Journey to the Center of New York!

Making the discovery!

Roar! The other day while visiting an abandoned apartment building I saw advertised on Craigslist, I made a most amazing discovery! Buried within an old trunk I found a book that recounted the exploits of a noiseless visitor to New York City. Between the books pages was an article recounting the location of the fabled geographic center of New York City! Long thought to be lost, the geographic center of the city would prove quite the challenge to get to--possibly taking up to two transportation routes and maybe even an hour of travel time!

I showed the article to my colleague Hippo and proposed we set out at once on an expedition to reach the center of New York! Hippo was skeptical and insisted in a city as vast in scale as New York, a geographic center was meaningless, claiming that the true "center" of New York lay within one of its various cultural hubs. I wasn't too sure what Hippo was going on about, so I insisted we journey together to the center of New York and see once and for all what is really there!

Packing our supplies!

Hippo agreed to the expedition and we at once started gathering provisions for the journey! Besides the standard day’s worth of rations-- 100 pounds of roast meat, 12 cases of smoked fish, a large box of strawberry wafers, and a full thermos of Darjeeling tea, we took the following: a thermometer which would read to 150 degrees centigrade; a barometer to measure atmospheric pressure; a good watch; two compasses; and two Ruhmkroff's lanterns. Our arms consisted of two rifles and two revolvers. I wasn't sure that we needed them but Hippo insisted, claiming we might run into wild beasts on our journey!

We set out in the morning from my apartment in Bushwick and followed the old trolley line, first heading south down Knickerbocker Ave and then turning west and continuing along Dekalb Ave. What once had been a straightforward trolley ride has now been replaced by a series of buses! Could it possibly take us more than two transportation methods to reach the center of New York?! Oh, how times have changed! After crossing Broadway we turned south again on Malcolm X Boulevard, in some places still known as Reid Ave, and after a few blocks we arrived at the fabled center of New York City! Wow, I guess that really wasn't that hard after all! Roar! 

 

Here are Hippo and I at the geographic center of New York City! The article I found placed it in a yard on the block between Reid and Stuyvesant Ave, Van Buren Street and Greene Ave in Brooklyn. This section of Van Buren Street no longer exists and has been replaced by Jesse Owens P.S. 26; so now the geographic center of New York lies in the southwestern corner of the schoolyard!

Visiting the geographic center of the city sure was fun but I suppose Hippo is right and a city like New York will never have just one center (Despite what those living in Manhattan might think). The population center will always shift over time and the cultural center can vary widely depending on both location and the groups people belong to. Despite all that, while the geographic center may not hold much meaning, I'm still proud to know I live so close to the middle of a city as culturally vast as New York! Roar!