WEBVTT - Selects: The Manhattan Grid 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:01.800 Hi, everybody. 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.200 It is on our COVID timeline June eighteenth, twenty twenty, 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:08.920 and I am here to introduce the episode on the 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:12.119 Manhattan Grid. I loved, loved this episode, I think, as 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:16.079 most people know by now, I in particular, am pretty 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.280 obsessed with not just New York, like I love New 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.279 York as a town, but the inner workings of New 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.600 York and the garbage collection and the mail delivery and 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.639 building that city up from the ground up, which is 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:30.880 what this episode relates to, is how they laid out 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.360 that Manhattan grid. And here's one thing I remember from it, 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.480 and here's a fun tip if you're traveling to New York. 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:41.120 They use spikes in the ground, I think iron spikes 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:43.920 to map out that grid, and you'll learn that in 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.560 this episode to follow. You know, so they knew where 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.159 the streets and the street corners would meet up in 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:54.840 that big rectangle, and to this day you can still 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.800 find some of those. The only place I know about them, 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.640 I'm not sure if they're on the streets anymore at all. 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:02.920 It seems highly unlikely, but I know you can find 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:04.679 them for a fact in Central Park here and there 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.600 in the rocks, those big giant boulders there because I 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:09.600 learned about these and when I was in New York 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.200 sometime between June eighteenth, twenty twenty when we released this and 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:14.720 now I can't remember. 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:15.959 I feel like it's a few years ago. 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:18.360 I saw one of those spikes, and I think I 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.360 talked about that on a later episode, but it thrilled 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:22.960 me to no end, and I geeked out and told 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:25.360 everybody I was with what that was and what it represented, 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.440 and it was a real thrill for me. No lie, 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.440 just a spike in the rock. Thought it was super cool. 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:39.560 So check this episode out on the Manhattan Grid. Welcome 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:48.040 to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.560 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.600 there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and this is Stuff you 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:59.720 Should Know another in our Endless Annals of New York 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:00.559 City edition. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:01.800 That's right. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:07.000 This is a pretty interesting episode, I think, And my 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:11.280 favorite part about it this was Dave ruse Are, one 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:12.639 of our writers, helped put this together. 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.720 And Dave is clearly annoyed. 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.680 Yeah about this whole thing, and I think it's hysterical 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:25.000 how many times he gets annoyed by the laziness of 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:26.200 the commission. 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.200 I have to say I agreed with Dave too. I 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.520 was annoyed by it as well. I think, Yeah, it's 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.639 always annoying when you see somebody like have a great 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.880 opportunity and just pee it away, you know what I mean. 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.480 Yeah, And we should also point out Dave got a 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:44.040 lot of his information from a really wonderful book called 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:48.359 City on a Grid colon How New York Became New 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.800 York by Gerald Keppel. 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.200 Not Gerald McCraney. Different Jerald, right, or is it Copple? 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:56.960 I think it's Kepel. 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.880 If it's Koe That's what I was going with, was Keppel. 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:01.680 Yeah, I'm going to get this book though. 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.280 This is right at Malley because you know, I'm obsessed 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.000 with the history and the sort of formation of New 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:08.280 York City as we know it today. 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.640 Yeah, where'd you get the idea for this episode? 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:18.040 Just my constant desire to learn about Mannahatta and how 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.480 that became eventually Manhattan. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.760 That we know and love. Okay, I'm just fascinated by it. 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:24.079 I love it. I love everything about it. 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:26.640 This is definitely a big chapter because what we're talking 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.120 about is the plan called the Commissioner's plan of eighteen 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:34.400 eleven that basically laid out Manhattan as we know and 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:38.360 understand and love it today. Everything north of Houston Street, 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:39.240 I should say. 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:44.280 Yeah, And here's sort of a quick primer is Manhattan 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:49.720 above Houston is almost a perfect grid. Broadway kind of 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.640 screws everything up, but you know, great street, but it's 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:55.360 just broadways. 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.320 Like I'm not following any rules, so I'm going to 0:03:57.360 --> 0:03:58.080 confuse people. 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.280 But aside from that, it's pretty very much a grid 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:06.160 of eleven numbered avenues that run north to south generally speaking. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.280 Then you've got Lexington Park and Madison Avenues and then 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:15.040 two hundred and this was at the time numbered streets 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.320 running roughly east to west. And if you want to 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:23.760 get a little more granular than that, the southernmost street 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.880 in the East Villages East first, as you would imagine, 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.440 the northernmost is two hundred and twentieth Street as we 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.599 live in Breed today, and Enwood, well. 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:38.520 That's on the island technically in Manhattan. If you're talking 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.760 about the borough, it goes up to two hundred and 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:43.200 twenty seventh I. 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.640 Believe, right, And if you want to go through the Bronx, 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.400 you go all the way up to sixty three. 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.680 Man, that's crazy. You've got so many streets. 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:54.679 That's so many streets. 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.280 You've got it, two hundred and sixty three streets. 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.560 You've got an east and west signify, which says, and 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.080 this is sort of a dummies guy to getting around 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.960 New York for the first time. Too, if you broke 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.080 your smartphone, and you also don't want to walk around 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:10.440 just staring at your smartphone. 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.200 The whole time, No, you're going to miss a lot. 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.320 Yeah, So try and get a little intuitive feel, because 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:16.280 it's really easy to get around if you know this stuff. 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.280 East and west will signify whether you're in east or 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:21.400 west of Fifth Avenue. 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:23.760 And then. 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:29.920 Here's a little trick too. Odd number street streets run west, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.600 even numbers streets run east. So if you come out 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:38.560 of a subway and you and you know which way north, south, east, 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.000 and west are, then you will never do the thing 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.640 that I always do and walk in the wrong direction 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:45.359 trying to go up or down. 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.120 Yeah, because that's the thing, like, if you know what 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.560 direction you're facing, and you know where you're trying to 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:53.960 go and where you are right now, you can basically 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:58.480 make make your way anywhere in Manhattan above Houston Street. 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:01.520 Yeah, and if you're like me and you have no 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.560 idea ever what's north, south, east and west? And you know, 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:07.880 I had an easy time in LA because La has 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.880 the sun, well they have, they have that, but they 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:16.279 also have geographical landmarks that make it super easy to 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.400 tell which way north and like the Hollywood Sign and 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:21.000 the hills and stuff like that. 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.799 Is that real? Is the Hollywood Sign real? 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:24.720 What do you mean? 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:25.440 Is it real? 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:27.440 Okay? 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:30.760 So that makes a lot easier In New York when 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:32.320 I come out there are all those big tall buildings. 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.640 I never know. I can never come out and say like, well, 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:35.200 that's north. 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.200 But if you know that stuff and you know that 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.640 the even numbered streets run east the odd ones run west, 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.599 then you can You won't walk in the wrong direction 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:48.320 for a block and then get there like I do 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:49.920 and go, oh, we should have gone the other way. 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.680 Yeah, because depending on what direction you're walking, if you're 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.280 walking north or south, going the wrong direction in a 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:57.760 block isn't that bad. But if you're going east or west, 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:02.040 it's real bad. We are very long blocks going east 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.400 to west. And that's all part of that Commissioner's plan 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.000 that was laid out in eighteen eleven. And on the 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.920 one hand, you know, we've kind of hit upon the 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.800 pros and the cons of it. That it's easy to 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.720 get around, which is really saying something because New York 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:18.760 is absolutely huge. But you could make it from one 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:22.840 end to the other without a map, just knowing that 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.120 it's on a grid and how the grid's laid out, 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:29.440 even roughly. But the problem is is it's on a grid, 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.960 and a grid is one of the least organic shapes around. 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.720 And because this grid stretches over almost all of Manhattan, 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:41.280 most of Manhattan, for sure, it's viewed by a lot 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:45.119 of people as kind of soulless and canyon esque because 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:49.240 you're just totally surrounded almost constantly by big, imposing buildings, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.080 all at these right angles, which it feels like a 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.720 very built environment. And until Central Park came along, which 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.760 we did an episode on in what the eighteen fifties 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.000 or sixties, Yeah, like that was it. 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.960 That was New York. There was nothing but that built environment. 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:07.920 I got a few more of my things, Oh, okay, 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:12.080 let's have them. But Manhattan's about thirteen and a half 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.360 miles long. And then so this grid makes sense. But 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:17.560 then once you get north of fifty ninth Street, you 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.440 start to get like Atlanta does, and a road will 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.920 just change names out of nowhere. Atlanta's very famous for that, 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:25.200 and people get very confused here. 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.119 Hey, it's very confusing also because the road will will 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.880 change names, but one of the names, Peachtree, will still 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.600 be there, but it's a totally different street, right, and 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:35.960 it does not help things. 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:36.800 That's right. 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.760 So north of fifty ninth, avenues on the west side 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.760 change names, but avenues on the east side do not. 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.120 So eighth becomes Central Park, west ninth becomes Columbus Avenue, 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.400 tenth becomes Amsterdam Avenue, and eleventh becomes West End Avenue. 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:54.920 What about Avenue of the Americas? 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.400 Well, that's six right or is that seventh? 0:08:58.240 --> 0:08:58.440 Oh? 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:00.880 Man, I thought I think it sixth. I think it's 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.600 might understanding. But that's really not a name change. That's 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.680 just that's something that tourists call it, right. 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:09.400 I remember you making fun of me when I call 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:10.960 it that? Did I really? Yeah? 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:11.920 That sounds about right. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:13.280 It was really jarring. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:18.800 And then to get people really confused between third and 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:23.680 fifth Avenue, there are three avenues instead of what you 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.840 would think would be one because Lexington Park and Madison 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:31.000 fall between those. Yeah, and then south of twenty third 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:35.040 you've got your lettered avenues ABC and D, which is 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:35.800 alphabet city. 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:38.640 So you wouldn't need to ever pull out a map. 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:40.679 You just have to stand in the middle of New 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:42.920 York and listen to the first like ten minutes of 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:44.720 this episode, and you'll find your way. 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:46.000 No problem. 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.760 All right, should we get into this? He said, people 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.800 don't like the grid. There are a lot of people. 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.120 I mean, what did Walt Whitman call it. 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:58.760 Ikey? I think no, I think he. 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.840 Said he called it one perpetual dead flat. 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.439 Yeah, and streets cutting each other at right angles are 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.440 certainly the last things in the world consistent with beauty 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:09.200 of situation. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:13.000 How about this one from Edith Wharton Rectangular New York. 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:17.720 This cramped horizontal gridiron of a town without towers, porticos, fountains, 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:23.040 or perspectives, hide bound in its deadly uniformity of mean ugliness. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:25.319 Yeah, I like hide bound. That's great. 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:26.160 That's a great word. 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:31.320 And mean ugliness definitely captures like a certain sense of 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:36.240 New York, depending on your mood or mindset, you know. Yeah, 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:40.120 there's one a guy named Peter Markhuse who's an architecture critic. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:41.880 He said that the grid layout. 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.760 Of Manhattan was one of the worst city plans of 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.360 any major city in the developed countries of the world. 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.600 Right, but some people love it. Some people said it 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:54.480 was pragmatic. Some people said it really accommodated for the 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.360 one thing it needed to accommodate for, which was massive growth. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:57.960 Right. 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:04.040 Let me see here an architect named Raphael Vinoli, who's 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.960 I think a modern architect. Not modern, I just mean 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.920 current architect, right, but he may do modern. 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:10.120 Work, it knows. 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:16.320 He said the grid is the best manifestation of americangmatism, 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:23.319 pragmatism in the creation of urban form. And then in 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:27.480 nineteen seventy eight, a Dutch architect named Rim Kool has 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:30.360 said that the grid was the most courageous act of 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:32.720 prediction in Western civilization. 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.000 Clearly talking about the growth. 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:40.400 Yes, but courageous act. That's like architect talk right that 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.040 right there. So, but for the most part, from what 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:48.440 I understand, and definitely Dave says the same thing, most 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.200 New Yorkers, especially born and raised New Yorkers, are not 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.160 happy that that's how their city is laid out. That 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:59.560 there's a lot of room for improvement. Yeah, your experience too, sure. 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.439 I mean Central Park is great. But you know, as 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.280 we'll find out, they did not. They didn't didn't really 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.520 plan for green spaces, and New York has done their 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.240 best to kind of carve them out since then. But 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:12.839 you know, let's get into this commission. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:15.199 Well, let's talk about grids first. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.199 Do you want to Yeah, all right, do you want 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.800 to take a break and then talk about the grid story? 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:21.480 Yes? 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:46.120 So New York didn't invent the grid, as much as 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:48.000 they like to boast that they did, they did not. 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.520 In fact, a grid layout of a city goes back 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.960 to that Indus Valley civilization that for some reason keeps 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.599 popping up in the last like year or so. I 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:01.720 guess they're going to make a comeback or something like that, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.040 but they've just been coming out all over the place. 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.040 But one of the what was it, Chuck, was it? 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:09.280 Did they invent the zipper? 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:11.560 I don't think it was a zipper? 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:12.600 What was indigo? 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:14.920 Uh? 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:16.760 There's been a number of them. 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.920 But anyway, about at least five thousand years ago, the 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:24.079 Indus Valley civilization was using the grid layout to create 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:29.000 Mohan Joe Daro, which was a seven and fifty acre 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.520 city on a grid. And then shortly after that the 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.480 Greek said, I really like this. In fact, there's a 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:41.320 Greek thinker and mathematician named Hippodamus who's known as the 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:45.200 father of city planning, and he was bully for grids too. 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.040 Yeah, if you have a grid, that's still they people 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.120 still call that the Hippodamian plan, which is kind of 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.320 great all these years later to still get recognized for 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:54.960 your grid work. 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.880 Yeah, if you're ever talking to somebody and they refer 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:00.839 to a grid as a Hippodamian plan, that person knows 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:01.880 what they're talking. 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.680 About, or listens to this show. It's one in the 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:07.640 same basically. And you were going to say that. 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:12.240 Let me see, the conquistadors of Spain, they kind of 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:16.160 had a habit of coming in conquering and then having 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:20.200 their template in place to create these grids as what 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.840 they call the law of the Indies, and they would 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.680 sort of just come in setup shop. You got a 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.080 town with a big central plaza and then a grid 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.320 surrounding that central plaza. 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:35.280 Right, and they use that for everything from Lima to 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:36.520 Los Angeles. 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.920 And this took me back in my mind to. 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.080 What was the name of that colonial town in Guatemala 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:45.920 that we visited. 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.800 Oh yeah, I know what you mean. 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.240 It was wonderful, driving crazy, It really was wonderful. Is 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:55.400 one of the most beautiful towns I've ever been in. 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.080 But it had like a central plaza with a fountain. 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.400 It was a much smaller town. But now that I 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:03.120 think about, it was laid out on a grid too, 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.080 And it was part of that law of the Indies 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.520 that you were mentioning that it was just like, this 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.640 is how you build a town. And apparently the reason 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:15.720 that they they used that law, like in town after 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.960 town after town that they just basically took over and 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.920 said this is ours now it's Spain's is applying a 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:28.720 grid was kind of a metaphor for applying order and 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:35.720 civilization to a formerly disordered and wild indigenous. 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:36.160 You know town. 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.160 Yeah, which makes sense from a colonizer's perspective, but I'm 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.600 sure it sucked from the indigenous person's perspective. 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:44.560 Like everything else. 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.520 Yeah, that's with this stupid right angle stuff. 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:52.600 So New York City comes along. Philadelphia had been laid 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.800 out in a grid by William Penn very deliberately, though, 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.280 and that grid was kind of roomy and spacious, because 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:06.040 William Penn did not like the congestion of London. But again, 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.560 Philly very much purposeful too. 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.800 Yeah. Boy, DC has has kind of a crazy grid. 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.440 Yeah, but once you understand it, it makes total sense. 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.800 Numbers and letters and directions. Yeah, I always, but it 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:20.720 takes a little more. 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.120 It takes more getting used to than New York too, 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.720 from my experience and what I. 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:26.920 Understand, Yeah, for sure. 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.200 So the Commissioner's Plan of eighteen eleven is really sort 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.760 of the demarcation point between what was first New York, 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.840 New Amsterdam and then what we now know is Manhattan. 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:44.240 Because anyone who's ever seen almost said Games of New York, 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.920 Gangs of New York knows that those were crazy days 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.920 down there in Lower Manhattan and things just sort of 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:56.080 sprouted up organically from the river upward as far as 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:00.000 the layout and the design, And you know, you can 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.520 still feel that when you go down to Lower Manhattan, 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.920 which is why I love the villages. 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:05.160 Now. 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.600 I think it's just I mean, I like the simplicity 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:10.680 of the grid, but I think what I love about 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.240 Lower Manhattan is how organic it feels. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.639 It's a jumble, and I mean it's a jumble for 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:20.440 a reason, because those streets largely follow these original organic 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:25.560 paths that the Dutch settlers and earliest English settlers basically said, oh, 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.119 we need to get from the waterfront up to the 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.640 common lands or whatever. It's because here's a good path. Yeah, 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.520 and this path happens to meander around a salt marsh, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.520 and we avoid having to go up a hill by going. 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:39.080 Around this way. 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.040 So it's kind of like meandering, and it's it's definitely 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.119 locked in time from those streets down there in Lower Manhattan. 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:48.600 I like it too, but it is very easy to 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:52.000 be like, are you sure we're going the right direction? Still, 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.159 it's very easy to get lost in those because it 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:55.240 isn't at all a grid. 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:55.920 Yeah. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.520 I've spent enough time in Lower Manhattan now to where 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.800 I can landmarket. It's just familiar enough to me to 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.080 where I kind of know, like this block in that block, right, 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.080 so I know where I'm going. And you mentioned something important. 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.280 I don't think we've even kind of said that New 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.240 York was not all this just big, one big flat 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.639 slab thirteen miles long that we love today because you 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:21.560 can walk forever without ever getting out of breath, because 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.919 it's not Seattle, right, New York was swamp land and 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.679 it had hills and marshes and creeks and rocks, and 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:31.640 it was you know, it was kind of wild East 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:32.560 Coast territory. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:33.760 Yeah. 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.840 And I mean the reason that those marshes and the 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.800 ponds and hills and stuff aren't there anymore is because 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.359 of this eighteen eleven commissioners Planet basically said tear it 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.400 all down, fill it all in, build this over it. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.479 And they did. That's the most astounding thing is they 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:51.400 did that. 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:53.679 They they you know, as we'll see, they passed a 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.800 law that basically said, we're going to appoint a commission 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.479 of three people. They're going to come up with three people, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:01.919 and whatever they come. 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:03.160 Up with is law. 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.679 It can't be challenged in court, and we're not going 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.680 to back it up and change it in any way. 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.720 And they really didn't. As bad as the plan was 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.000 in almost every way, they really stuck to it. But 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.520 the thing that struck me, I had no idea about 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:24.240 this was that's the eighteen eleven Commissioner's plan was just 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:30.000 a ripoff of another earlier surveying map that basically provided 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.680 the basis of this of the Commissioner's plan, not even 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.320 the basis of it. They were like, oh, we'll take 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.080 this as a starting point. They just said, we'll take this, 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:38.480 print it and put our. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:40.840 Names on it. And that's ultimately what happened. 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:41.920 Yeah. 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:47.199 So, pre Revolutionary War, most of Manhattan was in that 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.680 lower third of the island, and we got into big 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:54.000 time debt because of the Revolutionary War. And so the 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.439 city said in the seventeen eighties, all right, here's what 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.480 we got to do. We own tons of land, publicly land, 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:05.639 and all this marshy, kind of reedy, rocky pondy area. 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.280 It's not developed. Let's sell this stuff off and make 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.800 some dough. It's called the common Lands. And we need 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.359 somebody to get in there and just sort of, you know, 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:18.119 survey this and plot it all out so we know 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:19.679 exactly how to best sell this. 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:23.359 Yeah, so they hired a guy named Casimir Theodore Girk. 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.359 That's how I'm going with this, Girk. Sure it's not 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:31.480 a cucumber, it's a girkin. Do you remember mister cabbagehead 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.200 from Kids in the Hall? Sure, well this had nothing 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.920 to do with that, right, right. So this, this surveyor 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.399 actually went through the common lands. Like, basically, what we 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:50.840 understand is all of Manhattan between Houston and North Harlem. 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.320 He just went across and broke it into five hundred 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.520