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51 New York Trivia Questions and Fun Facts

Reviewed by Stefanie Zaldarriaga, Author·Updated Oct 2026·6 min read

51 New York trivia questions with answers and checked fun facts, from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to the Erie Canal, Seneca Falls and the Adirondacks.

Featured Image of New York Trivia Questions. Credit: Daniel Schwen, Public domain , via Wikimedia Commons

New York gave the country its first capital under the Constitution, the busiest immigration station in American history and a canal that is still working two centuries later. It also has a Statue of Liberty, a lot of upstate that New Yorkers will tell you about whether you ask or not, and a state fruit. Here are the facts worth knowing before the questions.

George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. The building now stands as a National Park Service memorial on Wall Street.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886. A short ferry ride away, Ellis Island operated as an immigration station from 1892 to 1924, and more than 12 million immigrants were processed there.

The Erie Canal opened in 1825 and New York's canal system has run continuously since, longer than any other constructed transportation system in North America, according to the National Park Service.

The first women's rights convention was held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls on July 19 and 20, 1848. Roughly three hundred women and men attended, among them Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

In the autumn of 1777, American forces defeated a major British army near Saratoga and forced it to surrender. That victory helped convince France to enter the war on the American side.

The questions start easy and get harder as you go, and every one has multiple-choice options. Read each question aloud, give the table a moment, then reveal the answer. For the city on its own, there is a separate NYC quiz.

  1. 1What is the capital of New York State?

  2. 2What is New York's best-known state nickname?

  3. 3Which harbor is home to the Statue of Liberty?

  4. 4Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States?

  5. 5Which natural wonder sits on the border between New York and Ontario?

  6. 6Which two Great Lakes border New York State?

  7. 7Which Manhattan park stretches from 59th Street to 110th Street?

  8. 8Which fruit is New York's state fruit?

  9. 9Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, was best known as what?

  10. 10In which New York village is the National Baseball Hall of Fame?

  11. 11Which New York City borough is home to Coney Island?

  12. 12Which New York City borough is home to Broadway's Theater District?

  13. 13On which street is the New York Stock Exchange located?

  14. 14Which university, an Ivy League member, sits above Cayuga Lake in Ithaca?

  15. 15Which New York company, founded by George Eastman in Rochester, made photography accessible to everyone?

  16. 16Which NYC borough is the only one attached to the U.S. mainland?

  17. 17Which upstate city is nicknamed the Flower City?

  18. 18In what year did the Erie Canal open, beginning a canal system that has operated continuously ever since?

  19. 19In what year was the Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York Harbor?

  20. 20Which New York village hosted the first women's rights convention in July 1848?

  21. 21In which city did George Washington take the oath of office as the first president in 1789?

  22. 22Which 1777 battle in upstate New York ended with a British army surrendering and is often called a turning point of the Revolution?

  23. 23New York was the 11th state to join the Union. In which year did that happen?

  24. 24How many counties does New York State have?

  25. 25Where in New York did the 1969 Woodstock festival take place?

  26. 26Which Adirondack village hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and again in 1980?

  27. 27What is the highest mountain in New York State?

  28. 28Which landscape architect designed Central Park with Calvert Vaux?

  29. 29Which river does the Brooklyn Bridge span?

  30. 30In which year did the Empire State Building open?

  31. 31Which Art Deco skyscraper, completed in 1930, briefly held the title of world's tallest building before the Empire State Building arrived?

  32. 32Which NYC borough contains both JFK and LaGuardia airports?

  33. 33Which river runs south through New York past West Point and Albany to New York Harbor?

  34. 34Which river forms part of New York's border with Canada near the Thousand Islands?

  35. 35What body of water separates Long Island from Connecticut?

  36. 36Which mountain range, west of the Hudson, was home to the Borscht Belt resorts?

  37. 37The Dutch called their colony's main settlement on Manhattan what?

  38. 38In which upstate city is the New York State Fair held each year?

  39. 39Which New York town is the headquarters of Corning Inc., famous for its glass?

  40. 40A 1969 police raid on which Greenwich Village bar set off an uprising seen as a turning point for LGBTQ rights in the U.S.?

  41. 41Which giant steel globe, built for the 1964 World's Fair, still stands in Flushing Meadows?

  42. 42Which Finger Lakes-area state park gorge is nicknamed the "Grand Canyon of the East"?

  43. 43Which city in western New York lent its name to a famously spicy chicken wing?

  44. 44Which U.S. president, born in Hyde Park, New York, was also governor of the state before the White House?

  45. 45Which president, born in Kinderhook, New York, was the first born a U.S. citizen rather than a British subject?

  46. 46Which former New York governor is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms?

  47. 47What year did Grand Central Terminal open in its current form?

  48. 48After whom did the English rename New Amsterdam when they took it from the Dutch in 1664?

  49. 49Nickname "The Big Apple" spread in the 1920s through newspaper coverage of which sport?

  50. 50In which year was the United States Military Academy at West Point founded?

  51. 51Which Finger Lakes waterfall near Ithaca is taller than Niagara Falls?

Answer Key

  1. 1. Albany
  2. 2. The Empire State
  3. 3. New York Harbor
  4. 4. France
  5. 5. Niagara Falls
  6. 6. Lake Erie and Lake Ontario
  7. 7. Central Park
  8. 8. The apple
  9. 9. An immigration station
  10. 10. Cooperstown
  11. 11. Brooklyn
  12. 12. Manhattan
  13. 13. Wall Street
  14. 14. Cornell University
  15. 15. Kodak
  16. 16. The Bronx
  17. 17. Rochester
  18. 18. 1825
  19. 19. 1886
  20. 20. Seneca Falls
  21. 21. New York City
  22. 22. Saratoga
  23. 23. 1788
  24. 24. 62
  25. 25. Bethel
  26. 26. Lake Placid
  27. 27. Mount Marcy
  28. 28. Frederick Law Olmsted
  29. 29. The East River
  30. 30. 1931
  31. 31. The Chrysler Building
  32. 32. Queens
  33. 33. The Hudson River
  34. 34. The St. Lawrence River
  35. 35. Long Island Sound
  36. 36. The Catskills
  37. 37. New Amsterdam
  38. 38. Syracuse
  39. 39. Corning
  40. 40. The Stonewall Inn
  41. 41. The Unisphere
  42. 42. Letchworth State Park
  43. 43. Buffalo
  44. 44. Franklin D. Roosevelt
  45. 45. Martin Van Buren
  46. 46. Grover Cleveland
  47. 47. 1913
  48. 48. The Duke of York
  49. 49. Horse racing
  50. 50. 1802
  51. 51. Taughannock Falls

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