NOW in its fifth Printing which includes the events of September 11, 2001. Selected by the American Association of University Presses as one of "The Best of the Best from the University Presses." (2000) New Yorkers love to watch the building of a new skyscraper-particularly the digging of a foundation-through small holes cut into a wooden construction fence. It's one of the great lunch-hour pastimes. Over the years the ubiquitous observer has watched the City grown and change-sometimes with disapproval, sometimes with elation, always with a fond curiosity. This short book, with its events and anecdotes, is a peephole for spying on the history of the City from its foundations up to the present. New York was always destined to be a place of migrants and immigrants. People have come to this mercantile center to work, to build, to learn, to play, and to settle down in a neighborhood. Its people give the City the energy that makes living here a heightened experience. A Short and Remarkable History of New York City is a timeline of five hundred years of New York City history. It can be read as a story, used for reference, or browsed through for fun.