The original design for the streets of…
March 1811 CE
The legislature had appointed a commission with sweeping powers in 1807, and their plan was presented on March 22, 1811.
The Commissioners are Gouverneur Morris, a Founding Father of the United States; the lawyer John Rutherfurd, a former United States Senator; and the state Surveyor General, Simeon De Witt. Their chief surveyor is John Randel Jr., who is twenty years old when he begins the job.
The Commissioners' Plan is arguably the most famous use of the grid plan or "gridiron" and is considered by many historians to have been far-reaching and visionary.
Since its earliest days, the plan has been criticized for its monotony and rigidity, in comparison with irregular street patterns of older cities, but in recent years has been viewed more favorably by urban planners.
There are a few interruptions in the grid for public spaces, such as the Grand Parade between 23rd Street and 33rd Street, which is the precursor to Madison Square Park, as well as four squares named Bloomingdale, Hamilton, Manhattan, and Harlem, a wholesale market complex, and a reservoir.
Central Park, the massive urban greenspace in Manhattan running from Fifth Avenue to Eighth Avenue and from 59th Street to 110th Street, is not a part of the plan, as it will not be envisioned until the 1850s.