I'm happy to say I achieved two feats over the last week: (1) I visited New York City for the first time in my life! You're probably asking, "What took you so long, dude?" Well, I'd never been big on traveling until now, not to mention the fact that my wife and I chose to save up for a while in order to have the wherewithal to go on these trips. (Much like our trip to Boston last summer, vacationing in the Big Apple costs a pretty penny.) What's more, it wasn't until just a few years ago that I morphed into the biggest history nerd on the planet. Now I have a valid excuse to explore historic cities big and small, from New York City to Washington D.C. Museums, anyone? (2) Just as my plane was landing in New York, I finished reading Ron Chernow's behemoth 730-page biography Alexander Hamilton , which inspired the hit Broadway musical .  It was fitting that I completed the book when I did, for Alexander Hamilton, immigrant-turned-Founding-Father a...

My wife and I are planning a trip to New York City and, as has become customary before every vacation we book, I thought it a good opportunity to dig up some fun facts about the Big Apple. 1. New York is a city of over eight million people, covering 301 square miles. 2. The area was first sighted almost 500 years ago by Giovanni da Verrazano. The Dutch first sent fur traders in 1621, but they lost the colony they dubbed New Amsterdam to the English in 1664. The settlement was re-christened New York, and the name stuck despite the English losing the colony in 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War. 3. Manhattan was a forested land populated by Alngonquian-speaking Natives when the Dutch West India Company established a fur-trading post called New Amsterdam in 1625. In 1898, Manhattan was joined with the four outer boroughs to form the world's second-largest city. 4. From 1800 to 1900, the population in New York City swelled from almost 80,000 to 3 million people. New Yor...

When most people think of New York, historic landmarks and attractions like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and Chrysler Building come to mind. But few know of the place that happens to be the Big Apple's oldest cultural institution: the New York Society Library. It was founded in 1754 by the New York Society as a subscription library. During the time New York served as the capital of the United States, it was the de facto Library of Congress. It also functioned as the city's library until the New York Public Library was established in 1895. The New York Society Library was patronized by such iconic political figures as George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr, the latter two eventually squaring off in a duel that resulted in Hamilton's untimely death. Interestingly, Washington is believed to have failed to return two books due in 1789. Since 1937, the library has been housed in the former John S. Roger's Mansion on Manha...

The fourth property in our series of haunted hotels is none other than the renowned Algonquin Hotel . Opened in 1902 and now designated as a New York City Historic Landmark, the New York hotel is conveniently situated in the heart of Manhattan, near Times Square and Fifth Avenue. It boasts The Round Table restaurant, named for literary greats such as Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott who convened and lodged there in the early 1900s; 181 comfortable guestrooms; over 4,000 feet of function space; The Blue Bar, which opened at the demise of Prohibition in 1933; and even a cat named Matilda that never fails to delight guests. Interestingly, The New Yorker magazine was founded here, and The Algonquin claims to be the first hotel to have offered accommodations to actors and single women travelers. In addition, the property was originally intended to be residential, but it was determined that a lodging establishment would be more profitable. A psychic medium confirmed the presence ...