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Yesterday we were talking about how to find your way in Manhattan. That got us thinking-- which way is North around here, anyway? A little research revealed this article by Charles Petzold. He uses some geometry to calculate the angle between true north and the major north/south avenues, and finds that it's a little less than 29 degrees, depending on how you do the math. Another fun fact revealed by the article: Stuyvesant Street (just off 9th and 3rd Avenue in the East Village), runs almost exactly East-West. That might be the only street in Manhattan that meets that description-- but we're not 100% sure.
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It looks like the streets in the West Village from Bethune Street north to and including Gansevoort Street run exactly east-west, too.
Thank You! This has bugged me ever since I moved here. It would be so much easier if Manhattan was realigned, but this will do for now.
NICE!
i asked that question (about stuyvesant st) in a comments thread about a month ago
thanks guys!
Looks like 4th Ave between 13th and 14th runs almost exactly north south.
Nice use of Futura.
I'd say something about the arrows, but it's not really my bailiwick. Where's VectorGraphics-ophile when you need him?
Broadway between Columbus Circle and... uh, 68th? looks only a tad bit off North-South.
Stuyvesant Street was one of a few strees that Stuyvesant laid out, in a grid pattern on the compass. When the uniform plan came down, he fought to keep his streets, but they only allowed one to stay.
I should add that I didn't phrase that exactly right. It wasn't Peter Stuyvesant himself who wanted to keep the streets; he was long dead by then.
This is why mariners used to and some stodgy traditionalists still call the waterway from the Upper Harbor to around 23rd St. the North River. It wasn't considered the Hudson until it jogged to a NE direction.
B'Way north of 58th Street is about 1 degree off due north. Look at the towers of Time Warner Center...the north and south sides are parallel with the City grid and the east and west faces are parallel with B'Way (and nominally due north).
This makes it an "urban stonehenge" for locating yourself in relation to both the City grid, B'Way, and the cardinal directions.
From now on, I will be referring to NYC street corners using solely North, South, East, and West.
FRIEND: "Where should I meet you?"
ME: "On the North corner of 48th and 7th Ave."
FRIEND: "... the North corner? There are two North corners, dummy, which one?"
ME: "The one that is actually closest to TRUE NORTH, dummy. The NORTH corner. Like I said."
Damn -- I think I already lost five friends just by intending to do this. Oh well. It's worth it.
Gabe
If anyone thinks that the 1811 grid based on the Island's axis is unnatural just imagine if a grid based on tru north had been extended throughtout the entire island. It would be a crazy patchwork of long and short streets and avenues that stopped at an angle all of a sudden.
The 1811 design is perhaps one of the most pragmatic projects of urban design ever. However, it's so pragmatic that it left no room for grand boulevards with parade routes leading to soaring monuments. Just look at the acropolis where the Philadlephia Museum of Art sits in grand splendor or Capitol Hill in Washington. In Manhattan, the George Washington statue in Union Square stares at the wall of a commercial building and the Met Museum and the AMNH sit sideways on avenues. A design for a grand boulevard leading to Central Park like what Brooklyn has in Prospect Park at Grand ARmy Plaza was proposed but never built.
"Stuyvesant Street was one of a few strees that Stuyvesant laid out, in a grid pattern on the compass. When the uniform plan came down, he fought to keep his streets, but they only allowed one to stay."
Stuyvesant lived in the 17th century. The grid plan didn't come out until almost 200 years later, in 1811.
jmchez: grand boulevards suck. unbroken street grid rules. streets are for living (i.e., bodegas, bagel places, pizza shops, and laundromats, etc.), not for creating photo opportunities for tourists.