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where we research interesting facts

and share information on just about any topic.

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lets me know that you might also be interested

in learning why the great wall of China was built.

We have a video on that so check it out

when you get a minute.

In this video, I'll explain why New York City

is called The Big Apple. Let's get started.

One of the most famous places around the globe,

New York City is a large, sprawling metropolis

filled with towering skyscrapers, honking yellow taxi cabs,

and rushing subway trains.

It is home to Wall Street;

a total of eight blocks of street

nestled in the city's Financial District,

this place drives entire industries and even economies,

fueling the growth of the United States.

But perhaps the most famous destination

within New York City is Fifth Avenue;

also referred to as Millionaire's Row.

This street holds a whole slew

of expensive and luxury brands,

including the department stores Bergdorf Goodman and Saks,

as well as retail stores Celine and Miu Miu.

Besides these two world-renowned streets,

New York City is also famous for the Statue of Liberty,

Times Square, the Empire State Building,

and the spectacular Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The borough of Brooklyn is known for its hippie vibe

while Manhattan is considered to be the city's heart,

an area where nearly everything can be found.

The incredible diversity and rich culture of New York City

is the reason why thousands of people

are drawn to its endless hustle and bustle,

despite the soaring cost of rent!

New York City is known by many nicknames,

one of them being The City that Never Sleeps,

a moniker that they earned

due to how its lights are seemingly never extinguished.

With something happening all around the city

at all hours of the day, this name isn't surprising at all.

But its other nickname, The Big Apple,

is undoubtedly much more confusing.

After all, how did New York City come to be named

after a fruit that doesn't even characterize it?

There is a lot of theories as to how New York City earned

the now-ubiquitous moniker, The Big Apple.

Some claim that this nickname

was due to how formerly wealthy families

began selling apples on the streets

during the Great Depression,

in a bid to make ends meet.

During this economic downturn,

many of the city's residents found themselves

jobless and without prospects.

Rather than beg or steal,

they sold apples at a profit instead.

On the other hand, some also argue that the term

originated from a woman named Eve,

who worked as a brothel madam during the 19th century.

The prostitutes that she owned were called Big Apples,

for reasons largely unknown.

However, New York City was first referred to as

The Big Apple in the 1909 book, "The Wayfarer in New York".

In its introduction, Edward Martin used the apple

as an extended metaphor to compare and contrast

the dynamics of New York City and the Midwest, writing:

New York is merely one of the fruits of that big tree

whose roots go down in the Mississippi Valley,

and whose branches spread from one ocean to the other,

but the tree has no great degree of affection for its fruit.

It inclines to think that the big apple

gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.

It is disturbed by the enormous drawing power

of a metropolis,

which constantly attracts to itself wealth

and its possessors from all the lesser centers of the land.

Every city, every State pays an annual tribute of men

and of business to New York,

and no State or city likes particularly to do it.

But the nickname only gained traction

when sports writer John J. Fitz Gerald

used it to write about the city's horse races

for the New York Morning Telegraph,

calling these The Big Apples

of the country's competitive racing events.

Because of his articles, the concept of Big Apple

to represent rewards that were highly sought

became increasingly popular,

spreading to the regions outside of New York City.

By the late 1920s and early 1930s,

jazz musicians began referring to the city as

The Big Apple, writing and singing songs

that used this nickname.

This only served to spread the moniker even further

and The Big Apple became New York City's nickname

throughout the 20th century.

In the 1970s, it was formally adopted by the city,

with the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau

hoping that it would revive their tourist economy,

which had taken a huge hit, due to the image of the city

as economically downtrodden and crime-ridden.

The moniker was made even more official in 1997

when then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani signed legislation

naming the corner where John J. Fitz Gerald

had lived with his family as the Big Apple Corner.

This place at West 54th Street and Broadway,

is still known by this nickname to this day.

Well, that's the answer. Did you know any of this stuff?

I didn't, so researching the topic

was insightful and a lot of fun.

What interested you the most?

Tell us about it in the comments below.

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