Avenues of Manhattan

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲𝘀 

 The Commissioners Grid Plan of 1811 called for 12 avenues running north-south, and 214 numbered streets running east-west. The City's growth and development since 1811 has given Manhattan 42 actual avenues with 61 names, and 220 east-west streets. 

Image: The Commissioners Map of the City of New York, 1807. Redrawn by James S. Kemp, 1893.

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 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗔, 0.6 mile. It runs from Houston Street to 14th Street, where it continues into a loop road in Stuyvesant Town, connecting to Avenue B. Below Houston Street, Avenue A continues as 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘅 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁. 

𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗕, 0.6 mile. It runs from Houston Street to 14th Street, where it continues into a loop road in Stuyvesant Town, connecting with Avenue A. Below Houston Street, Avenue B continues as Clinton Street to South Street. 

𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗖, 1.1 mile. It is also known as 𝗟𝗼𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱𝗮 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲. It starts at South Street, proceeding north as Montgomery Street and Pitt Street, before intersecting East Houston Street and assuming its proper name. Avenue C ends at 23rd Street, running nearly underneath the FDR Drive from 18th Street. 

𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗗, 0.9 mile. It runs through East 13th and Houston Streets, and continues south of Houston Street as Columbia Street until Delancey Street and Abraham E. Kazan Street until its end at Grand Street. 

𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 0.6 mile, the avenue furthest East on Manhattan, parallel with FDR Drive. 

𝗬𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 𝗦𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲, and 𝗦𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 *, 2.0 miles, are the names of segments of a north–south thoroughfare in the Yorkville, Lenox Hill, and Sutton Place neighborhoods of the East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. York Avenue runs from 59th to 92nd Streets through eastern Lenox Hill and Yorkville on the Upper East Side. Sutton Place and Sutton Place South run through their namesake neighborhood along the East River and south of the Queensboro Bridge. Sutton Place South runs from 57th to 53rd Streets. 

* Unlike the rest of the avenues in Manhattan, address numbers along Sutton Place South increase when headed south. 

𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 runs 6.3 miles northbound from Houston Street to 127th Street in Harlem. 

𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 flows 6.4 miles southbound to Houston Street from Harlem River Drive at 128th Street at its northern end. 

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 is 10.7 miles from its southern end at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square, and further south, the Bowery, Chatham Square, and Park Row. The Manhattan length ends at East 128th Street. The street leaves Manhattan and continues into the Bronx across the Harlem River over the Third Avenue Bridge north of East 129th Street to East Fordham Road at Fordham Center, where it intersects with U.S. 1. 

𝗟𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along its 5.5-mile, 110-block route, Lexington Avenue runs through Harlem, Carnegie Hill, the Upper East Side, Midtown, and Murray Hill to a point of origin that is centered on Gramercy Park. South of Gramercy Park, the axis continues as 

𝗜𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 from 20th Street to East 14th Street. Namesake: Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. 

𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 runs northwest from Cooper Square (approximately East 8th Street) to Union Square (approximately East 14th Street) where it becomes 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵. Then it runs north to East 32nd Street where it becomes 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, the whole is 10.9 miles. 

𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 is 6.0 miles and runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Street, passing through Midtown, the Upper East Side (including Carnegie Hill), East Harlem, and Harlem. Namesake: James Madison (1751–1836), forth U.S. President. 

𝗙𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 is 6.197 miles and it carries southbound traffic between 143rd Street at Harlem River Drive to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan into east and west, with all crosstown addresses marked #1 east & #1 west beginning at Fifth. It marks Central Park's eastern boundary. 

𝗦𝗶𝘅𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 (𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘀) runs north 3.7 miles from Franklin / Church Streets in Tribeca to Central Park South at 59th St. 

𝗟𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘅 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 1.9 miles, also named 𝗠𝗮𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗺 𝗫 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗱; both names are officially recognized–is the primary north-south route through Harlem in the upper portion of Manhattan. This two-way street runs from Farmers' Gate at Central Park North (110th Street) to 147th Street. It is Sixth Ave. continued. 

𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘄𝗮𝘆 begins at State Street near Bowling Green in lower Manhattan and goes on for 13.8 miles within Manhattan, and continues in the Bronx for another 2.5 miles, and an additional 18 miles through the municipalities of Yonkers, Hastings-On-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, and Tarrytown, and terminating north of Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, for a total of 33 miles. Broadway expands to four lanes at the trumpet intersection with NY 117, where it finally ends and U.S. 9 becomes Albany Post Road (and Highland Avenue) at the northern border of Sleepy Hollow, New York. 

𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 co-named 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 in the Garment District and known as 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗺 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘆𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗝𝗿. 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗱 north of Central Park. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park. It runs 5.3 miles between Varick / Clarkson Streets in the West Village to W.59th, and 2.3 miles between 110th Street and 155th Street at Harlem River Drive. 

𝗘𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 7.8 miles. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, though today the name changes twice: At 59th Street/Columbus Circle, it becomes 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁, where it forms the western boundary of Central Park, and north of 110th Street/Frederick Douglass Circle, it is known as 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗱 before merging onto Harlem River Drive north of 155th Street. 

𝗡𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 is 5.7 miles and known as 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗯𝘂𝘀 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 between West 59th and 110th Streets. Traffic runs downtown (southbound) along the full stretch from Chelsea to the Upper West Side, except for the lowermost three blocks (from Gansevoort Street to 14th Street) where traffic runs northbound carrying traffic from Greenwich Street. 

𝗧𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 is 10.5 miles and known as 𝗔𝗺𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗺 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 (1890) between 59th Street and 193rd Street. It carries uptown (northbound) traffic as far as West 110th Street (also known as Cathedral Parkway), after which it continues as a two-way street. The total runs between West Street (south) and Fort George Avenue (north). 

𝗘𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 6.1 miles. It originates in the Meatpacking District in the Greenwich Village and West Village neighborhoods at Gansevoort Street, where Eleventh Avenue, Tenth Avenue, and West Street intersect. It is considered part of the West Side Highway between 22nd and Gansevoort Streets. Between 59th and 107th Streets, the avenue is known as West End Avenue. Both 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 and Eleventh Avenue are considered to be part of the same road. 

 𝗧𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗳𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 12 miles, named 𝗥𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗗𝗿. above 59th St., and 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝘁. below Gansevoort St. It runs down the west side of Manhattan along the Hudson. It starts around 181st St., just north of the George Washington Bridge in Washington Heights and ends at Battery Park in lower Manhattan. 

𝗥𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗱, 0.7 mile, between 59th & 72nd Sts. 

𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗪𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 2.2 miles, is a major north-south street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. It runs from Fort Tryon Park to 159th Street, where it intersects with Broadway. It goes past Bennett Park, the highest natural point in Manhattan. 

𝗦𝘁. 𝗡𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘀 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 4.5 miles, is a major street that runs obliquely north-south through several blocks between 111th and 193rd Streets. The intersection of St. Nicholas with Broadway at 167th Street forms Mitchell Square Park. Below 169th Street, St. Nicholas Avenue cuts at a diagonal to much of the Manhattan street grid, crossing Amsterdam Avenue at 162nd Street and continuing against the grain to West 148th Street. Below 148th, St. Nicholas returns to a rough alignment with the grid, with Convent Avenue one block west and Edgecombe Avenue to the east, down to 124th Street. Below 124th, St. Nicholas Avenue takes a sharp diagonal, crossing Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 121st Street, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 116th Street, ending at Lenox Avenue, just north of Central Park. 

𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 0.2 mile, is a north-south street in the East Harlem neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It begins at E. 114th Street and ends at E. 120th Street. The street was the northernmost section of Avenue A, which stretched from Alphabet City northward, and was added to the grid wherever space allowed between First Avenue and the East River. This stretch was renamed "Pleasant Avenue" in 1879. Unlike York Avenue, however, the addresses on Pleasant Avenue are not continuous with that on Avenue A (which would be in the 2000-series if they were continuous). 

𝗘𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗲 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 1.1 miles, co-named 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗱, goes north from W.135th St. to 155th St. & Harlem River Drive. 

𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 1.3 miles, is a street in the Manhattan Valley neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, extending from 100th Street to 124th Street. 

𝟲½ 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 is a north-south pedestrian passageway in Midtown Manhattan, running from West 51st to West 57th Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. 

𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 0.5 mile, is a north-south stretch in Battery Park that loops on itself at the south end, beginning and ending at Liberty St. 13th Avenue: NYC’s Shortest Avenue https://www.citysignal.com/nyc-shortest-avenue/ The following avenues are all in the Heights and Inwood in Upper Manhattan: 

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 1.3 miles, between 127th and 152nd Streets. 

𝗖𝗮𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗱, 1.3 miles, spans the Manhattan neighborhood of Hudson Heights, running from West 177th Street in the south, near the George Washington Bridge, to Fort Tryon Park in the north. 

𝗡𝗮𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 0.4 mile, runs from Dyckman Street to West 206th Street.

𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 0.9 mile, runs from Riverside Drive to West 218th St.

𝗔𝘂𝗱𝘂𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 1.4 miles, is an avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood in Upper Manhattan that runs north-south, west of and parallel to Amsterdam Avenue. Its southern terminus is at West 165th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, and its northern terminus is at Fort George Avenue, just north of West 193rd Street.

𝗪𝗮𝗱𝘀𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 1.2 miles, runs from W.173rd to St. Nicholas Ave.

𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆𝗲𝗮 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 0.5 mile, runs from Dyckman St. to W.211th St.

𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 0.7 miles, runs from Ellwood St. to Tenth Avenue.

𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗚𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 3.4 miles, connects St. Nicholas Ave. to Amsterdam Ave.

𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 1.1 mile, runs from 141st. to 155th St.

𝗣𝗮𝘆𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 Riverside Drive to Seaman Avenue.

𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 Dyckman Street to Tenth Avenue.

𝗛𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲, 0.4 mile, Broadway to Nagle Avenue. 

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Avenues & Boulevards run perpendicular to Streets. In NYC crosstown streets are 60 feet wide while avenues and boulevards average 100 feet wide with a few exceptions. A boulevard is a wide street or avenue with a median through the middle: examples are Park Avenue and upper Broadway in Manhattan, Grand Concourse in thr Bronx. In general, one long block between the avenues equals three short blocks, but the distance varies, with some avenues as far apart as 920 feet. John Tauranac, in the “Manhattan Block by Block” street atlas, gives the average distance between avenues as 750 feet, or about seven avenues to a mile. All east-west streets are 60 feet wide, except the following, which are 100 feet: 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th, 72nd, 79th, 86th, 96th, 106th, 116th, 125th, 135th, 145th, 155th, 165th, 175th, 195th, 205th, 215th 110th St., west of 8th Avenue, 80 feet. 122nd street, west of 9th Avenue, 80 feet. 127th, west of 11th Avenue, 100 feet. 185th St. is 80 feet. 

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𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗕𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 (points where Broadway crosses another avenue): 

Broadway & Fifth Ave. @ 24th St. 

Broadway & Sixth Ave. @ 33rd St. 

Broadway & Seventh Ave. @ 43rd St. 

Broadway & Eighth Ave. / Central Park West @ 59th St. 

 Broadway & Columbus Ave. @ 65th St. Broadway & Amsterdam Ave. @ 71st 

(Broadway becomes a boulevard @ 73rd to 169th St.) 

Broadway & 125th St. 

Broadway & St. Nicholas Ave. @ 169th St. 

Throughout the Manhattan grid there are 51 squares (15 plazas) and 4 circles: Columbus Circle, Frederick Douglass Circle, Duke Ellington Memorial Circle, Grand Army Plaza Circle (this Plaza is adjacent to the main entrance to Central Park).

𝗛𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗮𝗺𝘂𝘀 & 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗶𝗱

 𝗛𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗮𝗺𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘂𝘀 (/hɪˈpɒdəməs/; Greek: Ἱππόδαμος ὁ Μιλήσιος, Hippodamos ho Milesios; c.480–408 BC) was a pioneer of urban planning, who devised an ideal city to be inhabited by 10,000 men (free male citizens), while the overall population (including women, children, and slaves) would reach 50,000. He studied the functional problems of cities and linked them to the state administration system.

𝗛𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗮𝗺𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘂𝘀 & 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗿𝗶𝗱
Aristotle praised Hippodamus for his attention to the urban environment of an ideal city-state. Aristotle went so far as to say that Hippodamus "invented the art of planning cities."
Hippodamus had his hand in building ancient Miletus and Piraeus — two port cities specially designed around rectangular grids. Grids weren't the norm. And this led early scholars to conclude that Hippodamus earned his reputation as inventor of city planning by devising street grids. Manhattan's layout is a modern example of what urban planners call the Hippodamian plan.
But Hippodamus didn't just lay out perpendicular lines in the sand. Evidence of geometric road networks predates his efforts by at least a century. Hippodamus went further. He envisioned the city as more than a place to live and work. He viewed it as something "democratic, dignified, and graceful." And his designs reflected this philosophy without losing site of practicality.
This was Hippodamus greatest achievement: recognizing that urban planning was about more than engineering a functional city. It was about creating an environment that expressed and nurtured the ideals of its citizens.
– engines.egr.uh.edu

 Stand Clear of the Closing Doors

Gnir Rednow - Joseph Cornell (1955) 

Cornell commissioned Stan Brakhage to shoot the El before its demolition, then inverted the footage to form Gnir Rednow.

3rd Ave. El (1955)

3RD AVE. EL

Robert Fleury / Joseph Tul / Osmond Beckwith / Tom Carroll / Ann Kaufman
Haydyn’s Concerto in D for Harpsichord played by Wanda Landowska 
Produced and Directed by Carson Davidson
Bob Larkin appears but is not credited. The film includes sounds of the trains and the city, but much of the soundtrack features Joseph Haydn’s “Harpsichord Concerto in D Major.” This is performed by Wanda Landowska, the celebrated Polish-born harpsichordist who played a pivotal role in reviving the popularity of the instrument.
Carson Davidson’s film was not the only professional documentary of the Third Avenue El during its last days of operation. However, it did earn recognition that the others did not. Although perhaps not well remembered today, “ 3rd AVE. EL” received an Academy Award nomination for best one-reel short subject film in 1955.

In the Street
Cinematography: Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee
Edited by Helen Levitt / Music by Arthur Kleiner

In the Street was shot in Manhattan's Spanish Harlem and originally entitled I Hate 110th Street. This initial title was taken from an image of a sidewalk chalk graffiti that opened an early version of the film. Edited by photographer Helen Levitt, the film was shot in 1945 and 1946 by Levitt in collaboration with painter/photographer Janice Loeb and writer James Agee. The film was released in 1948 and again in 1952.

"It was a very good neighborhood for taking pictures in those days because that was before television and there was a lot happening, and the older people would sometimes be sitting out on the stoops because of the heat. They didn't have air conditioning in those days.[...] So those neighborhoods were very active." 

-Helen Levitt

Here's an interview recorded with Helen Levitt by Melissa Block of NPR (2009)

Panoramas and Pedestrians

Everyday I see the city from at least two or three vantage points most natives and visitors never get to experience. Between those points I walk and ride the same paths millions take and which I've taken a thousand times. One hour I'm 18 stories above the FDR Drive and the next hour I'm 32 stories above lower midtown. I see buildings torn down and lots built up, their property lines divided from neighbor’s next street over by greasy alleys and historic brownstones, refurbished tenements and converted factories. The cohesive distant city takes on a makeshift patchwork quality up close. The doorman hailed a taxi for the stuffy dowager, her fur collared coat indistinguishable from two of the dog walkers many charges. She lifted her leg as she entered the cab. I waited a moment while the man with the shopping cart fished deposits out of the waste basket. I tossed my empty coffee cup in at the buzzer and headed for the subway.

Brooklyn Bridge & Lower Manhattan

 

The financial district. The cradle of NYC in lower Manhattan.

 

Angouleme, New Netherland, New Amsterdam, New Orange, and forever New York.

Mose in Metropolis or Superman on the Bowery

METROPOLIS

Middle English metropol, from Late Latin metropolis,
mother-city, from Greek: meter, metr-, mother, see meter- in Indo-European roots + polis, city

The word metropolis has a history that begins with Greece and Rome, indicating a large city. It took a space craft from another solar system to crash on earth to make ‘metropolis’ a name associated more closely with New York than with any other city on the planet. Superman, “who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper,” did as much to further the iconography of midtown Manhattan as the skyline itself. Unlike the Gothic aesthetic of Batman’s dark Gotham City (his bat signal only works in the cloudy night sky), Superman’s Metropolis is a modern city of steel and glass skyscrapers reflecting sunlight. Even the ‘Daily Planet’ news building looks like a trophy of accomplishment with its iconic silver globe gleaming from the roof. The connections to Manhattan at its best are unmistakable. But the deeper connection to New York is one that is virtually unrecognized and quite surprising. The character of Superman specifically as a superhero in New York City may have roots that reach back to 1848.

Bowery B’hoy as Superman

Mose(s) Humphrey* was a resident of New York during the 1830s. Like many young men of the period he was a volunteer firefighter, a member of ‘Lady Washington’ Engine Company 40. He was a printer by trade who worked for the New York Sun and a parishioner of St. Andrew’s Church. He was also a ‘Bowery Boy’ of local fame and renown. As the story goes Mose was a brawler with a formidable talent for never losing. As would have been said at the time, ‘the b’hoy’s got some sand in ‘em.’ According to the legend Mose met his match in 1838 at the fists of Henry Chanfrau from ‘Peterson’ Engine Company No. 15. In the shame of his defeat Mose left New York, moving to any number of places depending on which account one reads. Henry’s younger brother, Frank, never forgot Mose. This is where the history ends.

Here is where the legend begins. Frank Chanfrau became an actor. In February of 1848 he appeared as the lead in a play written by Benjamin A. Baker, A Glance at New York in 1848, the vehicle which introduced ‘Mose the Fire Laddie.’ It opened at William Mitchell's Olympic Theatre on Broadway between Howard and Grand Streets on Feb. 15^th 1848. This play was the first time a working class audience was represented on stage in any significant way. Bowery b’hoys, Centre Market b’hoys, Chatham b’hoys and others who patronized the Olympic recognized themselves in Mose.

Baker and Chanfrau, who were initially apprehensive about displeasing the audience of ‘toughs’ with a send up, found themselves surrounded by ovations at the end. Word on the street and positive reviews later in the press helped to create a huge theatrical success and the beginning of a New York legend.

One month later on March 15^th further scenes and characters were added, resulting in a then record run of 74 performances. During one later period of the plays popularity, Chanfrau played Mose at the Olympic in A Glance, ended the performance and headed over to the Chatham Theatre where he played in its sequel, New York As It Is, which was then followed by a third 'Mose' performance in Newark, N.J. requiring a ferry trip and a nine mile horse and buggy ride.

It is estimated that between April 15, 1848 and July 6, 1850, Chanfrau appeared at least three hundred and eighty-five times in seven different Mose plays. In all of the plays and later in the penny novels, Mose was always presented as an unbeatable hero, turning the tables on local ‘sharpers’ trying to take advantage of innocent victims (usually 'rubes' visiting the city), running into burning buildings and saving babies, looking for gangs and rowdies to ‘kick up a muss’ with ("I'm bilein' over for a rousin' good fight..."). Besides his passion for fighting fires and trouble makers he also made time for his 'g'hal' Lize, treating her to carriage rides along de Bowery or a 'gala night' to a "first rate shin-dig" at Vauxhall Garden.

As the years passed his legend grew into myth. The following account is an excerpt from the book ‘The Gangs of New York’ by Herbert Asbury. It is perhaps the first time in popular urban culture that a character performs feats of strength and prowess that could be termed ‘super.’

Excerpt from ‘The Gangs of New York’ (pp. 30-34)

   But the greatest of the Bowery Boys, and the most imposing figure in all the history of the New York gangs, was a leader who flourished in the forties, and captained the gangsters in the most important of their punitive and marauding expeditions into the Five Points. His identity remains unknown, and there is excellent reason to believe that he may be a myth, but vasty tales of his prowess and of his valor in the fights against the Dead Rabbits and the Plug Uglies have come down through the years, gaining incident and momentum as they came. Under the simple sobriquet of Mose he had become a legendary figure of truly heroic proportions, at once the Samson, the Achilles, and the Paul Bunyan of the Bowery. And beside him, in the lore of the street, marches the diminutive figure of his faithful friend and counselor, by name Syksey, who is said to have coined the phrase “hold de butt,” an impressive plea for the remains of a dead cigar.

   The present generation of Bowery riffraff knows little or nothing of the mighty Mose, and only the older men who plod that now dreary and dismal relict of a great street have heard the name. But in the days before the Civil War, when the bowery was in its heyday and the Bowery Boy was the strutting peacock of gangland, songs were sung in honor of his great deeds, and the gangsters surged into battle shouting his name and imploring his spirit to join them and lend power to their arms. He was scarcely cold in his grave before Chanfrau had immortalized him by writing Mose, The Bowery B’hoy, which was first performed before a clamorous audience at the Olympic Theater in 1849, the year of the Astor Place riot.

   Mose was at least eight feet tall and broad in proportion, and his colossal bulk was crowned by shock of ginger-colored hair, on which he wore a beaver hat measuring more than two feet from crown to brim. His hands were as large as the hams from a Virginia hog, and on those rare moments when he was in repose they dangled below his knees; it was Syksey’s habit to boast pridefully that his chieftain could stand erect and scratch his kneecap. The feet of the great captain were so large that the ordinary boot of commerce would not fit his big toe; he wore specially constructed footgear, the soles of which were copper plates studded with nails an inch long. Woe and desolation came upon the gangs of the Five Points when the great Mose leaped into their midst and began to kick and stamp; they fled in despair and hid themselves in the innermost depths of the rookeries of Paradise Square.

   The strength of the gigantic Mose was as the strength of ten men. Other Bowery Boys went into battle carrying brickbats and the ordinary stave of the time, but Mose, when accoutered for the fray, bore in one hand a great paving stone and in the other a hickory or oak wagon tongue. This was his bludgeon, and when it was lost in the heat of battle he simply uprooted an iron lamp-post and laid about him with great zeal. Instead of the knife affected by his followers, he pinned his faith on a butcher’s cleaver. Once when the dead rabbits overwhelmed his gang and rushed ferociously up the Bowery to wreck the Boys’ headquarters, the great Mose wrenched a tree out of the earth, and holding it by the upper branches, employed it as a flail, smiting the Dead Rabbits even as Samson smote the Philistines. The Five Points thugs broke and fled before him, but he pursued them into their lairs around Paradise Square and wrecked two tenements before his rage cooled. Again, he stood his ground before a hundred of the best brawlers of the Points, ripping huge paving blocks from the street and sidewalk and hurling them into the midst of his enemies, inflicting frightful losses.

   In his lighter moments it was the custom of this great god of the gangs to lift a horse car off the tracks and carry it a few blocks on his shoulders, laughing uproariously at the bumping the passengers received when he set it down. And so gusty was his laugh that the car trembled on its wheels, the tree swayed as though in a storm and the Bowery was filled with a rushing roar like the thunder of Niagara. Sometimes Mose unhitched the horses and himself pulled the street car the length of the Bowery at a bewildering speed; once, if the legend is to be credited, he lifted a car above his head at Chatham Square and carried it, with the horses dangling from the traces, on the palm of his hand as far as Astor Place. Again, when a sailing ship was becalmed in the East river and drifting dangerously near the treacherous rocks of Hell Gate, Mose pulled out in a rowboat, lighted his cigar, which was more than two feet long, and sent such mighty billows of smoke against the sails that the ship was saved, and plunged down the river as though driven by a hurricane. So terrific was the force of Mose’s puff, indeed, that the vessel was into the Harbor and beyond Staten Island before it would respond to the helm. Occasionally Mose amused himself by taking up a position in the center of the river and permitting no ship to pass; as fast as they appeared he blew them back. But Mose was always very much at home in the water; he often dived off at the Battery and came up on the Staten Island beach, a distance which is now traversed by ferry boats in twenty-five minutes. He could swim the Hudson River with two mighty strokes, and required but six for a complete circuit of Manhattan Island. But when he wanted to cross the East River to Brooklyn he scorned to swim the half mile or so; he simply jumped.

   When Mose quenched his thirst a drayload of beer was ordered from the brewery, and during the hot summer months he went about with a great fifty gallon keg of ale dangling from his belt in lieu of a canteen. When he dined in state the butchers of the Center and Fly markets were busy for days in advance of the great event, slicing hogs and cattle and preparing the enormous roasts which the giant needs must consume to regain his strength; and his consumption of bread was so great that a report that Mose was hungry caused a flurry in the flour market. Four quarts of oysters were but an appetizer, and soup and coffee were served to him by the barrel. For dessert and light snacks he was very fond of fruit. Historians affirm that the cherry trees of Cherry Hill and the mulberry trees of Mulberry Bend vanished because of the building up of the city, but the legend of the Bowery has it that Mose tore them up by the roots and ate the fruit; he was hungry and in no mood to wait until the cherries and mulberries could be picked.

Superman as Bowery B'hoy

Herbert Asbury, by all accounts, was a sensationalist writer. It is fitting that his translation of the myth should be the definitive modern version. All of the basic elements for a super hero are present, ripping trees and lamp posts out of the ground bare handed, moving ships in the water with the power of his lungs, picking up carriages full of passengers with horses dangling, single handed no less, and running them uptown, able to leap across the east river to Brooklyn ‘in a single bound,’ and perhaps most importantly, running into burning buildings and saving innocents, all are strikingly close to the talents of a certain caped hero of almost a century later.

The book ‘Gangs of New York’ made its first published appearance in 1928. Whether Siegel or Shuster,  Superman's creators, knew the tale or not, (both were in their teens when the book came out), it’s interesting to consider that the story was still hanging around in the minds and probably on the lips of the older generations. There’s a slight possibility that the Mose myth was one of the seeds for Superman. Mose the person was said to work as a printer for the New York Sun and Clark Kent was a reporter for the Daily Planet. The odds are pretty good for a direct connection. While I’m objective enough to know this all may be pure unadulterated coincidence, I’m absolutely certain of one thing. There is no other place on the planet that could have been a better back drop for either of these two heroes.

“Yessiree, I'm man and no mistake. One of de b'hoys at dat!" - Mose

Notes:
*A Mose Humphrey is listed in the city directories between 1827 and 1842 as a morocco worker, living on Mulberry Street. For the legend see Fred Mathers, My Angling Friends (New York, 1901), 58, which has Chanfrau spending "weeks" studying Humphrey, However, Baker always insisted Mose was based on a type, not a particular individual, see his interview in the Clipper, 6 April 1878.
The background of A Glance at New York is well described in Peter Gordon Buckley, "To the Opera House: Culture and Society in New York City, 1820-1860," (diss., SUNY at Stony Brook, 1984) 388-399. The best primary source on the creation of the play is the Clipper, 6 April 1878.

Sources:

- The Gangs of New  York - Herbert Asbury / 1927 Thunder’s Mouth Press 1998

- Mose the Far-Famed and World-Renowned - Richard M.Dorson / American Literature, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Nov. 1943)