This is Metropolis. This is Gotham City. This is the one all the other cities wish they were—“the only real city-city,” as Truman Capote put it. Its skyscrapers loom above canyon-like streets where some 8 million New Yorkers go about their daily business—walking fast, talking fast, and taking no lip, yet sharing that pride and sense of community that was displayed so unforgettably when terrorists targeted their home on September 11, 2001. They say it's the capital of the world . . . and maybe it is.

THE TOP SIGHTS

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY—There are dinosaurs in here! Plus about 36 million other things, from moon rocks to the Brazilian Princess Topaz, the world's largest cut gem at 21,005 carats. Don't miss the Hall of Biodiversity or the dioramas of animal and village life. Its most recent addition, the futuristic Rose Center for Earth and Space, is a four-story sphere encased in glass that holds the new Hayden Planetarium, the largest and most powerful virtual reality simulator in the world, sending visitors through the Milky Way and beyond. WHERE: Central Park West at 79th St. Tel 212-769-5100; www.amnh.org.

CENTRAL PARK—Laid out between 1859 and 1870 on a design by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Central Park's 843 acres are an urban miracle, an oasis of green surrounded on all sides by high-rise buildings.