Why NYC Has a Perfect Design (well almost)

New York City has an incredibly well laid out grid pattern for most of Manhattan. There's just one problem with this specific grid..

Follow me on my other socials:
TikTok: @uncovering_yt
Facebook: Uncovering Yt
Instagram: @uncovering__yt
Twitter: @uncovering_yt

Subscribe

[Chris-]

Why is NYC rent 2000$ if the island is worth 24$ 😭😭😭

[MIent]

How history gets described is brutal. "Yeah nobody was living in this area except for this one village of people so we burned it down. And that's how they started building the New York we know and love today."

Can we go back a step?

[mickanvonfootscraymarket]

3:09 They left the group assignment to the last minute haha

[MrEraHV]

A hidden advantage of a non-grid system in a city is that it is less predictable, so an invader would have a harder time going to the streets, slowing them down, and favoring a victory in the defending side.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

The street you highlighted as Canal Street on the map of New Amsterdam isn't what's now Canal Street! That street in New Amsterdam was called Het Cingel (or The Belt) and today, Het Cingel is Wall Street! Wall Street is called such because of that big wall you see on the New Amsterdam map. The original wall was constructed under orders from Director General of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant, at the start of the first Anglo-Dutch war soon after New Amsterdam was incorporated in 1653 because they feared an over land invasion by English troops (at that time, Manhattan was easily accessible by land was this was before the Harlem Ship Canal was dug). This barrier existed until 1699 as by that time, the city grew beyond the wall.

And while Canal Street is named after a canal, it wasn't because of a canal the Dutch built! The area was once home to Collect Pond, one of the city's few sources of freshwater. It became polluted because of everyone doing their business there, as well as run-off from tanneries. So it was drained via a canal in 1811 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. Then many Chinese migrants moved into the area around Five Points starting in the 1870s, eventually leading to the formation of Chinatown (and Asian immigration increased drastically after 1965).

[MrRezRising]

'They didn't think anyone would want to live above 155th street...'
Me, sitting on my couch watching this video on 204th street: Cool.

[joshuajustfine]

Not to be that person but I think it's something interesting to think about... the way you proposed central Park is that it was basically un used space when in reality it was really the only place post slavery Africans settled and it was becoming a booming and thriving community when the powers that be literally burned it down. Just a different way of looking at things I guess

[iicfxev]

264 ft x 20 blocks = 5, 280 ft = 1 mile

[Truckphucker]

$24 in the 1600s is about $2000 now. You couldnt even get 1 month of rent in a 200sqft studio in New York with that money

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Broadway actually goes further than Manhattan! Broadway was originally the Wickquasgeck trail, carved into the brush of Manhattan by Native Americans. This trail originally snaked through swamps and rocks along the length of Manhattan. In 1669, the then provincial government of New York designated a postal route between New York City and Albany. It was little more than a narrow path in many places, following old trails used by the Wiccoppe and Wappinger tribes. 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, The Bronx and ending at a ferry landing in present-day Rensselaer. Today, it's called Broadway between Manhattan all the way to Sleepy Hollow, but the name is dropped passed Sleepy Hollow. The post road now forms part of US Route 9 up to the Canadian border at Champlain!

Ellis Island is interesting as it is divided between NY and NJ! Basically the original boundary of the island is NY's, but the rest of it is New Jersey. In 1834, the Supreme Court ruled the boundary between NY and NJ as in the middle of the Hudson River and harbor, and stated the island was NY's, but the submerged land around it was NJ's. However, NJ was mad as NY was guaranteed "exclusive jurisdiction of and over all the waters of Hudson River", and it was between 1890 and 1934 that Ellis Island was expanded, so New Jersey kept on fighting for decades. While New Jersey argued that the landfill came from New Jersey, New York argued that it was material excavated from the first line of the NYC Subway. As neither state could prove where the landfill came from, the Supreme Court ruled in 1998 what was basically stated in 1834, that the original island boundary was NY's, but the new land around it was NJ's.

[SneakyStone]

dude your compression on your mic is too much, gives u a headache if u got headphones

[cardonbmusic]

They bought the island for $24, meanwhile my generation couldn't even buy a house if they had $2 Trillion

[BK_]

We’re extremely lucky the grid was laid out about 100 years prior to Robert Moses powerful urban development influence

[G]

Americans when city doesnt look the same every corner

[delareiflaventitus]

If you guys think buying whole of Manhattan for $24 is crazy, remember that they crammed the designed of a whole Island for only a month out of 4 years.

[plagosus]

A tip for buliging in the grid. You are supposed to bild around, not to fill the block. Keep the inside of the block quiet and green for the citizens. Which sounds lile a good idea until you want to pack all those people inside.

[watermelonman]

I would love to hear about a similar situation in Los Angeles. Especially in downtown, inland empire, and southern orange county!

[dergintas]

bigger bloks may cause traffic, but also reduce the amount of space reserved for cars, so building more roads/smaller blocks would have encouraraget even more cars and slowed down the building of metro/ public transport. Does anyone know why they dont use big trash containers? in Most of europe there are even underground containers with small seeming trashcans on the top, for conveniernt replacement by truck.

[gangstanongrata]

As a disabled New Yorker, I actually like the grid system, as it makes transportation via bus very simple and easy.

[homeslice]

The problem with Manhattan’s grid system is the execution of those who built on it. The long blocks allowed for more buildings and fewer roads, causing a higher population density. So the long blocks are probably a big contributor to why New York is the most populous city in America