The contract to build New York City was awarded to the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut on 24 January 1972 and her keel was laid down on 15 December 1973.

She was launched on 18 June 1977 sponsored by Mrs. Rachel Line Schlesinger (née Mellinger), wife of former Secretary of Defence James R. Schlesinger, delivered to the Navy on 23 January 1979, and commissioned on 3 March 1979 with Commander James A. Ross in command.

[1] New York City carried out four deployments to the western Pacific (WestPac) between 1981 and 1985, and participated in numerous fleet exercises during those periods.

After undergoing a modernization overhaul at Pearl Harbor (December 1985 – February 1988), the boat deployed to the Northern Pacific (November–December 1988).

[1] New York City was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 April 1997 and entered the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, in Bremerton, Washington.