New York City

Nickname: "Big Apple", "Gotham

The City of New York is a global economic center, with its business, finance, trading, law, and media organizations influential worldwide. The city is also an important cultural center, with many museums, galleries, and performance venues. Home of the United Nations, the city is a hub for international diplomacy.

New York City comprises five boroughs, each of which are coterminous with a county: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The city has many neighborhoods and landmarks known around the world: The Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan, has been a dominant global financial center since World War II and is home to the New York Stock Exchange. The city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the Empire State Building and the former twin towers of the World Trade Center. The city is the birthplace of many American cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art, abstract expressionism in painting, and hip hop along with the Tin Pan Alley in music.

The mainland and many islands of New York are linked by a network of bridges and tunnels, including the Brooklyn Bridge and Holland Tunnel.

The city was founded as the colony of New Amsterdam by Dutch colonists in the early 17th century. The five boroughs were consolidated into one city in 1898. It has been central to the development of the United States, serving as the nation's first capital city in 1789, and has had a large influence in American media, finance, and politics. It is the site of some of the country's largest celebrations in size, including ticker-tape parades for returning astronauts and the celebrations in Times Square of the end of World War II.

Manhattan contains the major business and financial centers of the city and many cultural attractions, including numerous museums, the Broadway theatre district and Madison Square Garden.

Tourist attractions

The city has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries of all sizes. Wealthy industrialists in the 19th century built a network of major cultural institutions, such as the famed Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the 1880s New York City theaters on Broadway began showcasing a new stage form that came to be known as the Broadway musical. The city's 39 largest theatres (with more than 500 seats) are collectively known as "Broadway," after the major thoroughfare that crosses the Times Square theatre district.

The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, The Juilliard School and Alice Tully Hall, is the largest performing arts center in the United States. Major destinations include the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Broadway theatre productions, museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other tourist attractions including Central Park, Washington Square Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, the Tribeca Film Festival, and free performances in Central Park at Summerstage. The Statue of Liberty is a major tourist attraction and one of the most recognizable icons of the United States. Many of the city's ethnic enclaves, such as Jackson Heights, Flushing, and Brighton Beach are major shopping destinations.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Nickname: "Philly", "City of Brotherly Love", "Cradle of Liberty", "The Quaker City", "The Birthplace of America."

The city of Philadelphia is a major commercial, educational, and cultural center for the nation. In the 18th century, the city was the first capital. At that time, with Benjamin Franklin taking a large role in Philadelphia's rise. The city was the geographic center of the 18th-century thinking and activity that gave birth to the American Revolution and subsequent American democracy and independence.

Philadelphia was a major center of the independence movement during the American Revolutionary War. The Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were drafted here. Philadelphia's Tun Tavern is traditionally regarded as the location where, in 1775, the United States Marine Corps was founded.

Most of the city's historic landmarks are in Old City and the Historical District in the Society Hill neighborhood east of Center City, including Independence National Historical Park, site of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

For almost a century, Philadelphia's skyline was dominated by Second-Empire-style City Hall. Begun in 1871, City Hall took 30 years to complete and is the tallest masonry load-bearing structure in the world at 548 feet, including the statue of William Penn at its crown.

Tourist attractions

Philadelphia contains many national historical sites that relate to the founding of the United States. Independence National Historical Park is the center of these historical landmarks. Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the Liberty Bell are the city's most famous attractions. Other historic sites include homes for Edgar Allan Poe and Betsy Ross and early government buildings like the First and Second Banks of the United States.

The city contains many museums such as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Rodin Museum, the largest collection of work by Auguste Rodin outside of France. The city’s major art museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, features the steps made popular by the film Rocky. Philadelphia's major science museums include the Franklin Institute, which contains the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. History museums include the National Constitution Center, the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia History, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and Eastern State Penitentiary. Philadelphia is home to the United States' first zoo and hospital.

San Francisco, California

Nickname: The City by the Bay

San Francisco is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 1776, the Spanish settled the tip of the San Francisco peninsula, establishing a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission named for Francis of Assisi. The California Gold Rush in 1848 propelled the city into a period of rapid growth. After being devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt.

San Francisco is renowned for its chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills, an eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, and its peninsular location surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Famous landmarks include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, the cable cars, Coit Tower, and Chinatown.

Tourist attractions

Baker Beach occupies a picturesque setting just west of the Golden Gate Bridge. The biggest and most well-known park is Golden Gate Park, stretching from the center of the city to the Pacific Ocean. Once covered only in grass and sand dunes, the park is planted with thousands of non-native trees and plants and is rich with attractions including the Conservatory of Flowers, the Japanese Tea Garden, and Strybing Arboretum. The Presidio, a former military base, and its Crissy Field section, restored to its natural salt marsh condition, are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz, and other regional parks. Buena Vista Park is the city's oldest, established in 1867.