Source: NYU.edu

“Two hundred years ago, the crux of the city was crammed south of Canal Street. In 1811, commissioners Simeon De Witt, Gouverneur Morris, and John Rutherfurd announced that they would transform the overcrowded area by imposing an orderly system of roads stretching up through the island’s rural and rocky reaches, from Houston Street to what would become 155th Street. It was a brazen undertaking, and the ensuing decades have seen further pushes: skyward, toward the water, underground, and with added flourishes, from residential plazas like Washington Square to radical additions like Central Park. The framework helped Manhattan’s population balloon from 100,000 to 1.6 million.” Read more at http://www.nyu.edu/alumni.magazine/issue19/FEA_3.html