New York metropolitan area passed through ports in New York or in one of the surrounding towns. The five boroughs of New York City — The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island — were consolidated into a single city in 1898. The newly unified New York City encouraged both more physical connections between the boroughs and the growth of bedroom communities. The New York City Subway began operating in 1904 as the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, one of three systems (the other two being the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation and the Independent Subway System) that were later taken over by the city. Railroad stations
Demographics of New York (state) The top ancestry groups in New York State are Italian American (15.8%), African American (14.4%), Hispanic (14.2%), Irish (12.9%), German (11.1%), English (6%), and Polish (5.27%). 1.5% of the state population is multiracial. New York contains the largest Puerto Rican population in the country, concentrated in parts of New York City such as the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. New York also has the largest Dominican population in the country, concentrated in New York City's Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. New York City is home to many blacks, the majority with roots in the United States but a group which includes