After 9-11, there was a brief period during which the rest of the country liked New York. This might have never happened before, and although I’m generally missing that wheeler-dealer gene, I wanted to capitalize on the love zeitgeist. This was also a period of “nesting,” when it was cool for young adults to stay home and play board games instead of going out to bars. Bingo! I’d create a board game about NYC. Lots of people around the country have a friend they associate with the city; this would be a great present idea.
In a surprise move, I never made the game, but a few years later, I mentioned it to my then-boyfriend, who had designed a few strategy games, and he got interested in collaborating. We developed some ideas, for example I wanted the game board to be a map of the city, and the objective to involve traveling to accomplish different tasks in different boroughs. Each move would involve deciding whether to take a subway (cheaper and usually reliable) or a taxi (more expensive and usually faster but would occasionally get stuck in horrible traffic) to get to the location. We debated what the goal would be and didn’t want it to be too money oriented or too cliche like the old game of Life.
We never figured out the objectives and game play, but I did start researching the city and writing trivia questions. Since I never did anything else with them, here they are.
Q. Who led 21 elephants across the Brooklyn Bridge in 1884?
A. P.T. Barnum
Q. What honor did Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazano have in 1524?
A. He was the first European to see Manhattan.
Q. What language group defined the tribes of Native Americans that originally inhabited the New York area?
A. Algonquin.
Q. Who was the first European explorer to sail into New York Harbor?
A. Giovanni da Verrazano.
Q. Who was the first governor of New Amsterdam?
A. Peter Minuit
Q. Who was the last governor of New Amsterdam?
A. Peter Stuyvesant
Q. What office was held by both Peter Minuit and Peter Stuyvesant?
A. Governor of New Amsterdam.
One point
Q. In what year did the Dutch colonize New Amsterdam?
a. 1492 b. 1624 c. 1776 d. 1812
A. b. 1624
Three points
Q. In what year did the Dutch colonize New Amsterdam?
a. 1563 b. 1597 c. 1624 d. 1648
A. c. 1624
Five points:
Q. In what year did the Dutch colonize New Amsterdam?
A. 1624
Q. Of what national origin were the colonists who occupied the territory south of the defensive wall for which Wall Street is named?
A. Dutch.
Q. Of what national origin were the colonists who occupied the territory north of the defensive wall for which Wall Street is named?
A. English.
Q. What did semi-official brokers first begin trading under a sycamore tree in southern Manhattan in 1791?
A. Shares of stock.
Q. How did Wall Street get its name?
A. It was the site of a 17th century defensive wall built by Dutch colonists.
Q. When was the Statue of Liberty unveiled in New York Harbor?
A. 1886.
Q. What city location recalls the 17th century defensive wall built by Dutch colonists to protect themselves against British invasion?
A. Wall Street.
Q. What city street commemorates a 17th century defensive measure taken by Dutch colonists to protect themselves against British invasion?
A. Wall Street.
Q. What museum is housed just off Wall Street in the building where Alexander Hamilton’s law offices were located?
A. The Museum of American Financial History.
Q. What colonial nation claimed New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664 and renamed it New York?
A. The British.
Q. What famous New Yorker has an eight-foot long index finger?
A. Lady Liberty.
Q. Lady Liberty’s crown has 25 what?
A. Windows.
Q. How many spikes are on Lady Liberty’s crown?
A. Seven.
Q. What US President accepted the Statue of Liberty on behalf of the United States?
A. Grover Cleveland.
Q. What date is inscribed in Roman numerals on the tablet held by the Statue of Liberty?
A. July 4, 1776.
Q. How did P.T. Barnum demonstrate the strength of the Brooklyn Bridge?
A. He marched his elephants across it.
Q. What sculptor created the Statue of Liberty?
A. August Bartholdi.
Q. Who engineered the Statue of Liberty’s assembly?
A. Gustave Eiffel.
Q. What does the Statue of Liberty hold in her left hand?
A. A tablet.
Q. What does the Statue of Liberty hold in her right hand?
A. A torch.
Q. What metal is the exterior of the Statue of Liberty made of?
A. Copper.
Q. What do the chains under the Statue of Liberty represent?
A. The breaking away from slavery.
Q. What is the official name of the Statue of Liberty?
A. Liberty Enlightening the World.
Q. What does Lady Liberty’s torch illuminate?
A. The struggle for freedom.
Q. What did the French frigate “Isere” bring to New York in 1885?
A. The Statue of Liberty.
Q. What arrived in New York in 350 pieces in 1885?
A. The Statue of Liberty.
Q. What is the current name of Bedloe’s Island?
A. Liberty Island.
Q. Where would you find Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus?
A. On the base of the Statue of Liberty.
Q. Who wrote the poem The New Colossus which is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty?
A. Emma Lazarus.
Q. What famous New Yorker weighs 225 tons?
A. Lady Liberty.
Q. What was Times Square called before The New York Times opened headquarters there in 1904?
A. Longacre Square.
Q. What is Times Square named after?
A. The offices of The New York Times.
Q. What is the present day name of the area formerly known as Longacre Square?
A. Times Square.
Q. What New York institution was founded by a group of American businessmen, artists, and thinkers in 1872?
A. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Q. What New York institution moved from its original home on Fifth Avenue to 14th Street before settling in its current location off Central Park in 1880?
A. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Q. Name the designers of the Statue of Liberty (one point each).
A. Bartholdi (sculptor), Eiffel (engineer), Hunt (architect of pedestal).
Q. Archeulian flints from Deir El Bahri in Egypt (dating from the Lower Paleolithic period) are the oldest works of art in what New York museum?
A. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Q. What section of the Met Museum displays Michelangelo’s Angel, as referred to in E.L. Konigsburg’s classic children’s novel, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?
A. None. It’s an imaginary work of art.
Q. Who owns the art in the Met?
A. The Museum is a nonprofit corporation. The governing body of the corporation holds the works of art in trust.
Q. Who owns the building that houses the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the property it stands on?
A. The City of New York.
Q. Approximately how many people visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art each year (including the Main Building and The Cloisters)?
a. 1 million b. 5 million c. 10 million d. 1 billion
A. b. 5 million.
Q. Approximately how works of art are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection?
a. 150,000 b. 612,000 c. 1.2 million d. 2 million
A. d. 2 million.
Q. Approximately many square feet does the Metropolitan Museum of Art building occupy?
a. 500,000 b. 1 million c. 2 million d. 5 million
A. c. 2 million.
Q. What bridge had the world’s longest suspension span when it was completed in 1964?
A. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
Q. When were the five boroughs unified into one city?
A. 1898.
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