little known facts about well know places: new york by david hoffman

i got this book on accident. i ordered the one for disneyland and received this one. i intended to send it back, but once i started reading it, i changed my mind. all sorts of interesting little tidbits. i look forward to going to new york someday armed with the inside scoop.

some of my favorite facts include:

65,000 - people who work in rockefeller center

175,000 - people who visit rockefeller center daily for business or pleasure

60 - cities in the united states whose population is greater than the daily population (240,000) of rockefeller center

- the tree in rockefeller center comes down two weeks after christmas, and is then recycled. the mulch (all three tons of it) is donated to teh boy scouts to create forest paths and prevent soil erosion while the trun either goes to the u.s. equestrian team to be used as a jump or is cut into lumber for habitat for humanity.

- in 1961, the matisse painting le bateau (the boat) hung upside-down for two months at the museum of modern art. none of the 116,000 visitors seem to have noticed.

8,872,244 - passengers who rode the new york city subway system on the busiest day in its history (december 23, 1946)

100 million - americans (roughly 40 percent of the population) whose relatives entered the u.s. through ellis island.

- when telephone area codes were first assigned, new york, the largest city in the country (and hence the most frequently called), was given 212 because it took the least amount of time to dial on a rotary phone.

- between 1980 and 2000, new tyork city had more than 2,000 inoperative fire hydrants (from 34th street south to battery park) whose only purpose was to generate revenue in parking fines.

- the most expensive real estate in new york city just may be the sidewalk underneath the pushcart on the south side of the front steps of the metropolitan museum of art. given the vendor's yearly license fee of approximately $350,000 for a space that is approximately four by eight feet, that would break down to a cost of over $10,000 a square foot.