Providence, December 19, 2012
Hard to believe that only a couple
hundred years ago New York was little more than a settlement at the southern tip of
Manhattan. Even more unbelievable, that around that time, someone--John Randel Jr., a
surveyor working for the "Commissioners of Streets and Avenues in the City
of New York"--sat down and drew a grid that was going to define New York
City centuries into the future.
Yes, just like that. What is known as "The Commissioner's Plan of
1811" laid out a rectangular grid with twelve wide avenues about a thousand feet
apart running roughly north south, and 155 narrower streets 260 feet apart from
Houston Street all the way up to Washington Heights. The grid was more or less aligned with the shore of the Hudson River
(about 29 degrees from east-west) and whatever avenues east of 1st were necessary
to cover unaccounted portions of the island were named with letters.
The map showed little concern for either existing property lines or topography, prompting a contemporary critic to say refer to the Commissioners as "... men who would have cut down the seven hills of Rome." Still, their grid turned proved not only enormously successful but also full of opportunities for adjustments and reinterpretations (just think of the vertical dimension!)
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