Manhattanhenge takes place today. Here are the best places to watch according to NYC's Parks Department

2024-05-29T17:56:00-04:00

The twice-annual celestial experience known as Manhattanhenge peaks today in the Big Apple, providing residents a chance to gather communally for (another) astrological celebration of civic space and the gridded street planning system — an outgrowth of the city’s rationalized original Commissioner’s Plan of 1811.

According to the NYC Parks Department, the suggested viewing locations are also the grid’s widest east-west corridors (57th, 42nd, 34th, 23rd, and 14th Streets), the Manhattan Tudor City Overpass, and Hunter's Point South Park in Long Island City. Peak time is 8:12 PM EDT. The High Line, Hudson Yards, and other West Side destinations are also popular locations.

The next full-sun Manhattanhenge event will take place Friday, July 12th, at 8:20 PM.

How NYC got its grid and a tiny little mosaic known as the "Triangle of Spite"

2018-07-25T14:15:00-04:00

"Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated For Public Purposes", reads a small mosaic in Manhattan's West Village. A peculiar sight, artist Chaz Hutton recently recounted in a fascinating twitter thread how this small piece of New York Real Estate, also known as the Triangle of Spite, came to be.

In the 19th century, as the city was growing—and expanding with landfill—a commission was put together to create a grid for future development. Called “The 1811 Commissioners plan”, the blueprints drawn up laid the city out into a series of rectangular blocks. As the grid was built out, undergoing alterations such as the addition of Central Park, the Commissioners Plan began running up against the older grids of the city going in different directions. The result was a number of little triangular blocks.

Triangle detail. Courtesy of Atlas Obscura.

On one of these awkward intersections sat the Voorhis building, owned by a man named David Hess. Eventually, when the city decide...

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Manhattanhenge takes place today. Here are the best places to watch according to NYC's Parks Department

How NYC got its grid and a tiny little mosaic known as the "Triangle of Spite"