maingallery
New York
"Walking Manhattan and Brooklyn"

Fifth and Park: the twin pillars of Manhattan prestige. These two avenues hold strong in the popular imagination as places of wealth, exclusivity and power, and while this may be true only to an extent, the elegantness of these two avenues can be seen today in the corporate playland of East Midtown. Fifth Avenue, like most of Midtown, was originally a residential area before evolving into a commercial and business neighbourhood in the late 19th century. The Trump Tower, the Rockefeller Centre, the Public Library, Tiffany's; countless New York institutions that have been glamourised in film and literature have their home in the mile long stretch of Fifth Avenue between 40th

Speaking of New York, her's an interesting item about the history of it's development.
Money, Power, and the Rise of NYC
HBSWK Pub. Date: May 7, 2001

In his new book, The Monied Metropolis, Harvard history professor Sven Beckert traces the development of the most powerful group in nineteenth-century America, and perhaps still today: New York City's economic elite.