Area code 212 is a New York City telephone area code for the borough of Manhattan. By area, it is one of the smallest area codes in North America.
New York City was given area code 212, one of the original area codes when they were assigned in 1947, because it was one of the fastest that could be dialed under NANPA's rules of the time. At the time, 0 and 1 were not allowed as the first digit, the second digit was either 0 or 1, and the third digit could not be the same as the second digit. With the rotary dialing technology of the time, NANPA wanted to keep the number of "clicks" to a minimum for major cities, so New York City was given an area code with five clicks.
Until September 1, 1984, area 212 covered all of New York City. On that date, the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were split off as area code 718, leaving Manhattan and the Bronx in 212. In 1992, the Bronx was shifted to 718, reducing 212 to cover most of Manhattan. The entire city was overlaid with area code 917 in 1992, and the 212 territory was overlaid with area code 646 in 1999. In addition, the Inwood section in far northern Manhattan is overlaid with area code 347.
Read more about Area Code 212: Marble Hill, Perception
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