Manhattan is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is coextensive with New York County, the smallest county by geographical area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world.
Midtown Manhattan, the world's largest central business district, in the foreground, with Lower Manhattan and its Financial District in the background
New Amsterdam, centered in what eventually became Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year England took control and renamed it New York
Statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall on Wall Street, where in 1789 he was sworn in as the first U.S. president.
Manhattan's Little Italy on the Lower East Side, c. 1900
Boroughs of New York City
The Boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that compose New York City. The boroughs are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of the State of New York: The Bronx is Bronx County, Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County, Queens is Queens County, and Staten Island is Richmond County.
The current five boroughs of Greater New York as they appeared in 1814. The Bronx was part of Westchester County, Queens County included modern Nassau County, Kings County had six towns, one of which was Brooklyn, and New York City is shown by hatching in lower Manhattan.
Chinatown in Manhattan, the most densely populated borough of New York City, with a higher density than any individual American city
Landmark nineteenth-century brownstones in the Greenpoint Historic District of Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough
The Unisphere in Queens, the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world
