Manhattan’s Grid: The Past

The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, a new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, answers many questions about the grid, while showing how difficult it was to impose it upon an island replete with farmland, hilly and rocky terrain, and resistant residents.
Manhattan’s Grid: The Past
Randel Farm Map no. 55, vol. 1, p. 16, showing 101st to 109th Street, from Third Avenue to the East River, July 21, 1820. Used with permission of the City of New York and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President
Zachary Stieber
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Andrew Haswell Green is responsible for Broadway’s irregular route and the grid’s condition above 155 Street. He designed “a grand thoroughfare,” known as The Boulevard, from 59th Street to 155th Street, complete with a central landscaped pedestrian walkway, to stymie grumblings that the city’s roads were inferior to Europe’s. 

Broadway originally ran until 10th Street before merging with Bloomingdale Avenue, which ended at 23rd Street. Pieces of other roads were linked to the road in the middle of the 19th century, including The Boulevard.

Green sought to preserve parts of Northern Manhattan, forming Inwood Hill Park, among others, and wanted to work with the topography, which is why above 155 Street the grid’s condition becomes suspect.

More behind-the-grid history, including the story behind why Lexington Avenue and Madison Avenue interrupt numbered avenues, can be seen through April 15 at the Museum of the City of New York.

Zachary Stieber
Zachary Stieber
Senior Reporter
Zachary Stieber is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in Maryland. He covers U.S. and world news. Contact Zachary at [email protected]
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