The big apple

[Uniquerob13]

Does anybody know why New York is known as the Big Apple?

[ursula62]

There's a suggestion here - might be a bit risqu� though!

http://salwen.com/apple.html

[Stevee]

I believe this may be true. I can remember the advertising campaign from the 70's and I think it stems from this

Big Apple
This name for New York City was originally horse-racing slang that made its way into jazz lingo and eventually into the vernacular.
The term dates to 1921 and is a reference to the race courses in and around New York City. These were the big money courses, and the "apple" is associated with a prize, something desirable. By the late 1920s, the term had been adopted by jazz musicians and generalized to the city as a whole. A tourism advertising campaign in the 1970s that used the term as a theme reinvigorated usage and brought the name to the attention of millions who had not otherwise heard it.

There is also a single 1909 use of the term, but this is probably unrelated to the later uses.

[Romeo]

I always thought it was because everybody is supposedly tempted to go there. Apples are usually associated with desire or temtation, aren't they? So everybody is attracted to the big city - the Big Apple.

[firefly]

Rio de Janerio is also known as the Big Apple.