# A couple of questions about New York **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180 "2010-05-12T15:53:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/21 "2010-05-13T01:31:27Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > **Little Nemo, Reality Chuck** , you and I should team up for a MPSIMS “Ask the Upstate New Yorker” thread. 🙂 Me, too. If Western New York counts. **Elmwood** too. God, I grew up hating New York City. No offense, of course! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Visual\_Purple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@Visual\_Purple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Visual_Purple)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/22 "2010-05-13T01:53:17Z")
Regarding water towers–as others have said, all tall buildings have water tanks. New York, and, to a lesser extent Chicago, have a lot of buildings with wooden towers that are not enclosed. If a building has an apparently decorative peak, that’s usually where the tank is. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/23 "2010-05-13T04:49:35Z")
> [@GilaB](#): > > We take no responsibility for those weirdo streets below 14th. I’m from Boston. The area below 14th is the only part of Manhattan that makes sense to me. Grids just seem so unnatural. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/24 "2010-05-13T05:57:02Z")
> [@](#): > > 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!!! On the other hand, that really would have been a trouble sign in Cleveland, where E. 41 st. is parallel to W. 41 st., 82 blocks apart. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/25 "2010-05-13T12:24:17Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > 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. On Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” show, they did a segment on [Rosenwach Tank Company](http://www.rosenwach.com/), one of the companies that builds rooftop water tanks in NYC. The video of that segment is available on their website, and covers the removal/replacement of an old tank with a brand new one. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/26 "2010-05-13T13:03:38Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > 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. That was pretty much me the other day. I was walking up West 38th Street, looking for 69. I was in the 300s, and wondering how many more hundreds of blocks it would take me to get there. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/27 "2010-05-13T13:32:32Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I was walking up West 38th Street, looking for 69. T.M.I.!! 😃 (Didja find someone who’d do it with ya?) ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/28 "2010-05-13T20:04:13Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > That was pretty much me the other day. I was walking up West 38th Street, looking for 69. I was in the 300s, and wondering how many more hundreds of blocks it would take me to get there. Well there’s your problem right there, you can’t walk up 38th street. ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/29 "2010-05-13T21:18:02Z")
If you have cable, watch out for a rerun of the episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike Rowe assembles one of those wooden water tanks atop a New York City skyscraper. If you’re afraid of heights, I would not recommend this as a career choice. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/30 "2010-05-14T19:11:00Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > 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. Like **tdn** , I found this info new to me. Other essential NYC navigation principles are that (above 14th St.) there are 20 blocks to a mile going n or s (ie, via numbered sts.), and that normal (NY-style, non-sauntering) walking speed is a block a minute. I never get right the number of n-s blocks that the larger ave-to-ave distances comprise. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/31 "2010-05-14T19:18:20Z")
Five avenue blocks to a mile, so one avenue is 1/5 mile. The major middle-of-Manhattan exception is Madison/Park/Lexington Avenues, which are closer together than others, but you can approximate by pretending Park isn’t there, and treating Madison\<-\>Park as one avenue block. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/32 "2010-05-14T21:45:49Z")
Yeah, tourists should be careful when booking a hotel that is 3 blks from the subway. If they are 3 N/S blocks, no big deal. But 3 E/W blocks could be a 10 minute walk! ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/33 "2010-05-14T22:15:02Z")
> [@K364](#): > > Yeah, tourists should be careful when booking a hotel that is 3 blks from the subway. If they are 3 N/S blocks, no big deal. But 3 E/W blocks could be a 10 minute walk! That’s what the crosstown bus is for. 🆒 (Tourists seem afraid of buses for some reason.) ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/34 "2010-05-15T00:12:11Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > That’s what the crosstown bus is for. 🆒 > > (Tourists seem afraid of buses for some reason.) I hear what you are saying. We visited NYC many times before trying a bus. However, in Midtown they run on 57st, 49/50 st, 42 st, 34st. Not useful in many situations. And if traffic is bad, you can walk faster than the bus! ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/35 "2010-05-15T17:34:15Z")
Locals don’t use crosstown busses much either, since it’s not much faster than walking. Of course, maybe I just haven’t taken the fast crosstown busses. Are there any? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/36 "2010-05-15T17:36:36Z")
> [@Avumede](#): > > Locals don’t use crosstown busses much either, since it’s not much faster than walking. Of course, maybe I just haven’t taken the fast crosstown busses. Are there any? There are at 3AM. Not so fast during the day, though. ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/37 "2010-05-16T15:27:03Z")
The ones that go across Central Park (72st, 79th, 86th, 96th) are OK as long as it isn’t rush hour. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180/38 "2010-06-18T17:59:05Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > 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? To hide the body. Really, you need to watch more Law & Order. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-couple-of-questions-about-new-york/539180.md?page=1)