Manna-hata, a Lenape term meaning "island of many hills," became Manhattan when translated into the English language by an Englishman working for the Dutch who had established a colony on the island.
The Lenape were defrauded of the island by the Dutch in 1626.
As Georgetta Stonefish Ryan (Lenape) writes for the National Museum of the American Indian:
The “sale” of Manhattan was a misunderstanding. In 1626 the director of the Dutch settlement, Peter Minuit, “purchased” Manhattan for sixty guilders worth of trade goods. At that time Indians did everything by trade, and they did not believe that land could be privately owned, any more than could water, air, or sunlight. But they did believe in giving gifts for favors done. The Lenni Lenape—one of the tribes that lived on the island now known as Manhattan—interpreted the trade goods as gifts given in appreciation for the right to share the land. We don't know exactly what the goods were or exactly how much a guilder was worth at that time. It has been commonly thought that sixty guilders equaled about twenty-four dollars. But the buying power of twenty-four dollars in 1626 is not known for sure.
As would be repeated across the region, the Lenape did not realize that the Dutch meant to claim the lands for their exclusive use -- an exclusivity that the Dutch would work violently to protect against the Lenape and then the English.
In the 1660s New York City's “skyline” was dominated by a two-story-high windmill.
When the Dutch still controlled the region, Wall Street was the city limit and there was actually a wall there.
Manhattan's Chinatown is the largest Chinese enclave in the Western Hemisphere.
The vaults 80 feet beneath the Federal Reserve Bank on Wall Street store more than 25% of the world's gold bullion (and you thought it was all in Fort Knox!).
Cleopatra's Needle, a 3,000-year-old Egyptian ruin, can actually be found in New York's Central Park. In 1879 it was given to the city as a gift by the Khedive of Egypt. The 220-ton, 66-foot-high monument took a decade to be fully transported.
Why are New York Yellow Cabs yellow? Because John Hertz, the company's founder, read a study that concluded yellow was the easiest color for the eye to spot.
The Bayonne Bridge is almost identical to the world-famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, but it is actually two feet longer. Completed a few months beforehand, the Bayonne Bridge was the world's longest steel arch bridge. Rumor has it that the only reason for those two extra feet was to beat the Australians.
The Outerbridge Crossing, connecting Staten Island and New Jersey, is actually named in honor of Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge.
The Manhattan grid pattern produces an effect known as “Manhattanhenge” (like Stonehenge) as, on two days - around May 28th and around July 12th - sunset is directly aligned with the street grid pattern. This means the sun can be seen setting exactly over the centerline of every Manhattan street. A similar effect occurs during sunrise on two winter days, understandably less popular.
The Dutch traded New Amsterdam (a.k.a., New York City) to the British in the 1667 Treaty of Breda in exchange for Pulau Run, an obscure tiny Indonesian island once known for its nutmeg.
For decades, the title of “tallest building in the world” switched hands almost 10 times, all the while remaining in Manhattan, before settling on the Empire State Building, which retained the title for decades to come. It was finally overtaken by One World Trade Center in 1970.
