Columbus Circle, where Broadway crosses 8th Avenue at 59th Street

 United States > New York > Manhattan Community Board 5

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The upper part of Manhattan was laid out more than a hundred years ago upon the gridiron plan. Avenues run north and south and streets run east and west with mathematical and geometrical precision. Practically the only variation from that scheme - north of the "downtown" section - is Broadway, the old post road to Albany, whose slant the city planners found it impossible to change. Broadway intersects at a sharp angle most of the other thoroughfares, thus affording the only vistas in the entire borough and creating what are known as Union Square, Madison Square, Greeley or Herald Square, and Times Square. The picture above shows Broadway at the left and Central Park west, with the Maine Memorial at the entrance to the park. 1924