There is a secret train platform in the Waldorf Astoria hotel.
The scary nitrogen gas tanks you sometimes see on the corners of NYC streets are used to keep underground telephone wires dry.
The New York Public Library has over 50 million books and other items and is the second largest library system in the nation after the Library of Congress. It is also the third largest library in the world.
Sam Schapiro began the Kosher wine industry on New York's Lower East side with their famous extra heavy original concord wine in 1899
It is a misdemeanor to pass gas in NYC churches.
Times Square is named after the New York Times. It was originally called Longacre Square until The Times moved there in 1904.
Oysters were so popular in New York in the 19th Century that their shells were used to pave Pearl Street. They were also used for lime for the masonry of the Trinity Church.
New York City has 722 miles of subway tracks.
Chernobyl is closer to New York than f*ckushima is to L.A.
The original Penn Station was considered to be one of the most beautiful train stations in the world but was torn down because of declining rail usage.
The acclaimed movie "Taxi Driver" featuring Robert De Niro was filmed at Bellmore Cafeteria on Park Avenue and along Columbus Avenue.
More Chinese people live in New York City than in any other city outside of Asia. More Jewish people live here than in any other city outside of Israel.
In 2010, 38% of all 911 calls in NYC were butt dials.
There's a wind tunnel near the Flat Iron building that can raise women's skirts. In the not-so-distant past, men used to gather outside of the building to feast their eyes on the effect.
On November 28, 2012, not a single murder, shooting, stabbing, or other incident of violent crime was reported in NYC for an entire day. The first time… in… basically… ever.
In 1884, in order to prove that the Brooklyn Bridge was stable, P.T. Barnum led 21 elephants over it.
The first bank card, named “Charg-It,” was introduced in 1946 in Brooklyn by banker John Biggins.
New York City’s Federal Reserve Bank has the largest storage of gold in the world. The Fed's vault is 80 feet below street level and contains $90 billion in gold.
Brooklyn was once the “Coffee Capital.” By 1906, about 25 million pounds of coffee a month was roasted at the Arbuckle Brothers coffee factory on John Street.
Eating a New York bagel is equivalent to eating one-quarter to one-half a loaf of bread.
The narrowest house in NYC is in the West Village: 75 1/2 Bedford Street is just over 9 feet wide.
European settlers who brought seeds to New York introduced apples to the US in the 1600s.
The first American chess tournament was held in New York in 1843.
It would cost about $17,000 to take a cab from NYC to L.A.
About 1 in every 38 people living in the United States resides in New York City.
Joseph C. Gayetty of New York City invented toilet paper in 1857.
Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park, Union Square Park, and Bryant Park used to be cemeteries. There are 20,000 bodies buried in Washington Square Park alone.
France gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States in 1886 for its Centennial celebration. The statue was shipped as 350 pieces in 214 crates and took 4 months to assemble at its current home on Ellis Island.
When the Dutch first arrived to Manhattan, there were massive oyster beds. In fact, Ellis Island and Liberty Island were called Little Oyster and Big Oyster Island.
Up until World War II, everyone in the entire New York City who was moving - had to move to their new apartment on May 1.
The city of New York will pay for a one-way plane ticket for any homeless person if they have a guaranteed place to stay.
In NYC, there was one homicide on 9/11, and it remains unsolved.
Prospect Park is Brooklyn’s largest public park. The duo behind Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert B. Vaux, created the Brooklyn icon in 1867.
The Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan is the only school in the world offering a Bachelor of Science Degree with a Major in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade originally featured live animals from the Central Park Zoo, but they occasionally roared and scared children, so they were replaced with balloons.
Albert Einstein's eyeballs are stored in a safe deposit box in New York City.
Manhattan was purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for the equivalent of $1,050 (in 2014).
More than 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. Four in 10 NYC households speak a language other than English.
On 9/11, when all transport out of the city was shut down, citizen boat owners managed to transport over 500k people from Manhattan Island in an amazing act of selflessness and camaraderie known as the “9/11 Boatlift.”
In 1922, there was a Straw Hat Riot. It was an unofficial rule in NYC that straw hats weren't allowed to be worn past Sept. 15, but some unruly kids started snatching people's hats a few days before that, causing an uprising that lasted a few days.
New York City's subway system is the largest mass transit system in the world (and it keeps expanding).
The first daily Yiddish newspaper appeared in 1885 in New York City.
McSorley's, the oldest Irish ale house in NYC, didn't allow women inside until 1970.
The first presentation of 3D films before a paying audience took place at Manhattan's Astor Theater on June 10, 1915.
Twizzlers candy was developed by the National Licorice Company in Brooklyn in 1845.
In 1920, a horse-drawn carriage filled with explosives was detonated on Wall Street killing 30 people. No one was ever caught, but the event is considered to be one of the first ever acts of domestic terrorism.
740 Park in Manhattan is currently home to the highest concentration of billionaires in the country.
It can cost over $289,000 for a one-year hot dog stand permit in Central Park.
In 1975, the City of New York sold a private island in the East River for $10.
The United Nations headquarters was established in New York City in 1952 after World War II.
America’s first rollercoaster debuted on June 16, 1884 on Coney Island in Brooklyn. Known as the Switchback Railway, it only traveled six miles per hour.
The East River is not a river, it's a tidal estuary.
Sixty percent of cigarettes sold in NYC are illegally smuggled from other states.
The entire world's population could fit in the state of Texas if it were as densely populated as New York City.
There are more undergrad and graduate students in NYC than Boston has people.
In nine years, Madison Square Garden's lease will run out and the celebrated venue will have to move.
Pinball was banned in New York City until 1978. In the past, the NYPD even used to organize "Prohibition-style” busts to enforce the ban!
Up until 1957, a pneumatic mail tube system used to connect 23 post offices across 27 miles in NYC. At one point, the system moved 97,000 letters a day.
A Brooklyn shopkeeper named Morris Michtom and his wife Rose are credited with inventing the teddy bear.
The price of a slice of pizza and the cost of a single ride on the subway has been nearly equal for the past 50 years.
UPS, FedEx, and other commercial delivery companies receive up to 7,000 parking tickets a DAY, contributing up to $120 million in revenue for the City of New York.
NYC garbage collectors call maggots "disco rice."
There is a birth in New York City every 4.4 minutes.
Since Brooklyn’s terrain is mostly flat, it’s the fastest borough for runners in the New York City Marathon with an average speed of 8:14 minutes per mile.
The first public brewery in America was established by Peter Minuit at the Market (Marckvelt) field in lower Manhattan.
NYC buries its unclaimed bodies on an island off the coast of the Bronx called Hart Island. Since 1869, nearly a million bodies have been buried there. The island is not open to the public.
New York City's 520-mile coastline is longer than those of Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco combined.
The borough of Brooklyn would be the fourth largest city in the United States, if it weren't part of NYC.
Elvis departed for his 18-month military service in WWII from the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
All through the 20th century, and up until 2007, parts of Lower Manhattan were wired up using Edison’s original 110V DC.
The first capital of the United States was New York City. In 1789 George Washington took his oath as President on the balcony at Federal Hall.
There's a 150-foot-deep hole (15 stories) on Park Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets.
The "New York Post" established in 1803 by Alexander Hamilton is the oldest running newspaper in the United States.
At one time, Brooklyn was its own separate city. It merged with the City of New York in what some Brooklyn residents call “the Great Mistake of 1898.”
Central Park, which opened to the public in 1858, became the first landscaped public park in an American city.
There are tiny shrimp called copepods in NYC's drinking water.
New York City has more people than 39 of the 50 states in the U.S.
Gennaro Lombardi opened the first United States pizzeria in 1895 in New York City.
There are "fake" buildings in the city that are used for subway maintenance and ventilation. E.g. 3-story historic townhouse at 58 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights
The winter of 1780 was so harsh in New York that New York harbor froze over. People could walk from Manhattan to Staten Island on the ice.
A little over 8 million people live in New York City. That means 1 in every 38 people in the United States calls NYC - home.
There is a death in New York City every 9.1 minutes.
Charles Feltman is said to have invented the hot dog at Coney Island in 1867. The famous Nathan’s was later opened by one of his former employees.
Credit card minimums ARE legal in NYC. In 2010, Congress legalized up to a $10 minimum.
The Empire State building has its own zip code.
From 1904 to 1948 there was an 18th Street station on the 4/5/6 line. It's abandoned now, but you can still see it on local 6 trains.
