1.

New York

1.1.	General informations

1.2.

History

1.3.	Town planning

1.4.	Skyscrapers

2.	Washington, D.C.

2.1.	General informations

2.2.	The Capitol and memorials

2.3.	Places of interest

2.4.	The White House

2.5.	Mount Vernon

"HISTORY. I’d like to tell you something about the history of the city. It is not exactly known when the area of New York was first populated, but the original inhabitants were Indian. In 1624, it was bought from the Indians by the Dutch for goods worth 25 dollars and the settlement „New Amsterdam“ was established there by the West India Company. In 1664, New Amsterdam became and English colony and it was renamed New York. After the war for independence, in 1789, New York became the capital of the United States for two years and George Washington the first American president. By 1860 the city was the largest in the USA, a great number of immigrants arrived, especially Irish and German. In 1870s the first skyscrapers were built there. In 1886 the Statue of Liberty was given by French to the USA. October 24th 1929 was the day of the Wall Street Crash, also known as Black Thursday. It was the beginning of great depression. On the other hand some major projects were completed at that time: the George Washington Bridge, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. After the World War II New York became the seat of the United Nations.

TOWN PLANNING. I’ll tell you something about the town planning. The streets are in the shape of chessboard. There are two types of streets – streets, that go from east to west, and avenues, that go from north to south. The avenues have no names, they are only numbered. The only exception is Brodway which runs almost diagonaly from south to north. Broadway is the center of cultural life, there is for example Metropolitan Opera or Carnage Hall. Another important avenue is the 5th Avenue or Wall Street, it’s not in the shape of chessboard, too. It was built against the attacks of Indians. It’s the financial center with the most important Stock Exchange in the world.

SKYSCRAPERS. New York is famous for its skyscrapers, especially for the Manhattan skyline. The site in Manhattan is very expensive, that’s why much higher buildings were build there. The most remarkable buildings there were the Twins, two towers of the World Trade Center. They were built in 1970s and they were the tallest buildings in the world, but they were destroyed by a terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001. New skyscrapers will stand on the place where the Twins stood. One of them will be the Freedom Tower, which will be even higher than the Twins were. Another skyscraper is the Empire State Building. It was built at the beginning of 1980s, at the time it was the highest building, until the building of the World Trade Center was finished. Now it is the highest building in New York again. One of the most beautiful skyscrapers is the Chrysler Building. It was built in Art-Deco style. Another famous building are for example the Trump Tower (glas tower, cascade of trees), the Woolworth Tower (white colour) or the Rockefeller Center, that is a komplex of 19 buildings, there is the main christmas tree in New York. Unfortunately, because of the skyscrapers you can’t see the St. Patrick’s Cathedral from afar."