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  New York City is an excellent example of man's adaptation of nature to his own use. A magnificent geological structure to anchor its skyscrapers, ample surrounding territory for growth. All of these have made this a great city. It has become the heart of world finance, its communications center, the gateway to any point on the globe, and, through the United Nations, the political capital of the world.
  New York City's importance began with the exchange of commodities between Colonial United States and England and other European countries, a trade of the utmost importance to the economy of our infant nation. If trade was important then, it is of even greater importance to our national wellbeing today. Our increasing population needs products of the World while our technical skills produce goods other nations need. With our growing responsibilities and with attendant increases of overseas expenditures, the balance of payments requires that we export more and more. New York City is the center of this trade.
  But, neither nature nor man is static. The Ice Age comes and goes. Rivers erode. Political influences fade. Balance of power shifts. National characteristics change. Wars are won and lost. As great as New York City is, there have been other cities in the past which in their days were relatively as great - Nineveh, Babylon, or Persepolis. 
  Perhaps rivers shifted their courses and climates changed; perhaps political decay set in, perhaps mortal