Question 1: I’ve noticed that on the roofs of a lot of buildings in New York, there’s something that looks like a tank. It’s a big cylindar with a little conical hat. What’s it for? I assume it holds water. Is it a fire prevention thing? I don’t think I’ve ever seen those in any other city.
Question 2: There’s a street in Manhattan called West 38th Street. Similarly, there’s a West 42nd Street, West 55th Street, and West 88th Street. I’m going to go ahead and presume that there is an East 38th Street. Where do it and West 38th Street meet?
Fifth Avenue. East of Fifth Avenue, it’s East 38th Street, and west of Fifth Avenue, it’s West 38th Street. That’s true from the start of Fifth Avenue all the way uptown (although Fifth Avenue is also the eastern border of Central Park).
Broadly speaking, streets are referred to as East St. when east of Fifth Ave./Central Park, and West Street when west of there. Above 132nd St., the East St. is mostly in the Bronx, and from 140th St. up, it’s all technically W. St. in Manhattan, but nobody really bothers with the East/West designation in Manhattan from that point up anymore.
In addition, you can figure out any particular address on the cross streets in New York by their relationship to Fifth Avenue. There are 100 numbers between each Avenue (except Madison, Park, and Lexington, where there are 50). Thus 233 W 38th Street would be near 7th Avenue (Fifth Avenue + 2.33 blocks).
I’ve always loved the logical way Manhattan (above 14th Street) is laid out.
City water provides enough pressure for about five stories. Any building taller than that will need a tank on the roof. The tank is filled with a pump and provides pressure to the whole building. These aren’t unique to New York; any city with a lot of tall buildings will have them.
There are tables giving the cross street for north/south avenues also, though it is not so clean as east-west streets. It was very valuable when I worked as a messenger one summer long before faxes and the internet.
Street Locator Algorithm This isn’t the nice one that everyone has in their wallets, but it shows the complexity well.
“To locate avenue addresses, take the address, drop the last figure, divide by 2, add or subtract the number indicated below. The answer is the nearest numbered cross street.”
My first solo taxi ride was to E. 41st Street–my dad had put me in the cab from lower Manhattan and given me 5 bucks and given the cabbie the destination. I was about totally panicked when the meter read 4 bucks and the street signs were all reading "“W. 38th Street,” “W. 39th Street” as we drove north on Sixth Avenue–I was almost out of money and the cabbie was on the wrong side of town!!!
But as soon he crossed Fifth Avenue, everything worked out OK.
And below (south of) Fifth Avenue, which begins at Washington Square Park, the dividing line is Broadway, although you’ll soon get to the part of Manhattan where the streets have names rather than numbers.
Those fuckers get all the attention.
