Map of Manhattan's Broadway, Explained

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00:00 Introduction
00:34 The Origins of Broadway
02:58 Broadway Begins
05:54 Ad Break
07:20 Broadway in 1776
10:30 The Bloomingdale Road
14:17 Times Square
16:16 Upper Broadway
19:29 The impact of Broadway
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Fran Leadon's Book: www.amazon.com/Broadway-Histo...
Karen's Channel: @PatriotToursNYC
My Patreon: / danielsteiner
Resources: www.notion.so/danielsimsstein...

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Go to ground.news/danielsteiner to develop a well-rounded worldview. Subscribe through my link for 40% off unlimited access this month.

[@siwi666]

wow, you are amazing and super detailed. Love it!

[@JK-ok7lm]

I like how you source your information and conduct interviews with experts. It's really refreshing. You should do other cities like Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, SF, LA, and Seattle. :) edit: removed duplicate Seattle and put SF

[@dlazo32696]

Agreed! Do Los Angeles next.

[@meganb1725]

No, please just do NYC forever!!!! Lolll

[@qman66]

No do Anchorage first

[@ImAnEmergency]

Seattle twice?

[@JK-ok7lm]

@@ImAnEmergency ugh im dumb.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Yup, the northernmost part of Manhattan has quite the terrain, which is why the deepest stations on the NYC Subway are in northern Manhattan! 190th Street station on the IND Eighth Ave Line, which lies under Fort Tyron Park, is 140 feet/43 m below street level (it's also a short walk to The Cloisters)! THE deepest station on the NYC Subway system is 191st Street on the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line at 173 feet/53 m below street level! It was built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and opened in January 1911 as an infill station along the city's first subway line. So people could use the station because of the topography, they chose to build a pedestrian tunnel to save people a walk of a quarter to one-third of a mile and a steep climb. The tunnel is used as a connector between western and eastern Washington Heights. Passengers using the 191st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue entrance need to take an elevator to access the station due to that intersection's height, but the elevators at that entrance are outside fare control, so it's considered a convenient way to traverse the neighborhood without walking up a hill! This tunnel was shown in the In the Heights movie! When you mentioned at the end that they widened and straightened the waterway for ships (the Harlem Ship Canal), you didn't mention this led to the geographic oddity that Marble Hill is still considered a part of the borough of Manhattan and New York County despite it now being attached to The Bronx! Because of the canal, Marble Hill became an island in 1895, but then the river on the north side of the island was fully diverted to the canal with landfill, thus connecting the island to The Bronx! The name of Marble Hill was conceived when Darius C. Crosby came up with the name in 1891 from the deposits of dolomite marble underlying it known as Inwood marble. The marble was quarried for the federal buildings in Lower Manhattan when NYC was the national capital in the 1780s. Despite being part of Manhattan, Marble Hill has a Bronx ZIP code and uses Bronx area codes (though they did fight to retain Manhattan's 212 but it would've been too expensive).

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

For that surviving section of Bloomingdale Road that you mentioned, part of that is Hamilton Place, which was originally the address of Alexander Hamilton's house, The Grange. In late 1798, Hamilton wrote to his wife Eliza that he was planning a project in NYC, the details of which he was keeping secret. During the Quasi-War of 1798-1800, Hamilton served as Inspector General of the United States Army, and so he could not devote time to his project. He wrote a letter to the merchant Ebenezer Stevens in October 1799, offering to buy a parcel adjoining Stevens's land from Jacob Schieffelin. Hamilton had wanted the plot west of the Bloomingdale Road, but Schieffelin would only sell the plot to the east of the road. Hamilton bought the eastern site in August 1800 for a plot of 15 acres, and he commissioned leading NY architect John McComb Jr, who also designed the iconic Montauk Point Lighthouse, Castle Clinton, Old Queens at Rutgers, and New York City Hall, to design a country home on the estate. The house was completed in 1802, just two years before Hamilton's death. Originally located near present-day 143rd Street, the house was moved in 1889 to 287 Convent Avenue before being relocated again in 2008 to St. Nicholas Park. Speaking of the Manhattan trolleys you showed at 10:35, it used to have some San Francisco-style operations! Duffy's Hill located on Lexington Ave between 102nd and 103rd Streets, has a grade of 12.6 percent and was named for Michael James Duffy, a Tammany Hall Alderman who built 26 rowhouses there! It was the home of many cable car accidents because the cars had to quickly accelerate and decelerate at this point. The corporation that ran the cable cars had a 24-hour guard stationed at the base of the hill by 1937 to watch over incidents! In Brooklyn, trolleys were once such a part of the Brooklyn scene that the local baseball club was named the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, after the people who had to dodge the trolleys to make it to the baseball park, which was then shortened to the Brooklyn Dodgers! Brooklyn once having a streetcar system is even referenced in Pokémon Black/White in Nacrene City!

[@munchkin8019]

Amazing information Mr President (please don't execute me 🙏😭)

[@user-pw9td8fb6b]

@@munchkin8019 RIP Munchkin8019.

[@lucasgonzalez7087]

throughout the video I kept thinking about what it must have looked like in Assassins Creed 3 only for you to end it with that clip lmao

[@adurpandya2742]

I used that game to plan a tour of Boston. Fascinating recreations.

[@highbell5172]

I live in Irvington, about 25 miles North of the city, and I always think it's fascinating that the same Broadway continues through my town and beyond. There's even a mile marker in a stone wall along the street that marks 25 (or maybe 26 i forget) miles from the city. It really shows how important it is to the city's development and the suburbs north.

[@sevomat]

New York is actually turning 400 just this month or next - right around now. Not much of a party is being thrown but there it is 🫤

[@bpdbhp1632]

if it still belonged to the dutch there would 100% be a citywide party.

[@marquisgrissom9129]

There's a party everyday on Dyckman , just like he intended to be

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

That old tower on the right by the bridge at 16:33 is the High Bridge Water Tower, which was authorized by the State Legislature in 1863, was designed by John B. Jervis, the engineer who supervised the building of the High Bridge Aqueduct. The bridge next door is the oldest bridge in NYC as it opened as part of the Old Croton Aqueduct in 1848. Both the bridge and the water tower were part of the first reliable and plentiful water supply system in New York City. Water was pumped up 100 feet (30 m) to a 7-acre reservoir next to the tower (now the site of a play center and public pool built in 1934-1936) which then provided water to be lifted to the tower's 47,000 US gallons tank. This high service improved the water system's gravity pressure, necessary because of the increased use of flush toilets. The Old Croton Aqueduct was the first of its kind ever constructed in the United States. The innovative system used a classic gravity feed, dropping 13 inches (330 mm) per mile, and running 41 miles (66 km) into New York City through an enclosed masonry structure crossing ridges, valleys, and rivers! The reason they chose to build an ambitious system is because as the City was devastated by cholera in 1832 and the Great Fire in 1835, the inadequacy of the water system of wells-and-cisterns became apparent, and after they found the Croton River in northern Westchester County was a great source, they wanted to build the delivery system! Today, with three major water systems (Croton, Catskill, and Delaware) stretching up to 125 miles (201 km) away from the city, its water supply system is one of the most extensive municipal water systems in the world! The system's Delaware Aqueduct is the world's longest tunnel as it is 137,000 m or over 85 miles in length!

[@ScotchBeard78]

Love your videos. Straight-forward, full of information, and well edited. You're always a must-click.

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

🙏🏻🙏🏻 thank you sm

[@Doufu]

Clicked so fast

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

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[@Doufu]

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[@daymoncleveland0622]

@@MiggerPleaseDamn, you got the whole squad laughin’ 😐

[@CentaurusRelax314]

I lived in Manhattan for 21 years, until 2012. Really wish I had this kind of fascinating information. As much as I love the city and cherish my time there, I know I would have appreciated it all just a bit more with this kind of historical foundation. Thank you.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

That Collect Pond you mentioned is why Canal Street is called such! Collect Pond was the main water supply system for the first two centuries of European settlement in Manhattan, but it became polluted because in the 18th century, everyone was doing their business there, as well as run-off from all the tanneries and a slaughterhouse that were built by the pond. Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who is of course famous for planning Washington, DC, proposed cleaning the pond and making it a centerpiece of a recreational park, but this plan was rejected and instead they drained and filled in the pond by digging a canal to the north to encourage the water to drain into the river and with soil partially obtained from leveling the hills of Bayard's Mount and Kalck Hoek. Thus as you mentioned, leading to Canal Street, Five Points, and Chinatown. Today in the area there is a Collect Pond Park though to honor the history, which reopened in May 2014 with a pool evocative of the former Collect Pond. Besides the Boston Post Road, there's also the Albany Post Road! In 1669, the then British New York provincial government designated a postal route between NYC and Albany, and it was little more than a narrow path in many places as it followed Wiccoppe and Wappinger tribal trails. Originally stagecoaches headed north started from Cortlandt Street, but this was later moved up to Broadway and 21st Street. In 1703, the legislative body provided for the postal road to be a public and common general highway along the same route, starting in Kingsbridge in The Bronx and ending at a ferry landing in what's now Rensselaer. As you mentioned here, Broadway goes beyond Manhattan, up to Sleepy Hollow, where the name is dropped and becomes Old Albany Post Road and US 9 for the rest of the way. Colonial roads typically had helpful mile markers to help travelers pinpoint where they were. As taverns developed along the road, the mile markers would help locate them. Mile markers were established along the Albany Post Road in 1753, and continued into Manhattan along the Kingsbridge Road. So that mile marker you were talking about for the Boston Post Road at 212th St, was really for the Albany Post Road

[@themarvelousemafia4457]

How have I seen you comment in so many videos!?

[@LarryMickelson]

You have awakened within me an interest and love for understanding how cities are laid out. I never really cared until stumbling upon your channel. Now I gobble up every video you post! Thanks for the dedication and high quality videos!

[@originstory-earth]

I've never been a fan of city tourism, but this channel is making me appreciate it to a whole new level. Excited for you to teach me about my own city!

[@michaelscottland4239]

I cannot express verbally how much I appreciate this video. You really have no idea how much I appreciate this video.

[@ignaciofernandezdepaz1859]

Love it Dan! Full of details and amazing explanations🙌🏼

[@Jesse-cx4si]

This channel is right up my alley! Gracias!! 🙏🏼

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This has very quickly become my favorite youtube channel

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You produce such high quality videos - this channel is going to grow so fast and I can’t wait to be along for the ride!

[@EnjoyTheSilenc3]

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[@ljtinney]

What a treat to wake up and see you have a new video posted!

[@diphorus9933]

Great video, loved how the information was presented! Cant wait to see more!

[@amproehl]

Great video. I do have 1 comment about lower Broadway. When I was doing research for a map I made of the Five Points, I found several mentions that, in the early colonial days, the main road North was The Bowery. It was the natural path even back into the days of Native American settlements. The reason for this is there was some natural obstruction that made it hard to travel further along what is today Broadway. Early Manhattan was also quite marshy which also affected early routes North. Canal Street was built, in part, to drain The Collect Pond and the marshy areas around it.

[@solconcordia4315]

There are several geological faults right under Manhattan Island. Note the crooked shape of Manhattan Island bending towards the East forming Kips Bay. There's probably a fault running in parallel with Broadway under the waterline in Kips Bay. I used to live on Morningside Heights, close to the precipice overlooking Harlem across Morningside Park. The precipice was probably a geological fault which might have uplifted when the huge weight of the glacier up the Hudson River in the Hudson Valley lifted due to melting. The faults tend to run parallel to Broadway because Broadway itself might have been developed in its bent fashion due to its having been an easier way going north avoiding the uplifted natural obstruction in its way. Major earthquakes activating these faults right under Manhattan Island can be devastating. Of course, Manhattan schist (consisting of quartz, feldspar, and mica) forming Manhattan's bedrock is very strong so the buildings anchored firmly in the bedrock should be fairly safe. Central Park has bedrock outcroppings which show embedded mica. Teardrop Park in Battery Park City has a gigantic wall/mound/gateway built out of the excavated bedrock.

[@solconcordia4315]

One can also see Manhattan schist exposed at the precipice in Morningside Park. The fault runs alongside Morningside Drive. West 125th Street also has a fault. A potential alternate explanation for the formation of the faults may be a tremendous amount of glacial ice weighing on and depressing the area which is now Long Island Sound.

[@MyBelch]

Fantastic. Bravo. Well done. Interesting, informative and visually comprehensive. I grew up across the GW Bridge in NJ, but spent much of my youth in Manhattan. Great info. Headed straight over to Tokyo's Map, where I lived for 15 years later in life.

[@amoghgaruda]

Incredible video. This channel deserves way more subs, I fully expected to see a figure in the millions after watching this high quality content! One day soon. Great research and work

[@jamiebray8532]

Man I love topics like this. I would love to see some topics like this on Savannah GA. This was a fantastic video, & I learned so much from it. You're doing great work, keep'em coming please sir.

[@jamesmcalester3794]

I love your channel!!! Keep up the great work

[@buff25]

Amazing vid. As a New Yorker myself, I love learning about the city this way... These vids are great.

[@zebesttfd]

This is a long shot, but your video on Tokyo gave me some hope. Istanbul is a very interesting city with it's roads and bridges, especially around the Golden Horn.

[@Tacojohns123]

Love these videos, keep up the great work

[@meverlo]

Exceptionally presented and so well produced in a way that current documentaries so many utube attempts obviously lack.

[@mraunglinaung]

This is so detailed work. Bravo !

[@ShaheenGhiassy]

Really well done! I liked that it included original research and not just regurgitating other KZbin information

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Love city tourism

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Just found your channel and subbed. Your videos are top notch! Keep up the good work. I'm so surprised your sub count isn't over a million. It will be soon. Cheers

[@daleunroe6074]

spontaneously I went to NYC to ride in the 5 boroughs ride - I had no knowledge of the city but after biking throughout it for days my mind was stirred with curiosity - thanks for helping give some context and background to some of what I experienced

[@patricioc6883]

Great video! Glad this came up on my feed.

[@seanfk]

Yes! Ive not watched yet but so excited. Loved your videos recently and i also love NYC history so this is going to be fun!

[@ericmohler5609]

Incredible work. Thank you!! 🙏

[@meganerd64]

This is another amazing video. I have really been enjoying this series. This is bona fide research being done

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

This is so kind! Thank you 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@milancorleone01]

Just got back from a trip to NYC and I was geeking out over the measuring post found in Central park, and also the fact that broadway technically continues till Sleepy Hollow up north! Wish i have known about the broken fences in city hall park, would have been a nice addition to the “me geeking out and my wife being bored” events of the trip XDD

[@davidjaslow6458]

Excellent Video on the History of Broadway.

[@PatrickNelsonMusic]

Bravo. Keep ‘em coming. 👍🏼

[@FlyFishingProf]

Excellent work Daniel.

[@JaeBrazen]

Next : Flatbush Avenue.. 😁

[@nateferguson4612]

Thank YOU so much for this great video. So much to learn about the roads we walk.

[@kieron26]

Another NYC video and I’m soooooo here for it. Officially obsessed. 🎉

[@davidjaslow6458]

Excellent video on the history of Broadway.

[@JohnHoranzy]

Wonderful presentation. Thank you.

[@hectorchapelier5677]

Thanks for this video it's always a pleasure to listen to your explanations ! Merci

[@VoidVerification]

Recently stumbled upon your channel and I am impressed at the great amount of research you do. Makes these videos very information-dense and interesting! A real standout among all these other lazy channels with crappy scripts and stock footage montages.

[@ReallyNoAlex]

Here before a million views. These vids are super engaging, you're doing a great job man

[@MonchitoPutito]

great content!!! thanks for your work

[@MerelyanIdea]

The visuals are stellar!

[@CarlosCandidoMusic]

Just found your channel and insta-subbed. Great video. Fantastic job!

[@tinapears]

Love it! Can't wait till the next one

[@jphelios8761]

Love your videos! You should make ones on London and LA!

[@BlueSaphire70]

Your maps and animations are excellent!

[@lowenization]

I love this city so much, always great to learn more about it

[@ZacCrosby]

Such a fantastic look. I love the on the street stuff you do.

[@alexarobinson2850]

I am OBSESSED with these videos. I wish you did less well known cities too. Like Hartford, Springfield, MA, etc. I am so curious about these cities and what happened to them that went so wrong.

[@ericcriteser4001]

Great presentation. Thanks for sharing.

[@Fiqure242]

Great work instant subscribe. Love your down to earth attitude. No ring that bell BS.

[@CrazyPufferfish]

love your videos. super informative and also entertaining.

[@EdTheFed77]

This was really interesting. Nice job.

[@Tulpen23]

Love this kind of video - new subscriber!

[@DanielGarcia1980]

Great work! Very resourceful! I'd love to see you do a video on Colfax Ave. here in Denver CO. 🙂

[@century21edge]

I love your videos! Some of my favorites on KZbin!

[@wildepete1]

Excellent video. I sense there is still more here you could do a whole documentary about this one road!

[@94Jusu]

Your videos are super! 👌 So nicely edited and well scripted. And the facts you tell and dig for us are something that can’t be found on most KZbin videos (or almost any videos!) in today’s world. As a European I cant wait for you to research some of our age old cities but I understand they are a big task for anyone 😅 Great work! 👏

[@BradleyJH]

New sub here. Wow. I just binged all your vids. Including Antarctica vlog. Can’t wait for more. This vid was my fav

[@JaspreetSingh-wm3rz]

Interesting. Wow. You definitely nailed it dude!! Thanks for the video. -YYZ-

[@stevensalazar2713]

Loved it !!! Needed this

[@jinbe892]

Woah i was visiting NYC about 3 weeks ago, and had this exact question. You read my mind

[@hiyahandsome]

I learn so much from your videos, thank you!

[@jyk000]

Picked up Broadway: A history of NYC in 13 miles at the Strand along with City on a Grid after your last NYC video!

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Haha no way! That worked out perfectly then

[@joycemichelin250]

LOVED this. Subscribed. THX

[@tomo9126]

8:33 Yes! That fence is my favorite spot in the city. I'm so glad you mentioned the fence posts. It incredible that they clearly exist out in public after almost 250 years, When I'm in that area I look for tourists and point it out to them.

[@geeksdo1tbetter]

7:20 That jump cut to muskets after the ad!

[@alexandermarquardt597]

You are doing great work, keep it up.

[@DanielsimsSteiner]

Thank you! That means a lot 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@muerto8281]

Your videos remind me a lot of Johnny Harris i was surprised to see how few subscribers you had! youtube just recommended me and i'm a fan now.

[@Scxoop123]

Love the content Daniel. Do a video on Florida's Old Dixie Highway

[@lanster77schannel]

wonderful as always

[@FrizzelFry]

I really enjoyed this video - thak you

[@pmtcommenter393]

I love your channel. You should make another video about the city of Boston

[@derekdurst9984]

Well done! I've subscribed!

[@elementarystudios7821]

Video idea, you don’t need to do it. SF and the greater Bay Area. The story has to be cool especially with BART

[@anandvalavalkar3138]

SF would be great! Especially because of the highway that used to go directly through downtown.

[@carloscepeda-diaz9722]

stellar research, new sub

[@Ethan54136]

The first ever hydro-electric system was set up in Appleton, WI. For a brief period in history, a year or two at most, more buildings and homes were lit up by electricity in Appleton than any other place in the world. I love imagining this relatively small city being a beacon of the future during this time, even brighter than great New York City.

[@kennethmooreiii5509]

I would love to see more videos on NYC! Maybe even a series on each road?

[@marfand7379]

I'm from near London and visited NY for the first time two weeks ago. I couldn't work out why this road cut across a perfect grid system. Now I know. Thanks for the video. Loved New York by the way.

[@bestboy1986]

You couldn’t work out how perfect grid systems aren’t actually perfect without this vid? Wow.

[@1stephanie8994]

I love all these map videos. It would be to consider Seattle for a future one!

[@charlie10010]

Awesome video bro.

[@angeltonyburgos3543]

Love to hear history of my hometown 👌🏽you did mail it.

[@rickygclef1611]

Fantastic content that stirs the imagination and has detailed historical information. One has to surmise that the blueprint for Broadway was laid out from an original Lenape path . Like most roads in the region and throughout the US thoroughfares laid out by colonists were based upon existing Native American travel routes . It was convenient and they were practical routes to traverse the region for commerce

[@rehanpoonawalla7406]

One of my favorite creators

[@dewaynejeter4728]

This was dope!😎

[@OmarAlohaDude]

Very nicely done.

[@MemeSupreme69]

Oh my god, THAT'S why it's called Wall Street.

[@purnasaimadala]

fun fact, you can still see the old wooden posts in the ground there, especially in front of the stock exchange

[@landocalrisian2014]

Fascinating!!