Breakfast-table reading.
 
About 
Columbia

Year in which Columbia (Then King's College) was founded: 1754

Population of New York City that year: 13,000

Total enrollment at Columbia University, 1994-95: 19,921

Approximate number of undergraduates in Columbia College: 3,600

In the School of Engineering and Applied Science: 1,000

Number of undergraduate residence halls on campus: 15

Percentage of undergraduates who live in university residence halls: 90

 Number of student groups registered through the Earl Hall Center: 50

Number of campus ministries: 13

Number of programs operated by Columbia's Community Impact volunteers: 25

Numbers of volunteers involved: 700

Value of twelve midtown acres Columbia acquired in 1814, in dollars: 6,000

Amount the Rockefeller family paid for the land in 1985, in dollars: 400,000,000

Number of libraries in the Columbia University Libraries system: 22

Approximate number of volumes in Columbia's libraries: 6,000,000

 Number of institutes and centers affiliated with Columbia: 106

Staff members at Columbi's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: 550

Number of years for which Columbia has initially agreed to manage Biosphere 2: 5

Number of scholarly journals produced at Columbia: 27

Average number of titles published each year by the Columbia University Press: 150

Height of the tiled dome of Columbia's St. Paul's Chapel, in feet: 112 Number of pipes in St. Paul's Chapel's Aeolean-Skinner organ: 5,348

Number of steps in front of Low Library: 57

Number of seats in Miller Theatre: 684

Size of Columbia's Baker Field sports complex, in upper Manhattan, in acres: 26

Number of seats in Columbia's Wien Stadium (football, track): 17,000

In the university's soccer stadium: 35,00

At the unversity's baseball field: 500

Number of campus language houses at Columbia: 4

Financial aid Columbia administers or coordinates annually, in dollars: 100,000,000

Approximate number of Columbia's living alums: 213,000

About
New York
City

Distance from NYC, in miles, to Boston: 211

Distance, in miles, to Philiadelphia: 109

Distance, in miles, to Washington, CD: 237

Population of NYC (1990 census): 7,322,794

Population of Manhattan (1990 census): 1,487,536

Size of NYC, in square miles: 320

Number of boroughs in NYC: 5

Approximate number of museums in NYC: 150

Number of art galleries (at least): 500

Number of active Broadway theatres: 35

Percentage of Actors' Equity national membership living in NYC: 43

Approximate number of parks, playgrounds, squares and public spaces: 1,000

Approximate number of movie screens: 400

Approximate number of of movies made in NYC each year: 100

 Number of the world's hundred tallest buildings that are in NYC: 25

Height, in feet, of the Empire State Building: 1,250

Steps in the Empire State Building, from lobby to 102nd floor: 1,860

Height, in feet, of the World Trade Center towers: 1,350

Number of people who work in the World Trade Center: 50,000

Number of people who visit the World Trade Center each day: 80,000

Number of steps from entrance to crown of the Statue of Libery: 354

Height, in feet, of the Statue of Liberty: 145

Height, in feet, of the main vault of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine: 124

Number of book-publishing companied in NYC: 344

Among NYC industries, rank of printing and publishing: 1

Approximate number of licensed eateries in Manhattan: 17,000

Size, in acres, of Central Park: 843

Miles of footpaths, bridle paths, and roads in Central Park: 48

Passengers who take the Circle Line cruise around Manhattan each year: 590,000

Percentage of the world's gold stored at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York: 40

Among the world's fish markets, rank, in size, of NYC's Fulton Fish Market: 1

Number of golf courses in NYC: 16

Number of former U.S. presidents buried in NYC: 1

Number of Fortune 500 industrial firms headquartered in NYC: 41

Number of designated historic landmarks in NYC: 920

Number of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island, 1892-1954: 17,000,000

Number of languages spoken in NYC (at least): 80

Number of items in the New York Public Library: 49,500,000

Miles of shelves below the library's Main Reading Room: 88

Number of current periodical in the library's Periodicals Room: 10,000

Queries answered daily by members of the library's staff: 1,000

Number of branches of the library: 82

 Sunday circulation of The New York Times (in 1990): 1,200,000

Number of major parades in NYC each year: 48

Tons of ticker tape swept up after astronaut John Glenn's 1962 parade: 3,474

Approximate number of guest rooms in the Plaza Hotel: 800

Number of seats in Radio City Music Hall: 5,874

Number of people employed at the United Nations: 6,000

Gallons of water supplied daily by NYC drinking water system: 1,500,000,000

Estimated number of delicatessens in NYC: 6,000

Percentage of an cream represented by egg and cream: 0

Approximate number of official taxis in NYC: 12,000

 Number of Babe Ruth's 714 home runs he hit as a New York Yankee: 659

Number of commuters who pass through Grand Central Terminal each day: 140,000

Height, in feet, of the ceiling in Grand Central Terminal's Main Concourse: 375

Number of "stars" in the Main Concourse's ceiling: 2,500

Number of passengers who pass through Pennsylvania Station each day: 600,000

Number of cars towed in NYC in 1992: 114,000

Length, in miles, of tunnels beneath NYC: 161

Length of track, in miles, in NYC's rapid transit system: 714

 


   Number of faculty

   members and alumni

   who have received

   Nobel prizes: 55

 

 

     Population of

     Manhattan (1990

     census): 1,487,536
Percentage of first-year students who do: 99

Percentage of undergraduates who live in single rooms: 65

Number of schools within Columbia University: 15

Number of academic departments and divisions within the university: 71

Size of Morningside Heights campus, in acres: 36

Number of sudent groups in the Union of Student Organizations: 125

Number of those groups that are based on cultural heritage: 30

 Approximate number of volumes added each year: 120,000 Number of librarians:140

Approximate number of people who visit Butler Library during a busy week: 16,000

Number of transcribed reminiscences in Columbia's Oral History Collection: 5,500

Number of faculty members and alumni who have received Nobel prizes: 55

Number of full-size gymnasiums in the Dodge Physical Fitness Center: 2

Number of squash and handbaall courts: 16

 Approximate number of unofficial taxis in NYC: 50,000

Number of days when alternate-side-of-the-street parking is suspended in NYC: 32

Number of bridges that serve NYC: 2,027

Capacity of Giants Stadium (New York Jets, New York Giants): 76,892

Of Madison Square Garden (New York Knicks, New York Rangers): 20,000

Of Shea Staduim (New York Mets): 55,601

Of Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees): 57,545

Number of games Jackie Robinson played as a Brooklyn Dodger: 1,382

 Average distance, in miles, a NYC subway car travels before breaking down: 29,948

Subway fare (any direction, any distance, unlimed free transfers), in dollars: 1.50

Bus fare (exact change, includes one free transfer, in dollars: 1.50

Taxi fare (first one-fifth mile), in dollars: 2.00

Taxi fare (each additional one-fifth mile), in dollars: .60

Number of major airports in the metropolitan area: 3

Average cost of a taxi ride from La Guardia Airport to campus, in dollars: 20


 


     Averge distance, in

     miles, a NYC subway

     car travels before 

     breaking down: 29,948

We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to Professor Kenneth Jackson's The Encyclopedia of New York City (Yale University Press and the New York Historical Society), Eyewitness Travel Guides New York (Dorling Kindersley, Inc.) New York Knopf Guides (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.) and Columbia University Fact Book (Columbia University.
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last modified: January 15, 1997
Chris Gwiazda, College Web Manager, college@columbia.edu