What city is known as the big apple

Why New York Is Called The Big Apple, And How 7 Other U.S. Cities Got Their Famous Nicknames

If someone mentions The Big Apple, you immediately know that they are talking about New York City. A nickname is a form of endearment, but those for cities are also a kind of batch of honor. They indicate that these cities are special, standing out from many others for several reasons. They may have to do with history, monuments, traditions, or nature. There are several more cities in the United States that are known by their nicknames.

In some cases, the reasoning behind the nickname is obvious. In others, nicknames have surprising histories. And sometimes there is more than one story about how the nickname came to be.

Enjoy our exploration of how these eight iconic American cities got their nicknames!

New York City: The Big Apple

You will never guess the origin of this nickname. It began in the 1920s when sports journalist John J. Fitz Gerald wrote a column for the New York Morning Telegraph about the many horse races and racecourses in and around New York. He referred to the substantial prizes to be won as “the big apple,” symbolizing the biggest and best one can achieve. The term started to gain traction. Next came the jazz musicians of the 1930s, who referred to New York as the big apple in their songs. A mantra for show business at the time was: There are many apples on a tree, but only one big apple —New York.

By the 1960s and ’70s, New York had gained a reputation as dark, violent, and dangerous. To improve its image and attract tourism, in 1971 a successful advertising campaign was launched, making a big red apple the city’s logo and firmly establishing the nickname The Big Apple. The corner of 54th Street and Broadway got a street sign that read Big Apple Corner. Volunteers actually handed out real apples to passers-by, and the apple became the logo of many New York City enterprises.

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Philadelphia: City Of Brotherly Love

William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia, must have had a great admiration for ancient Greece. He named his city by combining the ancient Greek words phileo for “love” and adelphos for “brother” into Philadelphia, which means City of Brotherly Love. A lot has been written about the truthfulness of that nickname, and it’s been discussed by some as being rather ironic.

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Chicago: The Windy City

There are several stories explaining this nickname. One is obvious — it can be understood as a reference to the icy winds blowing off Lake Michigan — but another is far more interesting and, again, involved journalists. Apparently, editor Charles Dana of the New York Sun depicted the city’s residents and particularly its politicians as “windbags” and “full of hot air” in an article published in 1890. Whichever you prefer, Chicago is established as the Windy City.

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Las Vegas: Sin City

You think Las Vegas, and images of non-stop gambling, free-flowing alcohol, over-the-top casinos, and scantily clothed showgirls come to mind. Sin City for sure. But it wasn’t always glamorous, and there is some compelling history even around this seemingly obvious nickname.

Fremont East was the hub at the beginning of the 20th century, Block 16 being the red light district and Block 17 selling liquor to workers and travelers. It was all low-key and quite sordid. Gambling became legal in 1931. In the 1950s, the mobsters came to town and started their gambling resort empires, creating The Strip with the Flamingo and Stardust as the earliest glitzy casinos. They are no demolished and have given way to ever-bigger and more lavish resorts, still justifying the nickname Sin City.

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New Orleans: The Big Easy

As you might have thought, this moniker has to do with the laid-back lifestyle of the city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. But, who coined the name? There are several theories. Apparently, in the 1960s gossip columnist Betty Guillaud used the name whilst comparing the hectic life of the Big Apple to the sedate rhythm of New Orleans. Others think that it came from the abundance of street musicians who had the best chance of performing and getting recognized here. In other words, it was easy. And lastly, yet others think it is a reference to a popular dance hall of the same name.

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Seattle: The Emerald City

I have to disappoint you: It’s not the precious gemstones that gave Seattle its nickname. However, something equally precious, the green of nature, led to the name. It’s a reference to the greenery in and around Seattle which thrives all year round, including evergreens, shrubs, and moss. Right in the middle of the city, you find the Discovery Park Arboretum. For once, it wasn’t a journalist who coined this name. Instead, it won a 1980 Convention and Visitors Bureau contest for the best nickname. Emerald City won hands down.

Chris LaBasco / Shutterstock

Miami: The Magic City

Railway tycoon Henry Flagler and Julia Tuttle were the parents of this growing city, which, in 1940, counted only 172,172 inhabitants. They wanted to attract more visitors and residents and therefore asked writer E.V. Blackman to compose an article for his magazine, East Coast Homeseeker, that painted Miami in a magical light.

Obviously, he succeeded and the name was born. Also, winter visitors noticed the fast growth of the population from one year to the next and commented that it seemed to happen by magic. As a former Miami resident myself, I personally attribute the magic to the unique atmosphere of South Beach.

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Boise: City Of Trees

This story goes back to the early settlers who climbed a hill and looked down at a vast forest in Treasure Valley, but the city itself, founded in 1863, actually sat in a dry sagebrush plain, as the woods along the river were miles away. From early on, the citizens of Boise (from the French word bois, for “wood”) were determined to grow trees. The nickname City of Trees really came about after some ads in the local newspaper, the Tri-Weekly Statesman. The forestation trend in Boise is alive and well to this day.

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Why is New York Called Big Apple

If you are aware of American culture you must wonder why is New York called big apple? US is generally referred to as America by the people. It is a developed and very advanced country with great opportunities for all those who dream and are ready to work hard to realize their dreams. Many people refer to as America as Big Apple though it is the city of New York that is actually nicknamed the Big Apple. Not many people are aware of the reason behind this nickname though they continue to use this name for this big and very important city of US. This article takes a look at the origins of the nickname Big Apple for the city of New York.

Why is New York Called Big Apple – Reasons

Various reasons put forward for this nickname

New York is a metropolitan that has got not one but several nicknames. These include The City that Never Sleeps, Gotham, The Great American Melting Pot, and of course The Big Apple. However, it is The Big Apple that has stuck and used most commonly by the people around the country. There are some people who say that the name came from some rich families that were forced to sell apples on the streets of the city after their wealth collapsed during the Great Depression. There is even a story that links the name Big Apple with a brothel owned by a lady called Eve in the 19th century. The girls of this particular brothel were referred to as Big Apples by the people of the city.

Sports columnist FitzGerald used the phrase in his column

However, more realistic account of the name Big Apple comes from a phrase used by sports journalist John J FitzGerald in his newspaper column called Around the Big Apple. He used to start his column with a header titled ‘The Big Apple’. His column was dealing with horse racing. This was a time when it was a dream of every jockey to earn big prize money by taking part in big races. Big Apple was a phrase that alluded to a large purse of money given to winners in races held in New York in those times. Soon the phrase caught the fancy of the common people and New York came to be referred as Big Apple by not just the people of the city but even the outsiders.

Big Apple has become a symbol of New York

The phrase Big Apple was made popular by the jazz musicians of those times as they used it to describe the jazz scene in the city of New York. The name lost some of its appeal in the next two decades. However, it once again became popular in the 1970’s when New York Convention and Visitors Bureau made a red apple as its logo to attract visitors to the city. Since then, Big Apple has become associated with the city of New York and it has even become an unofficial name for New York just as Sin City has become a nickname for Las Vegas.

The phrase Big Apple, when used to refer to New York, reflects the alluring nature of the city. It symbolizes New York as a fast moving and exciting city with lots of opportunities for who dream to make it big someday in their lives.

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New York City (топик на английском)

NEW YORK CITY
New York City, which is situated in New York State, is the biggest city of the USA. It is also called The Big Apple. In the 19th century it was very dirty with chickens walking along streets and avenues. When immigrants began to arrive, New York started to grow fast. Trains, railways, bridges, steamboats and skyscrapers appeared. The first skyscraper was built in 1888. It had only thirteen floors, but the next one had twenty-two. The Empire State Building has 102 floors. Now New York is an industrial, financial, political, cultural and business centre of the country.
The city is situated in the mouth of the Hudson River and is divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. Brooklyn is also called the bedroom of New York because many people live there. Richmond is a poor district of New York. The Bronx is more residential, and Queens is both residential and industrial borough of the city. A lot of Latino people live in Queens and Brooklyn.
Manhattan is the heart of New York. It is the centre of American finance, art, theatre, fashion, shopping, etc. Manhattan is divided into two sides: the West Side and the East Side. There is also a division into Downtown, Midtown and Uptown Manhattan. The Wall Street is one of the most famous streets in New York. The New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange are situated there.
Chinatown is another tourist attraction of New York. It has a lot of restaurants and small shops. The financial centre of New York is Midtown Manhattan where there are plenty of offices, companies and skyscrapers. The Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building are one of the tallest buildings in the world.
Times Square is famous for its colourful advertisements and Theatre District which begins at the Square and goes to Broadway Street. Broadway is the home to many big and small theatres of New York. It starts in Times Square.
Central Park which is in Uptown Manhattan was designed in the 1850s. There are many places of interest in it: a skating-rink, a zoo, a lake where you can row, and an outdoor theatre. People can take a horse ride through Central Park or rent a bicycle.
New York is also famous for its museums and art galleries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the biggest and one of the most important among them. It is one of the largest and finest museums in the world. It houses more than two million works of art.
The Statue of Liberty is the American symbol of freedom. It has stood in New York harbour since 1886. The Statue was given to the USA as a gift by the French. The statue is made from copper sheets and it is hollow inside. There is a circular stairway and a lift inside the Statue.
New York is a well-planned city, so it is easy for strangers to find their way there.
Streets are called by ordinal numbers or letters of the alphabet, for example, First Avenue, Second Street, Avenue B, etc.
New York is an exciting city and I would love to visit it.

Vocabulary:
advertisement [adVeitismant] реклама, объявление
borough [Ългэ] район Нью-Йорка
circular [‘s3:kjub] круглый, циркулярный
copper [кг>рэ] медь
district [‘distnkt] район
division [di’vi3(3)n] деление
hollow [‘httbu] пустой
masterpiece [‘ma:st3pi:s] шедевр
mouth [mau9] устье
ordinal [‘o:dml] порядковый
plenty of [‘plenti] много
residential [rezi’denJXa)!] жилой
row [гэи] грести
skating-rink [‘skeitmrmk] каток
skyscraper [‘skai,skreip3] небоскреб
steam boat [‘sti:m ‘baut] пароход

Questions:
1. Where is New York City situated? What’s the second name of it?
2. What do you know about the history of New York?
3. How many boroughs are there in New York City?
4. What borough is the heart of the city? What can be seen there?
5. Do you know anything about Chinatown?
6. What is Times Square famous for?
7. What is Central Park and where is it situated?
8. What museums and art galleries are there in New York?
9. What is the most famous monument in the city?
10. Is New York planned well? Why (not)?

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