Manhattan's Grid, Explained

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Manhattan's Grid is a defining feature of New York City's Map, but the origins are pretty mysterious. The author of 'The Greatest Grid', Gerard Koeppel gives some insight.
Gerards book: gerardkoeppel.com/city-on-a-g...
Tons more info here: thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/
This is a cool map of the neighborhoods of NYC by the NYT: www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...
The NYT article I referenced: www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/ny...
A really detailed map of Randel's survey work: gigapan.com/gigapans/fa872952...
Patreon: / danielsteiner

[@Nugcon]

The way New York (one of the biggest cities on earth) was planned like a school group project where everyone procrastinated until last minute before the deadline is incredibly funny

[@VoidVerification]

And it being copied homework essentially

[@Arthurboy777]

Biggest city on earth ? Lmao it doesn’t even cut top 30

[@LoLo1k2k3k]

@@Arthurboy777 so out of thousands of cities in earth it’s in the top 50/100. So…. One of the biggest. Like the comment said.

[@LoLo1k2k3k]

⁠@@Arthurboy777 lmao I just looked it up NYC is at LEAST in the top 15 largest cities in the world

[@AllUpOns]

@@Arthurboy777 As of 2023, New York urban area is the 13th-largest in the world.

[@kristianmorris9738]

It was immediately apparent this plan was thought up the night before their homework was due. Some of the best work is done this way...

[@bholdr----0]

Haha... Yeah, some of us do our best work under pressure, eh? As in: In college, some the papers/articles/studies that I wrote the night before they were due always seemed to get the best reception/grades. 🤔. (One in particular, when I misinterpreted an assignment and had to bang out a twenty-pager in the 14-ish hours before class... Got a full grade, and my prof had it published! (In some utterly obscure etymology/philology journal, but, still: nice... Maybe I ought to procrastinate more!)

[@jopainting1668]

This is not best work, it's an atrocity.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Something also interesting to mention: Broadway isn't just in Manhattan! It runs from Bowling Green through Manhattan for 13 miles/20.9 km, goes for two miles/3.2 km through the Bronx, and then 18 miles/29 km through Westchester County where it finally ends at Sleepy Hollow! It is the oldest north-south main thoroughfare in New York City, with much of the current street beginning as the Wickquasgeck trail before the arrival of Europeans. This then formed the basis for one of the primary thoroughfares of New Amsterdam, which of course continued under British rule, although most of it did not bear its current name until the late 19th century. Broadway was originally the Wickquasgeck trail, carved into the brush of Manhattan by its Native American inhabitants. This trail originally snaked through swamps and rocks along the length of Manhattan Island. Upon the arrival of the Dutch, the Wickquasgeck trail was widened, and soon became the main road through the island. The Dutch called it the Heeren Wegh or Heeren Straat, meaning "Gentlemen's Way" or "Gentlemen's Street". After the British took over, the part of Broadway in what is now Lower Manhattan was initially known as Great George Street, but the name Broadway was eventually given to its entire length because of its unusual width.

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

These kinda of comments are me absolute favorite. Thank you so much for adding context and value! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@urbangorilla33]

Actually, it goes all the way to Albany. Broadway was extended over three hundred years ago to build the Albany Post Road. Currently it is part of US route 9, which runs to the Canadian border.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

@@urbangorilla33 Technically yes, but beyond Sleepy Hollow, it's no longer called Broadway! So officially, it's only called Broadway between Sleepy Hollow and Lower Manhattan.

[@nicolegarcia7011]

Great contribution to this master piece, when we look to the past in such turbulent times, having a sustancious data is a challenge, but the way this is connected explains a lot the development of a city that it’s closely connected to the financial and status relevance of the family who immigrate to New York especially along the Hudson River, just find out bout Croton-Reservoir keys being hold in the city’s Dam you can find out in the recent exposition of NYC in NYPL (New York Public Library)

[@DeborahBrown-df7bk]

@@AverytheCubanAmericanThough - fittingly - it becomes Broadway again in Albany.

[@EvilPeaMia]

As someone from Ireland this is so surreal to me. I live surrounded by green fields, hills, ancient sites, and weird roads that were made to go around the existing landscape. It's quite fascinating to see just how tightly packed and neatly laid out this city is. I've never been to New York, so I only really see snapshots and small areas in films & on TV. This was a great video.

[@Chops95]

Interestingly, Limerick City in Ireland is suggested to be the inspiration/pilot for the Manhattan grid.

[@MannyGrey]

Fun fact; most of the alleyways you see in TVs and movies don't exist in New York City. The scenes where likely filmed in LA or Atlanta for ease of access and expenses since modern NYC has very few alleyways.

[@brad9529]

Melbourne Australia had a similar design layout history but on 1/100th scale. NY is insanely huge, maps make it look small, Central Park by itself is bigger than some CBD's

[@kevinrichards1539]

I grew up "outside" the city by about an our. Most likely how you live. Grew up surrounded by old farms, rock walls in the woods, running around until night fall. My mother would take us to the city once or twice a year. Driving from our house into the hear of "the city" was surreal as a child. I watched as the trees and farms dissolved away with the miles into the concrete jungle. The experience even more dramatic when we would take the train into grand central. From birds and crickets to 27/7 activity, traffic, light etc. I live in Denver now. Been around the world. Lived in NZ. Noting compares to NYC. Nothing. Its worth the visit. I swear. Looking down from a high rise apartment's at 3 in the morning, people everywhere. It shouldnt work. Just to much going on. To many layers. It a different rhythm, and beauty.

[@Leblribrbrrq]

​@@MannyGreyor Vancouver.

[@lp-xl9ld]

Growing up in New York, my father told me that in Manhattan, you can never be lost...but you can be in the wrong place. Provided you were north of 14th Street and south of 125th Street. I'd figured out how that was possible...and now I know why.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

While talking about the origins of NYC streets, the origin of why Canal Street is called such is interesting! Ding ding ding, it's called such because there was once a canal! But there's more than that. The area was once home to Collect Pond, one of the city's few sources of freshwater. In the 18th century, the pond was used as a picnic area during summer and a skating rink during the winter. Beginning in the early 18th century, various commercial enterprises were built along the shores of the pond in order to use the water. For the first two centuries of European settlement in Manhattan, it was the main New York City water supply system for the growing city. It became polluted because of everyone doing their business there, as well as run-off from tanneries. So it was drained via a canal so they could eventually put landfill there. This area is where the Irish first moved to in NYC (because it was all they could afford), which eventually became known as the most dangerous neighborhood in the world, Five Points, because of the area's Irish gangs

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Yess! Thank you for sharing! The collect pond to China town story is endlessly interesting to me 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@zorkmid1083]

The area is now known as Foley Square, where federal and city courthouses are located. From the most dangerous to a center of the NYC legal system. As for Canal Street, water is still flowing through the "canal". When the Manhattan Bridge was closed for major repairs decades ago, they must've turned off the sump pumps for the tracks now used by the N and Q trains leading up to the bridge. The tracks were flooded with a few feet of stagnant water, until they rebuilt the tracks and roadbed in preparation for the bridge's reopening.

[@johnscanlon2598]

@@zorkmid1083even more dangerous than before

[@RobPtak]

I think you read this book too en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham:_A_History_of_New_York_City_to_1898

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

Excellent presentation! I grew up in Chelsea in the 1960s, but went to school in the Village. Chelsea was built on the 1811 grid system; the Village, as you point out, was not. From the time I was old enough to comprehend it, I was struck by that strange transition from the Manhattan grid to the ordered but self-contained planning of the Village. Then there was 7th Avenue South. Even though 7th Avenue South had been driven through the Village some decades before my time, it pushed through the neighborhood rather rudely, with surviving buildings just sliced off at strange angles and some streets, like Bleeker, Barrow, and 7th Avenue South, meeting at strange, extremely acute angles. It really looked like an interloper, and it still does. I think it was one of Robert Moses's early projects, As an aside, many of the landowners were made extremely wealthy by the street grid. In Chelsea, Clement Clarke Moore, who owned the Chelsea estate, was already very well-to-do when the streets and avenues were cut through, but the street grid increased the value of his land exponentially. He brought in an estate manager, James N Wells, to oversee the development of Chelsea beginning in the 1820s. Moore was initially opposed to the 1811 street grid. It required the demolition of his own house, which he loved, to make way for 23rd Street. I am sure all the income from the lots he sold to real estate developers lessened the pain of the bitter pill he had to swallow. Most of the Greek Revival and Italianate row houses in Chelsea were built while Moore was still alive, and most are still there today.

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Fascinating!! Thank u for sharing! I came across a couple stories of land owners becoming extremely wealthy almost by accident. Pretty crazy impact of the grid!

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

@@DanielsimsSteiner Thanks! Real estate and gentrification seem to be two constants in the life of NYC going back to Dutch days. The Chelsea of my youth was a blue-collar Irish and Puerto Rican neighborhood, with a smattering of artists around the edges. It's gone through several waves of gentrification since. Brownstones that sold for $35,000 in 1970 are now selling for about $3 million.

[@ModernDayRenaissanceMan]

​@@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944 That's everywhere in NY. I grew up in Flushing Queens. My grandparents bought for less than 20,000 in the 60s. They sold for $250,000 in the late 90s. The property is worth nearly 2 million today. I always scold them for making me poor. They moved to Florida as most old people do... & Into a home worth $50,000 which is now worth $100,000 & passed away in debt rather than rent out what would have been a 3 family home. They owned 2 such properties in NY, including the last undeveloped land in Astoria Queens. An apartment building with 2 units built in the 1920s (maybe older), on which now stands the ugliest thing you've ever seen & gone is the garden my great grandparents used to plant yearly. No more fat tomatoes, or roses, or cucumbers, etc. Hell. They could have made money just turning it into a parking lot & renting the spaces...

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

This reminds me of the sophisticated urban planning of Barcelona. Heck, they PIONEERED it! Barcelona's Ildefons Cerdà was the guy who coined the term urbanization and changed the way we think about cities! Constricted by its medieval walls, Barcelona was suffocating as its population overflowed and couldn't handle the density with high mortality rates, until the then unknown Ildefons came up with a radical expansion plan. His plan consisted of a grid of streets that would unite the old city with seven peripheral villages (which later became integral Barcelona neighborhoods such as Gràcia and Sarrià). The united area was almost four times the size of the old city and would come to be known as Eixample. Cerdà decided to avoid repeating past errors by undertaking a comprehensive study of how the working classes lived in the old city. He concluded that, among other things, the narrower the city’s streets, the more deaths occurred. He added gardens in each block, made sure access to services for the rich and poor were equal, and made room for smooth-flowing traffic. The octagonal blocks, chamfered in the corners, were his unique idea to deal with traffic, allowing drivers to see more easily what was happening to the left and right. Cars of course didn't exist then, but when he learned about trains, he figured there would be some sort of thing powered by steam that would use the streets. His gravestone, fittingly, is a model of the Eixample.

[@Georges_IV]

Yoo avery i havent seen you comment in a while

[@vicjames3256]

I lived in Sarrià for 6 months and had no idea about this. Thanks!

[@JConnn]

He just doesn’t miss

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Ily

[@MiggerPlease]

What?

[@MiggerPlease]

His haircut is cringe

[@JConnn]

@@MiggerPlease you picked the wrong one, Kyle Korona.

[@MiggerPlease]

@@JConnn lmao 🤣🤣🤣 gay nigga

[@chrisleonardi712]

If this video was an hour and a half. I’d watch it all

[@Universe0524]

I didn’t realize how small of a youtuber you were until I finished the video. I thought you’d have hundreds of thousands of subs. Great video! I’d love to see more about New Yorks human created geography and even the natural geography, especially with Long Island

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Thank you so much!

[@SeverityOne]

Another example of a grid city is the capital of Malta: Valletta. It's tiny (fewer than 6000 people live there), but it's an extremely impressive piece of baroque architecture, replete with churches, palaces, and massive fortifications.

[@ristube3319]

I’m a lifelong NYC lover from CT. Part of my love is the ability to find yourself easily, vs. random street names like in Boston.

[@loufancelli1330]

I really don't understand why anyone hates the grid. It makes it so simple, especially for such a heavily populated city. It's simplicity is it's magic. You know based on the number of the street and avenue where you are geographically. I can't even imagine what a disaster it would be without it.

[@sdizzzzzy3509]

Hey stop speaking common sense. I don’t want that in my backyard!!!

[@offmeds2nite]

You are absolutely killing it Daniel! First with the Boston map video, and now this. I immediately subscribed, and am sharing this with everyone I know 👏

[@amfnyc]

Even as a lifelong Nee Yorker (Manhattanite) whose life essentially revolves around the grid, I’ve learnt a thing or two from this video. Good work!

[@PlutoniumDG]

As a visitor I absolutely loved the grid with the easy logical numbered names. When my phone battery died I could walk back to my hostel without asking anyone for directions

[@ThekiBoran]

A whacky street layout gives a city character. Grids are sterile.

[@YouB3anz]

I own both the books used for this video and for the Boston video but I've never really read them so pretty cool to see these two vids with author interviews. Look forward to more.

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Oh no way? That’s so rad.

[@allangeorgjensen6662]

Excellent video and very well presented. Maps and animations works so good. Thumbs up, well done 👍

[@ehurtarte1984]

Casimir Goerck is finally getting the recognition he deserves. He thanks you from the beyond

[@fbeauchamp9078]

I wish you talked more about the Common Lands and the people who lived there before being displaced for the construction of Central Park. I'm sure it'll make a great video.

[@chuppl]

daniel dropping banger after banger

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Ily

[@henry00eilers]

Just got yourself a new subscriber! I would love to see a similar video for Athens, Greece. The city was supposed to house 100,000 residents, and yet there are more than 5 million of them today. It had 3 big rivers and now has none. They were turned into avenues... The newest neighborhoods are grids, the oldest have just a random formation of streets around wherever people build their houses, steep roads that only a goat could climb. There's a neighborhood built for the wealthy that is not crossable or connected to the rest of the city, similar to Back Bay in Boston but in the form of a circular labyrinth. There's a village with sheep and chickens on top of a hill, surrounded by the city, where you feel like you're in a rural area a hundred years ago and yet you're in the middle of the city. The old airport is turning into a park, residential area and business area. The center kind of preserves the way of ancient arteries of the city.

[@robertkeyes258]

Many years ago a friend of mine lived at a corner that is not supposed to exist in the grid plan, yet does - the intersection of two numbered streets. He lived at the intersection of 4th street and 12th street.

[@chirstopherdavis9177]

This is the start of a great channel!

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Thank you!

[@nicholasgidaro5692]

You're very, very good at this stuff. Keep it up!!!!

[@jordysyoutubechannel]

SLAYED i love learning

[@ahnafj416]

Editing and everything just hits

[@audithisworld24]

Keep up the good work. I am excited to see your channel grow to over 1M subs-just stick with it! 💪

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

😭😭😭🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼 thank you!

[@edwardkane7110]

Keep the videos up! Find it absolutely fascinating learning about the urban geography of these unique cities.

[@gui18bif]

Grids are tense and claustrophobic.

[@WinstonSmithGPT]

What a wonderful watch.

[@yodittesfaye9702]

The landscape along what is now the Park’s perimeter from West 82nd to West 89th Street was the site of Seneca Village, a community of predominantly African-Americans, many of whom owned property. By 1855, the village consisted of approximately 225 residents, made up of roughly two-thirds African-Americans, one-third Irish immigrants, and a small number of individuals of German descent. One of few African-American enclaves at the time, Seneca Village allowed residents to live away from the more built-up sections of downtown Manhattan and escape the unhealthy conditions and racial discrimination they faced there.

[@mmjj7685]

If New York city stayed Neoclassical and Art Deco it would have been one of the most beautiful cities in the world and will definitely rivals ancient cities like Rome, Paris and London when it comes to beauty and architecture. Love the Flat iron building, Chrystler and Empire state building.

[@robertkeyes258]

ah yes but then Robert Moses came along

[@MarinCipollina]

@@robertkeyes258 Robert Moses was New York City's worst vandal and biggest cultural criminal

[@Jesse615]

I worked at 47th and Lex for years. Love the Chrysler Building; even more than the ESB (probably true for a lot of NYrs)! It was my Double Probation-Super Secret way to get to the GCT subway.

[@FatTracksMusic]

Damn I hope you find a way to put out more content these videos are incredible

[@totallyuneekname]

Daniel, those map animations are fantastic. I'd love a tutorial if you're ever up to it. Thanks for putting these videos together!

[@KellieT73]

I absolutely love this! Looking forward to watching your other videos, especially the one re. Boston.

[@DocSteiner]

So informative! Could listen to more and more!

[@cameronjacobs7462]

another really awesome video man, you’re absolutely killing it

[@DavidSanchez-hg8rw]

Such cool series! Glad I ran into you. definitely subscribed!

[@Bezanthemum]

Great work! Super interesting and nicely tied up at the end.

[@bobs1474]

Amazing map video I can't wait to watch the rest of your videos!

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Thank you! I’m glad you like them!

[@tomreingold4024]

Hey, I really enjoyed this video. I grew up in Manhattan, left, and again live in Manhattan. I suspect the word convenience the commissioners used also applied to the land owners whom the plan affected. The designers probably thought about how to disrupt as few people (or dollars) as possible. So maybe there were more divisible plots on the east side than on the west side, explaining why avenues are close together there. I've been told that the close avenues ended up creating more wealth, and this makes sense to me, since what the City did -- divide into smallest practical size plots -- did create a ton of wealth. I don't think it's scandalous that some of these people built their work on previous people's works. It doesn't seem like stealing. I guess the earlier people couldn't get their work done for various reasons. Maybe they couldn't get through the bureaucracy. Or maybe the needed technology wasn't ready yet. Where can one get that map of Manhattan as it was found in 1609? It shows the small streams running across the island.

[@Ike_C]

Another great video, fantastic work.

[@cliffgulliver4626]

Thanks Danny. Great info.

[@electropainted]

love this channel, love what you're putting out...exquisite production values for a small operation...high end infotainment!

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Much appreciated! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@davidtrotman5990]

As a person who spent their wonder years (5-22) in NYC this stirred up the nostalgia. The benefit of the grid is that it is really easy to learn. The semi-irregular rhythm of the wider cross streets makes for neighborhood edges. I would advise reading Kevin Lynch's "The Image of the City" to understand how people understand their urban environment.

[@lilguillotine]

Do Chicago next! I’ve done a crap ton of research on it here and I can show you around.

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Send me an email!

[@jphjphjph]

New KZbin star in the making

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

😭🙏🏻

[@gcurry30]

Great job on this one!

[@Secretlyalittleworm]

Love these explainers

[@jaydenhartlillard]

Great research! Great video!

[@chuongsullivan-kemple6617]

amazing editing! awesome pace! great video!

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Thank you sm!!

[@brodyspencer4761]

Would absolutely love a video like this about Toronto, Ontario, or Buffalo, New York!! Love this format!

[@olgabarasoain]

This was wonderful 👏 thanks!!

[@adnanchowdhury614]

Very informative, great job.

[@fernandaquintanilladomingu7986]

Best video on Manhattan's development, thanks so much!!

[@LOLWAAHH]

Omg I asked for a NYC map video after watching your Boston video, and here it is!!! Thank you 🎁

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Hope you enjoyed it!🎉 thank u for watching!

[@dsmits84]

Video was amazing...love old NYC history keep it up

[@user-qh5di2gl1e]

This is a remarkably well-produced channel and other videos. Keep up the great work.

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Thank you so much!!

[@Sevenigma777]

Oooo I like this kind of content! Awesome vid man great job!

[@healyourgutguy]

I love your city design videos!

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Thank u so much!

[@bwb0312]

This is fantastic content keep up the good work

[@user-vy1kk4ug8o]

i realized at some point that because of the grid here i never really knew what street i was on, i just had to look at which direction the cars were going and i’d find my way around. in high school id rarely travel further than west 4th because the streets started getting wonky and i’d immediately be lost. i hate so much about this place but the grid system definitely is something i’ve always appreciated.

[@MarinCipollina]

Well researched thoughtful and ernest presentation. Well done.

[@francescathomas3502]

I love maps. Thank you so mich for this wonderful Video. I really enjoyed it. I must check out the rest of your channel - later.

[@randybarnhart6976]

Outstanding presentation

[@sailingsam3815]

Fascinating 😊

[@maybesmusic223]

wow what a great video, I can't believe you haven't been doing this style of video for years!

[@tommybreeze5476]

Phenomenal content, glad I found your channel. SUBSCRIBED!!

[@smurf902]

Thank you for this! Always wondered the origins of the grid.

[@EPMTUNES]

sick video. Love that stuyvesant detail

[@crazypgmoments3094]

This is awesome!!!

[@carnivaltym]

Excellent!

[@pjeverly]

Great content. Might be fun to dive a little deeper or possibly do another city. Keep up the great work.

[@margaretinsydney3856]

I have just discovered this channel. The short about Manhattan came up on my feed this morning, and it was so interesting that I looked up the longer version. I love what you're doing here, and I have subscribed.

[@leonardohsu8687]

Nice content. I have lived here in Manhattan most of my life and never knew about it.

[@RichardTongeman]

Great video! 👏

[@blobfish3576]

these videos are just so entertaining

[@schm4943]

I humbly request a breakdown like this of Denver!

[@hamongog]

Very interesting!

[@ddomiulloa5739]

Great job good stuff manito!! 👏🏽👌🏽🦾🫡🫡🇩🇴🇩🇴🇩🇴

[@wcsah]

Great video!

[@ktimmer2]

Just found your channel. Im an old land pirate that finds this stuff interesting. Great job!

[@Kade_Bauman]

This was great!

[@Oceansta]

This is the kind of content I wanna see more of ❤ its great how you dont diretly assume that every viewer is from America.

[@ModernDayRenaissanceMan]

The addition of 1 way streets is the real mystery of Manhattan. Just getting across the street in some places is a 45 minute trip!

[@Jesse615]

Pretty much all streets in Manhattan are one-way. This is what distinguishes the Avenue Streets (Canal/Houston/14th/23rd/34th/42nd/57th, etc.) -- they are two-way. Also, the grid-within-a-grid: the even-numbered one-way streets go east, the odd-numbered, west.

[@Cyb3riano]

Super interesting ! A city I like very much ! Regards from Argentina 🇦🇷

[@Oeduardoalbrecht]

What a great video!

[@vixenstar1]

This upload is 🔥🔥🔥🔥thx so much! I wishy mom was alive to see this! Blessings

[@benniethepooh]

Great video dude

[@BenBike]

Great storytelling and really impressive production! Super fascinating stuff, can't wait for your future videos

[@Zwei-Rosen]

Fun fact: at the time of the commissioner's plan, the biggest landlord in Manhattan was John Jacob Astor, born in Walldorf near Heidelberg (thus Waldorf-Astoria). 25 km from Walldorf is Mannheim, founded in 1607 and originally built in a grit. Mannheim may be the blueprint for today's New York.

[@robertodalessandro871]

Just a few days ago i'm wondering about this issue...and " voila"...Just came to me. Thank you for this Master class. Hugs from Brasil

[@notzachpowers]

great video, very interesting

[@armandorojas7093]

Great story, well done

[@kanoarayn]

Please do Seattle! I would love it so much. Loving your videos, really high quality content. I will keep coming back to it

[@azerothean]

Just found the channel throught instagram and I'm in love with it already!

[@redcros93]

Awesome video. Nice narrative 😁

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@leveredboi3265]

need this done for chicago yesterday thx