Why Is New York The City That Never Sleeps? | The Greatest Cities in the World | TRACKS

New York today 8.2 million people live in this remarkable city over the last hundred years a child has been born here on average every four and a half minutes what sort of a place have they arrived in [Music] yes first light New York City over the next 24 hours I intend to explore this town I want to meet its people experience some of its astonishing culture and diversity and try to understand what really makes New York New York it's utterly crucial to the life of this town that Manhattan is an island it's suspended between the Atlantic and the American continent it's estimated that 15 percent of everything that ever entered the United States of America has come through this gateway through this port that includes goods but it also includes people and this is the view which except of course for the modern skyscrapers once greeted the greatest migration in human history having landed here they became one nation under God [Music] more than 50 million flags are made in the US every year early each morning it's Adam hets job to start at the southern tip of Manhattan and hoist Old Glory across the city oh yeah every Flags irresponsible for animals oh but go to 73 74 73 of all right from here to 14 feet Adam what's happening for me now everywhere I look I see flags over there New York has the most ethnically diverse population on the planet there are more than 170 languages spoken in these six boroughs where are you from originally I have no country no all of the business but where are you from what is it useful your father no no 6th country you're a native New Yorker now yeah [Music] legend has it that in 1626 the entire island of Manhattan was bought by a Dutchman from a group of Native Americans for the equivalent of just $24 well given that the prices now worth trillions of trillions and trillions and trillions they were Cedars where I rather a poor deal but in fact those Native Americans didn't actually own the island the truth is they were just passing through and I think they'd rather enshrine the spirit of New York which is to make a quick buck out of absolutely hey jump over the river in Brooklyn a family of Greek immigrants runs a thriving business serving the very best of New York breakfasts at 8:00 a.m. no time of day is busier for the staff here at Toms diner let me also get a chocolaty chocolate Lawrence can I give you an order Kobe - the huge range of things that people at that framework having a lot of options don't you walk was a toast pancakes of all kinds yeah but here we have them they're thicker you put a little bit more on top a bunch of fruit on it a lot of maple sugar a lot of maple syrup but that's where everything is derivative to make them happy yeah enough singing that's that's a waffle game for Belgian waffles french toasts English muffins they will sound like immigrants but they are of course [Music] somewhere in my clients gargantuan breakfast order I've managed to forget his most bizarre request [Music] [Music] the quantity of different it's a feat of memory to rival a British taxi driver learning the knowledge to learn the extremes on the streets of Manhattan the morning rush hour is reaching its fevered peak but a Grand Central Terminal it feels more like a stately dance Dan Brooker like me he loves this place he takes me high above the main concourse built by America's wealthiest family the Vanderbilts this place is more like a temple under terminal what an extraordinary view and passing through this main concourse every day are 700,000 people to give you an idea that's the entire population of San Francisco comes walking through here every day and what's amazing is none of them come into each other all moving at a rapid pace and they're not even brushing shoulders that's why it's like a city in itself because the city is an opportunity for human beings to live in such close proximity to each other and go on with their own jobs and get on with their own life without bumping into each other it's one of the it's one of the great what we don't think you realize how extraordinary that is but that is the Marvel of a city and here it is here is a way of seeing [Music] it's a quiet it doesn't even feel like a railway station all the paraphernalia is sort of hidden away down tunnels you get this echoey stillness that above you their heavens although a few days after it was opened an amateur astronomer pointed out to Vanderbilt that all the constellation isn't back-to-front they've been put up the wrong way around and they investigated and found that the painter had got it all wrong it had his picture upside down so the line taken was that it was meant to be like this that you were looking at the sky not as a human being but as if you were a God I had another surprise in store as Dan led me below the main concourse but you may notice something interesting down here look where are these people facing into corners like that we are literally in the middle of a secret right here here's why you're gonna get into one corner over there and I'm gonna get together the more like dead in right if you ever want to have a private word in this city this is the place to come to whisper sweet nothings apparently it's one of New York's favorite places to propose now Griff do you know what people think that you're doing right now I can guess I just looked over at you and so the people might be thinking I'm making use of a facility which we're only using a a whispering facility Daniel attracting attention dan tried his best unfortunately I was already spoken for [Music] [Applause] during a lifetime the average New Yorker throws away more than 600 times their own body weight and with 8.2 million citizens that's a lot of trash clearing the streets of the city is the job of New York's Sanitation Department it's a highly organized operation run along paramilitary lines I'm joining the ranks of celebrity both Boy George and the fragrant Naomi Campbell before me have done time with the Department of Sanitation though perhaps not as willingly I'm going with Robin Cyrus to clear five blocks and Manhattan's Upper West Side on this job [Music] remember being a little kid I now get by this city's garbage collectors are officially known as New York strongest everyday 50,000 that lavatory bowl is beginning a long journey it'll be transported by barge to New Jersey parched and compacted and then loaded onto a train it will travel an astonishing 300 miles to be buried in a massive landfill site in West Virginia [Music] New York has always thought big my own admiration for the Department of Sanitation is actually shared by the city itself New York has an avenue to celebrate its firefighters a street for its police force and it must be the only city in the world to pay homage to its dustbin men they told me I could see New York and all its spreading strength and power from the cities by a spot on top of the famous Woolworth Tower I won't beat you but I said the girl I'm not really supposed to be in here because this is still very much a private skyscraper this is the Woolworth Building built by Frank W Woolworth paid for in cash to be the tallest building in the world in 1913 he wanted it at least to be taller than the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building because they'd once refused him a mortgage and the reason it looks like a dowager's handbag is because the place was built out of necessity but because he wanted to show off Woolworth wanted to have a bigger erection than any other tycoon in town and just for a while he did Manhattan shot up the city became the vertical metropolis we know today in a very few years indeed it was not simply lack of space high rise was driven by high rents towering ambitions and most of all enormous egos by 1929 too high debts William Van Alen and H Craig severance had become locked in a battle to construct the tallest building in the world they used to be partners and now they're rivals so every time William Van Alen published his plans for this building the Chrysler Building is rival proposals to go each going higher and higher and finally they paired the Chrysler but they give up they say okay have it go ahead build so they end up with the tourists building in the world down there on Wall Street well only for a few days because in fact William H Allen has hidden away a hundred and eighty five foot of silvery spire in his attic and as he comes to the completion he pulls it out pops it up and instantly becomes the tallest and most beautiful car showroom the world has ever seen but actually only for a year or two because then along comes the Empire State Building New York has four thousand four hundred ninety three skyscrapers here more than any other city in the world but the still one that stands out amongst the Giants the Empire State Building is a hundred and three stories high it was constructed in the 1930s during the depths of the American depression its steel frame shot up at an astonishing four stories a week that that is very very perpendicular I don't suffer at all from vertigo but every now and again you look over and every gonna get a little wave of imagination comes over you you just have to grip on just to reassure yourself that that's solid I find myself as I walk down the canyons of New York and you look up you think what's it all for who's what are they using all that space to do because these buildings seem to dwarf human beings it's no wonder that this is the city that had to invent Superman and Batman [Music] all that glass how many barrels of window lien does that require I wonder we're about thirty stories up right in the air view of the United Nations Chrysler Building lovely and below us 30 stories of glass you got it okay and how many my instructor Brent seems remarkably confident in my ability given that I am a complete novice work experience spider-man don't hit the window too hard no there's worse cleaning them not breaking Brent himself has no fear of heights at all and puts this down to his Native American roots he tells me that his Cheyenne name translates as him that walks on ledges apparently his Indian spirit has always looked after him as for me I come from Cardiff where spirits the things you find in pumps it was time to find out who would watch over me I want to give you my lucky hat it'll keep you safe French you got it I want a list to keep me safe but I wear that with 30 stories believe me Brent and his Ecuadorian assistant Vincent momentarily paused to consider how their safety equipment works and play play play with this you see you see I'd have liked a little less unstructured debate and a little more confident instruction what I can't understand now you're left you're stopped rather than Brent's lucky hat I felt in need a new pair of trousers what Ben you let's open I can't go on the foot on the glass well okay listen how long have you been doing this job I do it like almost 13 years 30 years how many years a good left yeah yeah LaLanne maybe 20 play 25 years I hope so I hope so I tell you do you know how long I'm gonna do this jump for good a day for about 10 minutes [Music] this lovely morning has now provided me with the single most terrifying experience of my life and I'm in need of a bit of a lie down [Music] I can trust New York to cater for all my requirements in my private booth my heart rate slows to normal and for $15 bye-bye exactly 20 minutes of high-quality catnap [Music] New Yorkers still like to be the first in absolutely everything and this here was the site of the very first road accident miss Evelyn Thomas was pedaling her bike down Broadway when she was mowed down by mr. Henry wells in his Duryea motor machine when the New York Times was outraged it said these things are a danger to a life and limb to good people on horses but luckily miss Evelyn survived although the very first auto fatality actually took place about 200 yards [Applause] [Applause] at least it looks like I'm gonna make it to my appointment for lunch at the Metropolitan Museum that's my $2.00 hot dog but what do you think that cart pays in rental to the city well I'll tell you that car plays 300 thousand dollars a year for that spot and for some reason the cause of the other end is an extra 25 thousand dollars a year by the way space is expensive in New York City now I can see where the property line impale of town just my baby and me for the past 60 years celebrities have found their own space at the Carlyle Hotel James McBride the Carlisle's managing director showed me a suite overlooking Central Park where the bed was still warm because George Clooney had just checked out this is the view you know some of the richest and most successful people in the world indeed and Jamie you actually have people who live in the hotel yeah we do have quite a few people that own apartments I think living at the Carlyle is a little bit like owning a plane or having a boat it's one of the things you have to know that you can afford this all you do it you have to know that you can afford it yeah it's a it's a very special place to live but if you just wanted if I wanted to come and stay here yes if I wanted to you know have the suite for the night how much would that cost me could cost you $7,000 3,500 and your money cheap is that is that a week [Music] wherever you go in New York you can't fail to notice the iron fire escapes but a few blocks north of the Carlisle right on Central Park and bang in the middle of some of the most desirable property in the city there happens to be a large prominent building with no fire escape at all that's for a good reason it's a prison I've come to meet the governor or as he's known here the superintendent my arrival coincided with the draft of new prisoners from a high-security prison upstate the Lincoln Correctional Facility is where these prisoners will serve out the final years of their sentences last year 7 million people were either in American jails or passing through the u.s. probation and parole services which means that one in every 100 adult Americans is currently incarcerated yet in New York the figures for murder and violent crime are at their lowest for 45 years Espinosa step-up it's an all-male prison but the waters seem to be all women we do have a majority of women here in the mail facility but it is really not an issue we have some pretty tough women it's all one blanket one pillowcase one towel and if you have personally with consistency with a male or female they can respect that they learn to respect then they learn to understand they might try a female a little bit you know because they feel they're males yeah you know much like oh well she learned a bit finds a woman that's gonna stand up for it you know and and not take it then they know where you're coming from and they conform that's this way so you're right you are William 9 top this bed right here that's open and in the dormitory I was very aware of another view of Central Park that I just seen it was a few blocks south it wasn't through an iron grill but it was an almost identical outlook they called that a penthouse suite and you paid a lot of money to get hold of it here at Lincoln their program is designed to help prisoners adapt back to life outside superintendent volumes explained how the prisoners are let out to find jobs in the city the atmosphere there's the first thing that starts to give them this sense okay wait I mean they really trust me not to you know break out of the prison that kind of thing exactly so it begins set a gradual process where you know we let them out for one day then the next week we let them out for two days and the next day three days you know and when they come back there are counselors here to talk to them well how did it go so the more they realized that we're not here to hurt them but to help them that responsibility starts to build up are you a fan of New York after all this time in my family New York are you kidding me I think I'm the luckiest correctional superintendent I think my this is the luckiest correction offices and I think my MA sort of luckiest inmate to be able to have this view and go out there you know already with a very positive atmosphere facing them you know and how could you go wrong released from the Lincoln Correctional Facility I was free to make my way out and into the great green space of the city Central Park this vast resource in the middle of Manhattan was actually an afterthought in the history of New York and 150 years ago it wasn't an entirely popular idea it wasn't the landscaping though more gunpowder was used to clear the ground that was later fired at the Battle of Gettysburg it wasn't the three million cubic yards of soil over 270,000 plants that had to be imported it was the fact that 16,000 residents had to be moved out of the way to make the place today 25 million people use it every year that's an awful lot of New Yorkers looking for a place to park their arses fortunately if all the benches in Central Park will put end to end they'd make one bench 7 miles long [Music] New Yorkers love a good parade you name the occasion and they'll march up and down for you two old ladies trying to cross the road back there what is this it's a parade my dear well I can see it's a parade it's a tartan parade I can parade yes is that Scotland yes I just want to cross the road but crossing the road takes me further than Scotland [Music] [Music] when I think of New York I think of it at odds with Islam but with more than 300,000 Muslims in the city the world's fastest-growing religion is actually flourishing here I think just about every nation every culture is represented in New York City I call New York City immigrants paradise because you can be here and make a living and still keep it keep keep in touch with your culture no matter where you're from do you think New York has been become a less tolerant place after 9/11 no I don't think so proof of that actually happened a couple of months after I remember so clearly that in the middle of Fifth Avenue this woman she was Muslim and she was selling pictures of the towers being hit now if the towers were in Istanbul okay and Istanbul suffered that that that terrible terrible tragedy if that woman was doing it in the middle of Istanbul she probably would have been beaten to that nobody did anything to her and they might have not approved what she was doing but she wasn't killed or she wasn't hit or she wasn't harassed in any way and that proves how tolerant New Yorkers are to me nevertheless the scars of 911 run deep their hand my taxi driver reminded me that 70 Muslims were also killed in the World Trade Center that day down at Ground Zero Construction has begun on what one day will be the Freedom Tower Manhattan was once a difficult place to get on to as a result industry stayed in the outer boroughs much of that is gone but I'm traveling to Queens to a factory that was founded over a hundred years ago by a German immigrant the family became so vital to the local community that this entire neighborhood is named after them they employ 450 people to make exactly the same thing that they first manufactured in 1853 rough blocks of timber arrive at one end of the factory two years and 300 hands later they've been transformed into a Steinway but before each piano can pass out of the factory it has to pass the ear of one man he's been at Steinway 45 years he's worked his way up from the factory floor and War II has become the most critical cog in the whole machine so you've made one two three four here quite a lot of little mouse there and I can't I couldn't hear it so I take the key down I put the piece of wood on there support the hat and then you take the noodles and we find a note that inserts on the top of the hammer poke my finger that sums it up a bit and therefore softens the note that the the sound was out yet yeah I get more around right this piano is completely done hmm and I just put the icing on it right excellent sound better than you and when did you learn to yeah four years ago four years ago I can't you've been you've been making this this sound all this time but you haven't been able to play the piano huh learning the piano it's a big deal for me I said I need to any failure are you gonna be good you've got a piano Andy to practice on please I play all day not bad job I leave here and piano but part of me and put my feelings into it my love I love pianist [Music] immigrants from across the sea brought classical and folk music from Europe the other great sound of this city arrived as part of the largest inland migration the world has ever seen when the black people of the southern United States moved north and brought their music with them James Allen has invented an inspired way of raising finance for a drug rehab center he brought together a group of addicts to form a gospel choir here in Harlem we think of gospel as being something that's in England associated with the Sun States of America but it's it's strong in New York as well God is real in New York not just strong but real so when somebody goes to church of Gospel Church I've heard the phrase use they have Church what does that mean have Church that means that we get down we give our emotions to God it's not like you guys you know you guys keep your emotions out you like to control them but when you go to church you learn to release your emotions and get all that tenseness out if I'm going to try and sing home with a Koi how how good a singer do I have to be the same gospel well as long as you don't sing too loud we would accept you even if you were singing a little off-key okay but so I can't do the audition here in the office no we do it in front of the choir during rehearsal time okay you got to introduce yourself to the choir okay and first you introduce yourself to the right well my name is Chris hi [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] mother [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] taking my seat in the middle of that waterfall of voices was a profound experience for me I could see how the discipline of James Alan Squier provided a backbone for the daily lives of these extraordinary singers it's 5:00 to 7:00 and I have an appointment that I simply cannot be late for but exactly this time every evening an important ritual begins below the streets of New York it may sound like a jungle canopy at dusk but these are the voices of experience it's 30 minutes to curtain up and the Broadway cast of the musical comedy Xanadu is going through the same warm-up routine for the musical be in the middle of a conversation oh I saw the cutest dress today way so it's kind of like resembles a Tourette syndrome but really not can you time your whole half-hour down put in the which is kind of a pain in the ass I've been walking outside all day I got into a bad now and then at 15 we get dressed and I like to be ready at 15 so then I just sit around and I usually solve the final puzzle on wheel of fortune what about going into character does that happen how do I mentally how do you mentally you don't do it you don't go and sit on the stage cross legs why and get the funny faces in the mirror that right how did we get those expressions ready for the big [Music] [Applause] [Music] last year ticket sales on Broadway totaled 939 million dollars that means 33,000 bums settled on 233 thousand seats every night of the year and when show business can't get into the theater it seems like it spills out onto the street walking past Pennsylvania Station I fall into step with a herd of Indian elephants [Music] it's the Barnum circus leaving town elephants are simply too heavy to catch the commuter train so they have to ascore them off the island and out by the Midtown Tunnel honey I'm sorry I'm late but there was an elephant crossing the street in front of me and she's at [Music] the Museum of Natural History it's long past closing time but I've been given privileged access to the Hall of American mammals to hunt down something extraordinary I get a strange feeling that I'm not alone that maybe because just around the corner of 500 little girls in pajamas what are you doing do you think you're really going to get much sleeping done tonight animals stay up all night good night good night ladies good night the reason that I'm here tonight is not to see the North American mammals or indeed the North American Girl Scouts with their sleepover but actually don't look at this because it's magnificent it's a radiator and those of you who are interested in central heating who isn't I like to know that the Natural History Museum a lot of buildings in New York doesn't actually have its own boiler that's because it has access to this one central heating in New York really does mean central this complex on the East River houses the most impressive array of pipe work that I have ever encountered Stane [Music] from this mega boiler steam is pumped out to heat a hundred thousand homes and businesses I'm inside New York's own cupboard under the stairs steam is produced here 365 days a year even through the hottest summer the plant not only heats buildings it's also used to power air-conditioning units steam heat keeps 8.2 million New Yorkers it's getting late now but I'm hoping that here in Chinatown I may still be able to find what I'm looking for you come out I could help you Wow fantastic so hands up thank you [Music] perfect [Music] besides Chinatown New York has its Little Italy it's Spanish Harlem Little India little Odessa the neighborhoods where a single ethnic group dominates us so many it's hard to keep track it's been calculated that a third of New Yorkers will not actually bought a meal there are more Irish people living here than there are in Dublin more Jews than Jerusalem more beige ins than there are on Barbados in this multiracial City I've no doubt my own ethnic group is well represented and I get the feeling I'll be the only Epping Welshman where I'm going now [Music] on any weekend through the year more than a thousand weddings are taking place across New York yet curiously here in the great melting pot most marriages are still between couples who come from the same ethnic background Allah and zan are Russian Jews Shawn would begin by placing the rings on Alice finger repeat after me array at makuu - ously bit Abbas zoo - das Moshe these ruins [Music] now anybody that knows glass knows that when you break a piece of glass you can never put that baby back together 100% again so what we're doing today now is we're engaging a bit of superstition you'll excuse me what we're saying is like this if something has to break between these people that can't be put back together again let it be this glass let's get it out of the way right now [Applause] [Music] [Music] Michel Smirnoff like almost everyone here has adopted this country English is not his first language [Music] [Music] the celebration gets Wilder and the vodkas stronger and as we travel further into the night we get closer and closer to downtown Vladivostok it's 3 a.m. and I'm crossing the city for one last appointment with someone who in my experience can't necessarily be relied on for their timekeeping they're supposed to be one along every four-and-a-half minutes but at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital this newest of New Yorkers is taking as long as he or she wants [Music] okay everything's okay everything went alright good [Music] Oh well it's ready for New York [Music] born to Peruvian parents if an is the first in his family to be a native New York that's the light coming up on what's going to be the little boy's first day in this fascinating place I would like to guess what New York will be like as he grows up in it but I expect like millions of others you'll find that change and continuous invention is part of the excitement of this city [Music]

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Keywords: TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel, New York city guide, griff rhys jones, the greatest cities in the world tv show, city guide new york, new York travel guide, griff rhys jones documentaries, New York funny guide, top 5 travel attractions in new york, best places in New York to visit, things to do in new york, new york city, big apple, hollywood, united states

Id: SB2SmIAVt8U

Length: 48min 1sec (2881 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 17 2019