New York—The Empire State (11)
Admitted into Union: July 26, 1788
Capital: Albany
State Flower: Rose
State Tree: Sugar Maple
State Bird: Bluebird
State Animal: Beaver
Population: 19 million

Gateway to the New World: Between 1892 and 1924, 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island. Our New York Hot Pot pays homage to all that luggage they lugged—downsized, of course, for pure fun.

A real steal: Legend has it that in 1625, Dutch settler Peter Minuit gave the Leni Lenape Indians trinkets worth about $24 in exchange for the island of Manhattan.

Who says big can’t be beautiful? The Statue of Liberty has a 35-foot waist and an 8-foot index finger. She weighs 450,000 pounds.

Beep beep! There are 6,375 miles of streets in New York City.

Room with a view? No problem. New York City has 578 miles of waterfront.

Attention, shoppers! Macy’s, the world’s largest store, covers 2.1 million square feet of space and stocks over 500,000 different items.

Swing it! Since the 1920s, Queens has been home to many brilliant jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Famous New Yorkers: Lucille Ball, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Tom Cruise, Sammy Davis Jr., Aaron Copeland, Lou Gehrig, George Gershwin, Julia Ward Howe, Washington Irving, Michael Jordan, Henry James, Herman Melville, the Marx Brothers, Normal Rockwell, Ethel Merman, Odgen Nash, Rosie O’Donnell, Margaret Sanger, Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton, and three Roosevelts—Eleanor, Franklin, and Teddy.