About 18,000 years ago, the great ice sheet in North America began to melt, forming the island of Manhattan and the modern landscape on which the city was built.
“We think the island of Manhattan stretches from north to south. But it doesn’t actually go north to south. It stretches from the northeast to the southwest,” says Carol Krinksey, historian of American architecture at New York University.
He said that this trend combined with street design allowed the West Sun to set the scene.
“The grid system was designed for Manhattan before there was an official city in New York,” adds Dr. Krinsky. It Commissar’s Plan of 1811 Putting 90-degree blocks into practice for official city designs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is the basis of the real estate market: most homebuyers don’t want to buy plots that are cut at odd angles.
So above 14th Street and below 155th Street, the city is divided into a grid. When the Earth tilts toward and then away from the sun during the summer solstice, the result is beloved Manhattanhenge. It also shows how structures built by humans interact with nature.
“Things like this are closely related not only to the actual architecture of the universe around us, but also to our interactions with it,” said Columbia University astronomer Caleb Scharf. “This city is an extension of us.”
Dr. Scharf adds that just like Stonehenge, Manhattanhenge helps us discover and understand patterns around us.
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