The author proposes walks and guides you, and this is exactly what I did on google maps... turn left, right, even walk the Central Park and go into some Museums. The beautiful illustrations on the book, helped me find the builings on the maps.

The book reinforced my love to New York, so much that I challenged myself to continue reading a book about New York every month. Of course, this book is coming with me on my next trip to NY!!

[Allan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but having the love I do for all things NYC, I decided to take a chance on it.

The book would be best suited to someone actually in the city, acting as it does almost as a tour guide, starting a the southern tip of Manhattan and moving through each of the districts, giving facts about various buildings and landmarks along the way.

To be honest, this was almost a negative for me, as I found the premise a little disjointed, but I eventually got used to the format, and enjoyed the facts that were shared by the author. Saying that, it wouldn't be the first book that I'd recommend to anyone wanting to learn anything about NYC.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

While at times I thought it was hard to focus on the details in this book, I was constantly thinking to myself, "I never knew that about New York," with almost every page. I have lived in NYC for about 2 years and found myself learning so much about Manhattan and especially enjoyed the information regarding areas I thought I knew well! I have a lot of re-exploring to do and dog tagged several pages with notes on what I want to do around the city! I recommend this to anyone who wants a indepth walking tour of Manhattan-I wouldn't recommend this to tourists.

[Drucilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though it's extremely specific (it only follows Broadway up Manhattan island), the book's very well done. There's a lot of history and trivia and it's organized nicely. The illustrations are pretty, but feel like photos would have been better. Also, not all of the illustrations are in their correct sections. This sucked because not only I would forget where the illustrations were, but they took up space where other (sometimes more interesting) illustrations could have been placed. Still, if you're looking for things off the beaten path in NY, it's a good read.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much detail!

I’m sure New Yorkers will love this, but so did I. I’ve visited NYC 7 or 8 times, once on an apartment swap for two weeks, and have enjoyed tracking down obscure bits of history. I’ve had a drink at The Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Station, found my way to the rooftop of the Met and visited Pooh at the Library. Unless I dozed off, I didn’t hear these two gems in this book: an enlargement of Picasso's 1934 sculpture, The Bust of Sylvette, near the NYU Residences, and a section of The Berlin Wall. Anyways, listen for great general history, for sure if you’ve been to NYC, and definitely before your next trip. There is real pleasure in finding a special obscure treasure!

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars: The author spent seven or so chapters delving into lower manhattan, then one chapter a piece on a few other random neighborhoods and central park before not even bothering to venture above 110th. That’s a huge disservice to anyone reading. The lower manhattan stuff could have been condensed to make room for info about Harlem, Inwood and Washington Heights. But, maybe there’s a reason the author chose to omit these neighborhoods other than the length of the book.

[Federico Mauccione · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a great guide to Manhattan, which the author refers to as New York as if informed by local sentiments of some around the 1898 Mistake.
The most informative, interesting and engaging guide you’ll find.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up on our last trip to NYC. Had lots of interesting trivia and facts, but I found at least 2 inaccurate claims, which led me to question how many other interesting factoids weren’t quite true.

[Markod0101 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic and well researched book.

It’s not a travel guide with advice on how to navigate etc, rather a plethora of knowledge about the history of the city and recommendations on walks to take in this knowledge, fantastic.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant guide to the streets of Manhattan that I read in preparation of visiting next week.
My only criticism would be that I think it could be even more extensive, and also it was a little out of date. Other than that, brilliant!

[Bobby Stef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overall history of Manhattan

In-depth look at the tourist and historic sites of New York Manhattan Island. It takes you from the bottom all the way to the top!

[Ruthann · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much history in this book! Great way to learn more about nyc

[Brian Frange · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best walking tour books. A few of the walks have inconveniently spread apart destinations. But this book cuts through the crap that’s in most walking tour books and gets you to really unique, historical, cultural, or just plain interesting places off the beaten path. I lived in NYC for ten years and I enjoyed learning new things about places I’ve been a thousand times. Also a good size to carry around with you when you’re walking all day.

[Kay Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book.

[Saleh · Rating 1 out of 5]

i knew that

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me love New York even more. Highly recommend

[Cary Boswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

fascinating! I learned a lot and will use my newly=acquired facts on my trivia team.

[Georgie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually bought this in New York City last year, from a place in Chelsea Market. It took me a while to get around to starting it, and I've been picking it up and reading bits since March. The book's format - well informed snippets of information in relatively short chapters which are each a stage of a walk around Manhattan - make it ideal for that kind of reading, it's perfect for dipping in and out of. The small snippets of very well researched information make for ideal bus and lunch-break reading too.

I learnt a lot of cool & interesting stuff about New York from this book, but I'll just share my three favourites:

-The first immigrant registered at Ellis Island was Annie Moore, from County Cork in Ireland, on January 1st 1892, which was also her 15th birthday.

-One of Greenwich Park's oldest pubs is The White Horse Tavern. It was established for longshoremen in 1880, and in 1953 was the place in which Dylan Thomas claimed to have knocked back 18 whiskeys in a 2 hour drinking session. He later collapsed at the Chelsea Hotel and died a short while later in St Vincent's Hospital.

-In 1905 a German immigrant named Richard Hellman opened a deli at 490 Columbus Ave on the Upper West Side. His wife's recipe for mayonnaise proved to be very popular, with customers asking him to bottle it so they could take some home with them. In 1912, demand became so great that Mr Hellman decided to open a factory to jar his wife's mayonnaise, and thus was born Hellman's mayonnaise, which as we all know is one of humankind's greatest things ever.


So a fun, fascinating read that I'd recommend to anyone with an interest in the history of New York City or America. I'd definitely read more books in this series if they were on a place/topic that interested me.

[Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. A must-have for New Yorkers and NYC buffs alike, this guide covers many things worth knowing and visiting within the city’s borders.

The pencil-drawn illustrations beautifully supplement the vignettes of neighborhood locations and history, helping to elevate this guide beyond a run-of-the-mill tourist book.

However, the prose itself, while informative, reads more like a history book, feeling somewhat generic. That was unexpected, especially after my initial flip-through of it before purchase. While it doesn’t bombard you with dates, it also doesn’t flow effortlessly, making it better suited for a casual, bite-sized read rather than an all-consuming deep dive.

Take it piece by piece, and you’ll likely enjoy it more than I did.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect book for anyone visiting the city of New York who wants to discover some of the city's less obvious and less well known attractions. Divided into sections relating to the various districts, the book is full of unexpected treasures, anecdotes and fascinating facts. There are countless conventional guidebooks to New York but this adds something extra. There's a useful timeline, from 1524 when Giovanni da Verrazano became the first European to enter what became known as New York, right up to 2013. Charming line drawing illustrations are an added bonus. All in all a must for anyone travelling to New York, or even for the armchair traveller.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some really cool facts about New York that made me love this book and the city even more. I was hoping there’d be more information on the architecture since it has a rich architecture, but it kind of felt short. While one can probably create a super thick book on all of the buildings, I felt like several important ones were left out. Definitely a book you should read in bite sizes and probably easier to read a particular section when you’re visiting a particular neighborhood – it’d be interesting to look for specific little things mentioned in the book.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about New York and it's history! I learned a great deal about the city that never sleeps. I always loved walking around New York and now I can bring along this book and learn as I go. This book would make a wonderful gift for someone first visiting this great city or someone who has lived there a while and thinks they know everything about it. I highly recommend it!

[Alice. · Rating 5 out of 5]

l'ho adorato con tutti questi piccoli segreti della grande mela.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished 12-1-2014. Interesting book about New York.