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New York City is a glorious, sprawling metropolis, and it blazed new trails in city planning and mass transit. Inventive solutions allowed NYC to grow and thrive, creating a flow of traffic that pumped through the city like lifeblood. Today, the old bones and paths of early omnibuses, trolleys, and trains still mark the streets and skies of the five boroughs. They have a long and storied history as essential elements in one of the greatest cities on Earth.

“Superheroes in New York? Give me a break!” Stan Lee and many of his comic contemporaries have dreamed up a colorful and chaotic New York City, with a huge list of super-powered soldiers, vigilantes, and mutants protecting its streets from harm. Here’s just a quick overview of New York superheroes, including those who are originally from the city, those who call it home now, and those who simply protect it.

Just how many people live in New York City? Ignoring the estimated 61.8 million tourists who visit the area every year, the Big Apple is home to 8.6 million people in an area of only a bit more than 300 square miles.

Harlem is one of the most iconic neighborhoods of New York City. It has been the home to groundbreaking music, dance, poetry and many other arts. While it has been a settled area since the 17th Century, it really came into prominence in the early 20th Century in a period known as the Harlem Renaissance.

The Bronx Zoo is home to thousands of animals, and it's been open to the public since 1899. Some of the people who work at the Bronx Zoo are zoologists, people who study animals. Zoologists have many duties, including making sure that where the animals live is comfortable for them, helping injured animals to get better, and teaching zoo visitors about wildlife.

The New York City subway system has been an iconic representation of American metropolitan transportation since its opening in 1904. Subways provide a solution to crowded cityscapes, offer a cheaper alternative to cabs and cars (which place the cost of gasoline, parking, and insurance on one commuter instead of many), and allow people to live in one borough and work in another. Woven into books, movies, and popular culture over its hundred-year existence, the New York City subway system has bled into other areas of history while simultaneously creating its own.

Traveling to see and experience different destinations typically includes capturing memories in photographs. Learning how a camera works will help a novice photographer gain valuable skills that will usually improve photos significantly. Practice is also helpful, since just the process of taking pictures often enhances photography skills. Make every sightseeing tour more memorable by capturing the essence of these trips with great pictures.

Exploring state and national parks around New York City can be an exciting adventure. If you're a history buff, you can explore historic places such as Ellis Island or Governors Island. You can also see the place where Alexander Hamilton lived and where President Ulysses S. Grant is buried. Become a Junior Ranger and learn about the importance of keeping parks clean while you explore these places. Geocaching is an exciting way to explore the national parks in this area, too.

Unless you have a car, chances are good that you walk a lot of the time. Whether it's at home, at school, or at some other location, you probably feel like you know what it takes to be safe. When visiting or living in a city such as New York City, though, walking through the streets is often a more complicated and intense experience. If you're unfamiliar with the area, its laws, and the habits of city pedestrians, the risk of injury and even death increases. Fortunately, understanding a few basics can help make being a pedestrian in high-traffic urban areas a safer experience for yourself, drivers, and others on the street.

Whether they're taking part in organized bike tours or riding alone, many cyclists use city streets. Riding a bike through a busy city street is vastly different than riding in residential neighborhoods. With potential challenges including traffic jams, anxious drivers, and pedestrians rushing to get where they need to be, there's little wonder that some people feel uncomfortable with the idea of bicycling in urban areas. For them, the thought of riding a bike where there's so much congestion on the road may even seem scary and dangerous. The risk can be greatly diminished, however, when one knows and abides by the safety rules.