New York is one of the most fascinating cities in the world. This is attributed to the fact that is has some fascinating features which are not found anywhere else in the world. But most people do not know about the facts which are not obvious about this city. Here are 5 interesting facts about New York City.

The full name of this statue is Liberty Enlightening the World. This statue was a free gift from France to America and it was given in 1886. The total weight of the statue is 204 tons and it was shipped as three hundred and fifty pieces in two hundred and fourteen crates. It took four months to assemble the pieces together. The statue was slightly damaged in 1916 by a German bomb and the cost of the repair work was $100, 000. After the damages in 1916 the stairs to the torch were closed to the general public and they have never been opened again.

There are more than one thousand three hundred licensed medallion taxis in New York City. The cost of getting a medallion (license) to operate taxi cabs in the city can be more than a million dollars! It depends on the the supply and demand of these licenses, but this cost can be insane! The city's subway system is the biggest transit system in the world where there are 468 stations. The system runs around the clock where there are 26 routes and more than 6, 200 subway cars. 40% of the system is above the ground which makes it unique. About five million people ride the subway every day.

This island of Manhattan was bought from a tribe of Native Americans by the Dutch explorer known as Peter Minuit for just trinkets plus tools worth around $24. This shows that this city is the cheapest city and it grew to become the capital city of U.S.A in the 1780s. However, the capital city was later transferred to Philadelphia and then to Washington D.C where it is now.

According to history the first name of this city was New Amsterdam. This name referred to a Dutch port which was located in the southern end of Manhattan. In 1664 the English took the city and they renamed it to New York. The city is nicknamed the -Big Apple- and it is believed that this nickname came from a writer who used to cover horse racing back in the 1920s. In one of his columns he wrote how stable hands usually referred to this city as the -Big Apple-. The reason why they referred to the city as Big Apple is to mean that the horses that raced in this city had reached the top most level of racing. So the nick name stuck and since then there are people who refer to the city using this particular nick name.