New York City York metropolitan area produced a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of US$1.73 trillion. If greater New York City were a sovereign state, it would have the 12th highest GDP in the world. New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed "New York" after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of
Museum of the City of New York the incoming administration of Michael Bloomberg, which decided to use the Courthouse as the headquarters for the new New York City Department of Education, causing MCNY's then-director Robert R. McDonald to tender his resignation. McDonald was replaced in 2002 by Susan Henshaw Jones, who was at the time the president of the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. There was also an attempt to merge the museum with the New-York Historical Society, which did not come to fruition, and the museum was passed over for space at Ground Zero. The Museum's former director, Susan Henshaw Jones, recommitted MCNY to its