Finding the best Manhattan roommate or room for rent requires a friend that knows all about Manhattan - like Roommmatester.com. From a trendy NY Style Loft in downtown to a huge 4 bedroom house in the subrubs, Roommmatester.com is the best place to find Manhattan room for rent and roommate situations in apartments, houses, guest houses, condos and townhouses in Manhattan.

Wheteher youre looking for roommates in Manhattan or have a room for rent in Manhattan, Roommmatester.com is the largest free roommmate service in Manhattan. Best of all, it's free to search, free to post profile and free to send messages.

Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York. The Borough of Manhattan covers the same territory and the same people as the County of New York, a subdivision of the State of New York in the Northeastern United States. With a 2007 population of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.47 km?), New York County is the most densely populated county in the United States at 70,595 residents per square mile (27,267/km?). It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 personal per capita income above $100,000. The borough (and the county) consist of Manhattan Island, Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, almost one-tenth of Ellis Island, the above-water portion of Liberty Island, several much smaller islands, and Marble Hill, a small section on the mainland of New York State adjacent to The Bronx.

Manhattan is a major commercial, financial, and cultural center of the United States and the world. Most major radio, television, and telecommunications companies in the United States are based here, as well as many news, magazine, book, and other media publishers. Manhattan has many famous landmarks, tourist attractions, museums, and universities. It is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations. Manhattan has the largest central business district in the United States, is the site of both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and is the home to the largest number of corporate headquarters in the nation. It is indisputably the center of New York City and the New York metropolitan region, holding the seat of city government, and the largest fraction of employment, business, and recreational activities.

The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Henry Hudson's yacht Halve Maen (Half Moon). A 1610 map depicts the name Manahata twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River (later named the Hudson River). The word "Manhattan" has been translated as "island of many hills" from the Lenape language. The Encyclopedia of New York City offers other derivations, including from the Munsee dialect of Lenape: manahachtanienk ("place of general inebriation"), manahatouh ("place where timber is procured for bows and arrows"), or menatay ("island").

The area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape. In 1524, Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to pass New York Harbor, although he did not enter the harbor past the Narrows. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped. Hudson came across Manhattan Island and the native people living there on September 11, 1609, and continued up the river that would later bear his name, the Hudson River, until he arrived at the site of present day Albany.

A permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625 construction was started on a citadel and a Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam). Manhattan Island was chosen as the site of Fort Amsterdam, a citadel for the protection of the new arrivals; its 1625 establishment is recognized as the birth date of New York City. In 1626, Peter Minuit acquired Manhattan from native people in exchange for trade goods worth 60 guilders, often mistakenly said to be worth $24: 60 guilders back then had the approximate value of $1000 now. Additionally, the sale was transacted with the Canarsee tribe, who did not live on or have rights on the island; the Weckquaesgeeks who lived on the island itself were not contacted or consulted about the transfer.