New York City, City (pop., 2010: 8,175,133), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and an important seaport, it consists of five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The site of a Dutch trading post on Manhattan Island, it was colonized as New Amsterdam by Dutch director general Peter Minuit, who bought it from the Indians in 1626. The colony surrendered to the British in 1664 and was renamed New York. It was the capital of the state (1784–97) and of the U.S. (1789–90). The economy grew after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, and the city expanded rapidly after the American Civil War, developing transportation and communications systems. In 1898 the five boroughs were merged into a single city. Long a magnet for immigrants to the U.S., it is a centre of world trade and finance, media, art, entertainment, and fashion. Because of its prominence and its central role in world commerce, the city was a target for acts of terrorism. In the September 11 attacks of 2001, hijackers intentionally flew airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, destroying them and destroying or damaging several adjacent buildings and killing some 2,800 people.
