Mission 1: New York

We’re going to be finding out all about New York city in this mission.

Meet Zoom…

Zoom is our friend from Birmingham Airport.

He’s always jetting off around the world – exploring some amazing places.

He’s been keeping a note of his adventures in his audio scrapbook!

Have a listen to Zoom’s Scrapbook entry all about New York…

Where is New York City?

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It’s in America in the state of New York.

How long does it take to get to New York City?

It’s a 7½ hour flight if you go from Birmingham Airport.

That’s quite a long flight – but it’s actually not too bad when you think that you’re traveling 3,374 miles. That’s the same distance as the length of the UK by nearly 4 times!

What makes New York City so great?

It’s one of America’s biggest cities, it’s full of skyscrapers and loads of famous things to see and places to visit.

Heres a few of its biggest attractions…

The Statue of Liberty

This massive statue is on a little island in the New York harbour.

It represents the liberty that America stands for and is often the first thing immigrants to America would see as they arrived.

It’s 93 meters tall and you can climb to the top of it by walking up some stairs inside.

The statue was actually a gift to America from France in 1886.

You may wonder why the statue is green? Well it wasn’t always green!

The statue’s made of copper, so when it was new it would have had a dull brown copper colour. However, copper undergoes a chemical reaction called ‘Oxidation’ when it’s left in the air for a long time. This causes the outside to turn green which is what you can see today. It took about 20 years for the statue to turn from brown to green.

Central Park

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This is a massive park right in the middle of New York City!

The park was completed in 1876 and it’s been a huge New York attraction ever since.

One of the reasons people love Central Park so much is because it’s MASSIVE! It’s 843 acres which is the same as about 421 and a half football pitches!

The park was actually designed by a competition winner! They put out a competition asking people to submit designs for the new park and the winning design got made!

Aircraft Carrier Intrepid

It’s a World War 2 aircraft carrier that survived five kamikaze attacks and one torpedo strike!

Today it’s the centrepiece of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. As well as over 25 military planes – including the A-12 Blackbird, the formidable spy plane from the Cold War – you’ll also see the prototype space shuttle Enterprise and Concorde Alpha.

The American Museum of Natural History

You may recognise this place – it’s where the film ‘Night at the Museum’ is set!

This museum is one of the world’s largest natural history museums with over 36 million specimens and exhibits. And if you get bored of the animals, you can take in a space show in the planetarium.

Why is it called New York?

It’s named after the Duke of York and the city of York in England. The English chose the name when they took the land from the Dutch back in the olden days.