Avenues Vs. Streets

Thanks to the Commissioners Plan of 1811, all New York streets above 14th are set up on a grid system, with longer avenues running north/south, and shorter streets running east/west.

What this means is that the city is easily navigable when you are walking around on streets higher than 14th Street. For example, if you are at 18th and 7th and you want to be at 26th and 9th, you need to walk up eight blocks, and over two long avenues. (Just be careful if this is actually where you need to go, because it cuts through the projects, and can be a little dodgy at night.)

Keep in mind that eight blocks are easily walkable, whereas eight avenues are much less so. You can walk from 1st St. to 8th St. in four or five minutes; the trek from First to Eighth Avenue will take about forty-five minutes. Make your transportation arrangements accordingly (Tip: For east-west travel, a cross-town bus is often your best option. Whatever street you want to cross corresponds with that bus—the M14 goes down 14th, the M23 down 23rd, the M8 down 8th to Tompkins Square—great for getting to the Lower East Side.)

Thanks to public outcry by old-timey folks, the city’s builders added in a bit of green in the form of Central Park, but archeologists have located the original iron pegs, still planted in the park’s stone boulders, that demarcate where Sixth Avenue was originally intended to flow.

Another remaining exception to the grid plan is Broadway, an old Lenape Indian trail that starts downtown on the east side between Lafayette St. and 4th Avenue, and cuts diagonally west as it weaves uptown, crossing Amsterdam around W. 79th Street. The history is nifty, but know that where Broadway is when you’re downtown isn’t where it’s going to be when you travel uptown.

Should you venture below 14th Street into old Manhattan, all bets are off. Cobblestone streets come together at strange angles, and the natural (and man-made) topography of lower Manhattan narrows. Did you know? Parts of this Manhattan neighborhood used to not exist, until builders filled in the seaside with dirt and dead horses. Totally not shitting you here, people. Dead horses.

Use caution (and a map) to navigate these areas, and think outside the box: 7th Ave South. is a completely different thoroughfare than 7th Ave., and Greenwich Street is a nice long bit of a hike from Greenwich Avenue. Be sure not to mix the two up when asking for directions from New Yorkers, the friendliest people on earth.