Further on, a hammock of 17th century admiral Cornelius de Witt hangs above the simple campaign bed of William of Orange, the Dutch prince wounded at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

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"From the track bed to the budget to modernizing our system for the 21st century, I can't imagine anyone having a better understanding of how the region's vast system operates and the challenges that it faces, " Mr. Cuomo said.

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In the latter part of the 19th century, many of the urban poor either shared beds, or took different shifts in the same bed.

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More than 1, 500 historic buildings dot the downtown area, and because the city was built atop a drained lake bed, some edifices , like the gravity-defying Ex-Teresa museum, a former 17th-century convent, are teetering like there is no tomorrow.

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