MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 03242cam a2200409 i 4500
001 2015020980
003 DLC
005 20151110081114.0
008 150727s2015 mauaf b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2015020980
020 $a9780306822841 (hbk. : alkaline paper)
020 $z9780306822858 (e-book)
040 $aDLC$beng$cDLC$erda$dDLC
042 $apcc
043 $an-us-ny
050 00 $aHT168.N5$bK64 2015
082 00 $a307.1/216097471$223
084 $aHIS036080$aHIS036040$aARC010000$2bisacsh
100 1 $aKoeppel, Gerard T.,$d1957-
245 10 $aCity on a grid :$bhow New York became New York /$cGerard Koeppel.
264 1 $aBoston, MA :$bDa Capo Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group,$c[2015]
300 $axxiv, 296 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates :$billustratons ;$c25 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 263-275) and index.
520 2 $a"City on a Grid tells--for the first time--the fascinating story of the creation and long life of New York City's distinctive street grid: its many streets crossed at right angles by a few parallel avenues laid upon a rural Manhattan two centuries ago. The grid made New York what it is today, and defined the urbanism of a rising nation. When it was first conceived at the start of the nineteenth century, the grid was intended to bring order to the chaos of 'Old New York'--the quaint, low-scale, but notoriously dirty and disorderly place of jumbled colonial streets that had sprouted from the southern tip of the island from its earliest days. Turning the swamps and hills of Manhattan into the city we know today was a project on the scale of building the Erie or Panama Canals or the Transcontinental Railway. Like those epics, it is a story filled with larger-than-life characters. And the hundreds of rectangular lots and buildings the grid inevitably produced gave a sense of stability and rational purpose for a young city evolving into greatness. Now, then, is the time to tell the grid's story: the events that led to it, how the commissioners and their surveyor came up with their plan, and how the lengthening life of the city has been utterly shaped by it. Whether one loves or hates New York's grid, little has been written to explain how it came to be, who did it and why, and what it has meant for New York and the cities and nation that have looked to New York as the model for American urban life. Until now"--$cProvided by publisher.
650 0 $aCity planning$zNew York (State)$zNew York$xHistory.
650 0 $aStreets$zNew York (State)$zNew York$xHistory.
650 0 $aGrids (Crisscross patterns)$zNew York (State)$zNew York$xHistory.
650 0 $aCity and town life$zNew York (State)$zNew York$xHistory.
650 0 $aSocial change$zNew York (State)$zNew York$xHistory.
651 0 $aManhattan (New York, N.Y.)$xHistory.
651 0 $aNew York (N.Y.)$xHistory.
650 7 $aHISTORY / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA).$2bisacsh
650 7 $aHISTORY / United States / 19th Century.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aARCHITECTURE / Urban & Land Use Planning.$2bisacsh