Random Cloverfield Question

I saw Cloverfield over the weekend, and while I am not going to give away any spoilers, I have a simple question that anyone can answer just from seeing a preview or commercial. Although we do not know for sure, let’s assume that the monster came from the water and is rather large, based on the fact that he/she/it beheaded the Statue of Liberty. So why would the monster choose Manhattan over anywhere else?

I’m not an expert on New York City geography, so please correct me if I’m wrong. So you’re telling me that the monster goes from the Lower New York Bay to the Upper New York Bay to Manhattan with no one noticing until he/she/it announces its arrival by decapitating the Statue of Liberty? How deep is the water there? Wouldn’t the monster take out a few bridges along the way? Wouldn’t it be much easier for the monster just to attack New Jersey, Long Island or Connecticut? If the monster prefers colder water, it could attack Maine or Nova Scotia. Florida, Georgia or South Carolina would be much more convenient for a warmer climate.

Maybe the monster did some research and figured that New York would be the best place to attack based on its population and proximity to the water. However, by that logic, the Mumbai Metropolitan Area, which consists of the metropolis of Bombay and its satellite towns, would be a much better target. (I'm not an expert on Mumbai either, so please correct me if I'm wrong.) The population of Mumbai and New York City is similar, but the monster should have an easier time navigating and destroying Mumbai since it is much smaller in terms of square kilometers (according to Wikipedia, the area of New York city is 17,884 square km while Mumbai is 2,350).

Am I over thinking this?