Michael Hoffman wrote in message news:Pine.WNT.4.58.0408092016540.480@ZVAVZBB...
On Mon, 9 Aug 2004, Tom Anderson wrote:
Stupid question here, but did New York's streets have proper names before
they had numbers?
Before 1898, New York was just Manhattan and The Bronx. Downtown Manhattan
streets have non-numeric names and are slightly more disorderly than those
midtown and uptown, which were parceled out by the Commisioners' Plan of
1811:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commiss...7_Plan_of_1811
See also:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/nyc1811.htm
Note that the Commissioners' Plan wasn't put into effect in all its
details. Notable alterations include Broadway, Madison Av, Lexington
Av, and Central Park.
Brooklyn still has non-numeric names.
And also various numeric ones. Within close proximity, you will find W
5th St, E 5th St, Brighton 5th St, and (a bit further away) 5th St.
Then try to explain to someone that as you walk east along 20th St, it
suddenly becomes E 3rd St.
Another random bit of street-name trivia is that each of the five
boroughs has a street named Broadway (four of which have a Subway line
under/over at least part of them).
Queens is a mess.
Very true. It's amazing how they can call six different streets 71st
Av. It comes as some relief when there are patches where they just
give up and use the names.
If so, why were numbers considered better? Did this happen to other US
cities, too?
It works both ways. Park Av, Manhattan, used to be called 4th Av. Some
politico tried to rename 6th Av to Avenue of the Americas, then
wondered why it didn't quite catch on.
Numbers are great in Manhattan, where the street-grid is pretty
regular. They just about work in the parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn
which use them (although you can find silly examples in both - like
the Bronx way of making 210=240).
Queens should give up. Anyway, I like names like Bliss St.
Later
they renamed two of the numbered streets after minority activists and seem
to be thinking about more.
This is a great disease in America. In Brooklyn, previously
recognisable streetnames like Sumner Av and Reid Av have morphed into
Marcus Garvey Blvd and Malcolm X Blvd respectively (the latter is said
"eks" rather than "the tenth"!!!). At least when they try and pull off
things like Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd in Manhattan, they get
everyone firmly saying 125th St.