Going Back to the Start: Visiting New York's Original Grid

Roar! There is a ton of great history to NYC.  While some of it has been carefully preserved and landmarked, most of it has been lost to the impermanent nature of cities.  But sometimes a few of these forgotten bits of history still manage to have an effect on the present day. Yesterday I decided it would be fun to see the Brooklyn neighborhood that was the site of New York City's first grid based community!  So I rode my bike all the way down to Gravesend to see what I could dig up!

The square in the center of this satellite image is the orginal grid layout for Gravesend. You can see how it's skewed from the rest of the grid in Brooklyn, that's because it's actually oriented north-south unlike the rest of NYC! Roar! 

It was such a nice day outside so I decided to take my time and enjoy a nice, leisurely ride  to Gravesend...

I may have had to do a little backtracking but it was worth it on a day like today! Roar!

Gravesend was founded in 1643 by Lady Deborah Moody. She founded the town on the principle of religious freedom and believed that children shouldn't be baptised until they were old enough to read the bible! She was proved to be just as progressive in the role of city planner when she chose to lay Gravesend out with a, what was then cutting edge, grid system! You could say she was big on two things: religious rights and right angles! It turns out playwright Arthur Miller also grew up in Gravesend. I wonder if he realized just how liberal his hometown was during the 17th century while he was writing The Crucible! Roar!

They say the name Gravesend comes from the saxon phrase for "Groves End."  Despite all that there sure are a lot of graves here! Here I am at Gravesend Cemetry. Founded in 1658, it is one of the oldest cemetries in the city!

Gravesend was layed out as a square divided into quadrants by two main roads. The land within the each quadrant was then sectioned off and divided by additional paths. Some of those paths still exist as narrow allyways and dead end streets. It's like there's a fossil of the original grid underneath these streets! That makes the streets around here a little weird, though nowhere near as weird as Queens! Roar!

There are still plenty of neat old houses in Gravesend! Here I am in front of a particularly sweet looking one! It's like something out of the Addams Family! Though I'm not really surprised with all the graves around here! Roar!

I threw a sticker up under the F train track on McDonald Ave. Before the F train, the Boyton Bicycle Railroad used to run from here to Coney Island. It was technically the world's first monorail  featuring a single wheel train that pulled its cars along a single rail! Though it did a require a second rail above the car to steady itself, the design was eventually perfected into the monorails of today!

One other fun fact about Gravesend is there was a high profile bank robbery in the neighborhood during the summer of 1972. The robbery ended up serving as the inspiration for the movie Dog Day Afternoon. I wonder if that counts as grave robbing! Roar!

Visiting Gravesend was really cool and it was great to see how various forgotten elements of its history have managed to unearth themselves in the present day. It just proves as a reminder that no matter where you are in the city there is rich history right beneath your feet! Roar!

This trip to Gravesend also marks my blog reaching the 100th post mark! When I started doing this over a year ago I never thought I'd make it this far. I just want to say thank you to all the fans out there who've been so supportive and helped keep this blog from going extinct! I've recieved a lot of fan submission and I want to share some of them starting with this short story that was written for me by old New York historian Diedrich Knickerbocker. Unfortunately the famous hack Washington Irving cut it out when he published! What a jerk!

I've also recieved a lot of different photos from people. Here are a few of my favorites!

It looks like Philadelphia is even getting into the T-Rex spirit! Here is a sticker someone put up outside of Pat's King of Steaks! Roar! I love steak!

 And here's one outside the Hartford Science Center! I love science! Roar!

Beleive it or not,  Los Angeles is also going T-Rex crazy! Roar!

Even Shanghai is going ga-ga for T-Rex! It sure is nice to know that I'm loved all over the world! Roar!

Some people are even taking mementos of me with them as they travel all around the globe! Spread the love guys! Roar!

Why just look at New York City playwright Crystal Skillman! Doesn't she look super stylish in her TREXNYC shirt! R-roar!

And just get a look these two lovely ladies in Tokyo!

Apparently TREXNYC shirts have even caught on in India!

 Wow, my paper T-Rex even manages to get around! Here he is Tucson Arizona!

Sometimes it's nice to be able to meet fans in person! Roar! Kenny likes me! 

I've also met a lot of cool people during my adventures in NYC! So far I've met painters, street artists, old friends, directors, colonial pilgrims, pandas, web cartoonists, rock musicians, actors, fellow adventurers, sports team mascots, energy drink enthusiasts, political activists, reality TV stars, and live action role players!

There are still so many amazing things to discover here in New York City! It's been a great hundred posts, but I can only wonder what the future will bring! Roar!