In 1624 the first permanent Dutch settlement was established at Fort Orange (now Albany). One year later Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for trinkets worth about 60 Dutch guilders and founded the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City), which was surrendered to the English in 1664.
New York State's borders touch two Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario, which are connected by the Niagara River), the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario in Canada, three New England states (Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut), the Atlantic Ocean, and two Mid-Atlantic states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania). In addition, Rhode Island and New York share a sea boundary.
New York is best known for its tertiaty sector specializing in foreign trade, together with banking, port facilities, advertising, warehousing, and other activities needed to support large-scale commerce. In addition, many of the world's largest corporations locate their headquarters home offices in Manhattan or in nearby Westchester County, New York.
Major points of interest are Castle Clinton, Fort Stanwix, and Statue of Liberty National Monuments; Niagara Falls; U.S. Military Academy at West Point; National Historic Sites that include homes of Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park and Theodore Roosevelt in Oyster Bay and New York City.
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