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EMPIRE STATE AREA: 127,190 sq km (49,108 sq mi). POPULATION: 18,169,000. CAPITAL: Albany, pop. 99,700. ECONOMY: Industry: printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric equipment, machinery, chemical products, tourism. Agriculture: dairy products, cattle and other livestock, vegetables, nursery stock, apples. PCI: $26,000. ADMISSION: 11th of 13 original states.
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Historic gateway to the New World, New York City welcomed millions of immigrants ashore at Ellis Island from the 1890s to the 1920s. The nation’s most populous metropolis—still a major entry point—is a world center of finance, communications, fashion, and culture. Commerce has long flourished along the Hudson River, and the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 opened up a key trade route to the interior. Here industrial centers strung from east to west have helped rank the state second only to California in manufacturing. Syracuse makes electronic parts; Rochester, photographic equipment; and Buffalo, motor vehicles and parts.
Although it has been applauded for its environmental efforts, New York has been beset by various forms of pollution: raw sewage in New York Harbor, medical waste on Long Island beaches, and acid rain in the Adirondack Mountains. Adirondack State Park, largest in the U.S. outside Alaska and a popular tourist destination, faces threats from commercial development. The wine-producing Finger Lakes region, shaped by glaciers during the last Ice Age, and Niagara Falls also draw crowds. Dairy farming and livestock raising are the state’s most widespread agricultural activities.
Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World Revised Sixth Edition, 1995
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