The original name for New York, New Amsterdam was chosen to be the name for the capital of Mars for a few reasons. One reason was that the most well known space probes to land on Mars before Pathfinder were the Vikings and the Vikings from the 7^th century founded the town of York in England. Another reason was due to the canals that Lowell thought he had seen on Mars. Amsterdam is the capital of Holland and is the city people first think of when thinking of canals. It is also partly because if you connected all the canals in Holland together, they would stretch from Amsterdam to New York!
      New Amsterdam being the capital of Mars and the first Martian city shows the centuries through which it had stood comprising mainly of two sections. New Amsterdam also had Mars' busiest space port and airport with most landings on Mars being at New Amsterdam which then has connections of everywhere else on Mars.

      When New Amsterdam was first constructed is was made up of domes with the city being under the domes. The only think that held the domes up was the pressure of air beneath them. New domes were added as the city got bigger. After the city was made up of six domes it was decided to add one single dome that would double the size of the city. This dome was so large that natural clouds could form inside it.
      The second part of New Amsterdam was added later. It is in the form that many colonies on other bodies in the Solar System. It is a large complex made up of shops, homes and everything else a colony needs. It is very much like an on the surface version of a space station or a sea city like the ones built in 2020.
      Throughout both sections of the city are raised waterways that look very much like levadas. When the domes were first built it was impractical to include real canals and so levadas were the nearest they could come up with.

      For people who arrive at New Amsterdam, there is never any problem for transport. Getting round the later part of the city itself can be achieved either by bike, by using the trams or by going by metro. You can also use the bike to travel through the domes.
      If you wish the leave the city however you're still going to have no problems. There are connections from New Amsterdam to everywhere. Since the main space port is in New Amsterdam connections into space are also included. There are space planes and delta planes that go to all the other major cities on Mars. Monorail also crossed the Red Planet with Grand Central Station being at New Amsterdam. There is metro to some of the nearby places and hiring sojourners is a favourite option.

      Very close to New Amsterdam is the receiver for all the data sent down to Mars' surface from the Ares Array. New Amsterdam holds the ground station for the Ares Array and a large amount of work goes on in this section. This along with many other points on interest that New Amsterdam has to offer make the capital of Mars a very well recommended stop for anyone who wants to stop on Mars even for only a few hours.