Prior to reading
Gerard Koeppel’s City on a Grid I
read an earlier book called The Greatest
Grid, which includes photographs of Manhattan when it was just farmland. While
the earlier book is strictly visual, City
on a Grid dives into the scientific origins of America’s gridded cities.
Koeppel gives a more historical bend on the grid, which originated in Europe.
It was a circular form that would begin with a fort on a hill (typical of
Europe) and the town would be settled around it in a circular formation. The
difference, according to the author, is that European cities were rarely
confined to an island like Manhattan. I don’t necessarily agree with this,
because Venice is an island and the streets are somewhat gridded, though the
alleys are hard to navigate. However, compared to Manhattan, Venice is a labyrinth.
The Paris of today has its origins in urban planning, when Baron Haussmann
bulldozed through the Victor Hugo Paris of alleys and warrens in favor of
spacious boulevards. The older streets, left untouched, still follow the old
pattern.
The first chapters
of the book discuss political wrangling and finance problems, because in the
early days of the nation, Congress had less authority to tax the people, so it
was harder to get Federal money for anything. As for the city, the streets of
downtown Manhattan used the old English survey, which what they still
follow. Try navigating below City Hall
Park and you’ll find yourself in a rabbit warren. Koeppel also goes into the
origin of the names, such as Delancey, a pro-Loyalist banker who had his lands
confiscated, and the Bowery, originally Pete Stuyvesant’s “boerie,” or farm.
Canal Street wasn’t really a canal, as the name suggests, but a drainage ditch
for the polluted Collect Pond. If you’re interested in how the streets got
their names, there are many websites devoted to city street necropsy.
Much of the city’s
grid had to do with the need for housing. Tall buildings were unpopular in the
days before elevators, and it was the gradual development of steel girders,
heavy equipment, and elevator safety brakes that made the skyscrapers possible.
These building projects would not have been possible if they weren’t on a grid.
Like I said before, finance was a big part of it, because businessmen needed
the large buildings. Neither the wealthy nor the poor wanted smelly ponds and
canals, so there was both financial and political incentive to fill them in. Yet
in the end, the biggest obstacle is always where to get the money. At no time
in history did the Americans ever like taxes.
