I'm glad you touched on the Brooklyn/Queens border, because it's also the reason there is such an abundance of cemeteries located there in neighborhoods like Cypress Hills and Glendale. When the Rural Cemetery Act (which essentially banned new burials in Manhattan) was passed in 1847, churches and synagogues looked to the then expansive rural land in Brooklyn and Queens to establish new cemeteries. Because the two boroughs existed as separate counties and cemeteries were property tax-exempt, purchasing land for cemeteries that straddled both Kings County and Queens County allowed religious organizations to buy up more land for burials without being property taxed. If you ever have the opportunity, the best place to view the effect of this stipulation is a drive along the Jackie Robinson Parkway, which bisects a number of the cemeteries concentrated on the border. Another great place to understand the effect from is the J train just before and after the Cypress Hills stop.
One thing that he didn't mention was that a portion of Brooklyn was transferred to Queens, increasing its size. But, Brooklyn is still the largest borough, by far, in population and it was once its own, independent city, being incorporated into Greater New York in the 1880's. If you come off the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn, there is a sign, welcoming you to Brooklyn, "the fourth largest city in America".
How many decades ago was that, the 70's, or 80's? People born after that date have like never seen that show and even if they have, they still may not know that Brooklyn was was an independent city and not just a borough of Greater New York.@@billcook4768
Yeah the bronx - SI line actually going OVER Trenton into Levittown in PA was surprising to me. Also, I love how you just mention Flushing Ave having nothing to do with Flushing and then just cut to the next bit. WHAT NEFARIOUSNESS IS THIS??! We need to know! Seriously though, as a native, Queens is the GREATEST!
Queens used to be even bigger, as what's now Nassau County used to be part of Queens! The name of Nassau County originated from an old name for Long Island, which was at one time named Nassau, after the Dutch family of King William III of England, the House of Nassau, itself named after the German town of Nassau. In 1784, following the American Revolutionary War, the Town of Hempstead was split in two, when Patriots in the northern part formed the new Town of North Hempstead, leaving Loyalist majorities in the Town of Hempstead. About 1787, a new Queens County Courthouse was erected (and later completed) in the new Town of North Hempstead, near present-day Mineola. Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to Long Island City from Mineola. As early as 1875, representatives of the three eastern towns began advocating the separation of the three eastern towns from Queens. In 1898, the western portion of Queens County became a borough of the City of Greater New York, leaving the eastern portion a part of Queens County but not the Borough of Queens. The areas excluded from the city's consolidation included all of the Town of North Hempstead, all of the Town of Oyster Bay, and most of the Town of Hempstead. In 1899, following approval from the state legislature, the three towns were separated from Queens County, and the new county of Nassau was constituted.
Roosevelt Island is quite interesting! The island was first called Minnehanonck (meaning "Nice Island") by the Lenape and Varkens Eylandt by the Dutch during the colonial era and later Manning's Island and Blackwell's Island. It was known as Welfare Island when it was used principally for hospitals, from 1921 to 1973. It was finally renamed Roosevelt Island in 1973! In 1637, Dutch Governor Wouter van Twiller purchased the island from the Canarsie tribe. After the Dutch surrendered to the British in 1664, Captain John Manning acquired the island in 1666, which became known as Manning's Island, and twenty years later, Manning's son-in-law, Robert Blackwell, became the island's owner and namesake before Welfare Island. The reason the island has its own aerial tramway is because after the NY state government leased the island from the city in 1969, they opted to build large housing developments and transform it into a transit-oriented community. A new subway station would be built to serve as the centerpiece. However, the Roosevelt Island station that was proposed was delayed. So the temporary solution was to build an aerial tramway! The tramway would open in 1976. The subway station ended up opening in 1989, however it was decided to keep the tramway open! The tramway was the last to stop using tokens, as it still accepted tokens until March 2004 while the subway stopped doing so in 2003!
There are lots of technicalities with NYC geography that are officially ignored, but here's a few interesting ones I always remember: * Coney Island isn't actually an island, but more of a peninsula. * The East River isn't really a river, but a large tidal straight that connects Long Island Sound with Upper New York Bay. * Liberty Island technically sits in New Jersey waters.
Actually, Coney Island was an island, but was connected by landfill. Liberty Island's natural part (not the added landfill) is still NY. Only the added landfill was ruled as part of NJ. It all had to do with a boat race, that determined who got to keep Staten Island. NJ lost, so NY got it. As for Liberty Island, from Quora: "There was a dispute between the two states. NJ brought suit. However, the two states came to an agreement that the border between the two states would be the midpoint of the waters between them. However, the islands on the New Jersey side would be retained by New York. This means that Liberty Island is part of New York, but completely surrounded by New Jersey."
@@squash4david Yeah to get more into the last point, NY and NJ have disputed over the river since colonial times with them even going to war over it. For a long time NY controlled all of it until the federal government made them make a compromise with NJ. The compromise is the compromise that you mentioned
It’s dead used to take me 2 hours plus to get to Manhattan from tottenville and 1hr plus driving If I did but like 45 mins to get to PA for a sports event😂
As someone who used to live there, I can believe it. Much easier to go to NJ or even PA than most parts of NY. Many mornings it took longer for me to get to midtown with traffic than it would've taken me to get to Lehigh Valley, PA.
To go further into the Ellis Island case: While this was finally settled in 1998, it goes deeper than that. As early as 1804, attempts were made to resolve the status of the state line. NYC claimed the right to regulate trade on all waters. This was contested in Gibbons v. Ogden, which decided that the regulation of interstate commerce fell under the authority of the federal government, thus influencing competition in the newly developing steam ferry service in New York Harbor. In 1830, New Jersey planned to bring suit to clarify the border, but the matter was resolved with a compact between the states, ratified by Congress in 1834. This compact stated that the island was NY's, but the submerged land around it was NJ's. This set the boundary line at the middle of the Hudson River and New York Harbor, however, New York was guaranteed "exclusive jurisdiction of and over all the waters of Hudson River", and it was between 1890 and 1934 that Ellis Island was expanded, so New Jersey kept on fighting for decades. Like in 1956 when the Mayor of Jersey City led an expedition to claim Ellis Island. While New Jersey argued that the landfill came from New Jersey, New York argued that it was material excavated from the first line of the NYC Subway. Besides this, it's been also said it was from the ballast of ships as well as from the NJ railyards of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The latter was stated in Central R. Co. of New Jersey v. Jersey City in 1908. But neither state could provide the paperwork for proof, so this was the compromise.
I've felt for years that the reason why New York state has both Staten Island (even though it is much closer to New Jersey) and Fisher's Island (much closer to Connecticut than Long Island) was an attempt by New York to control maritime commerce through the Narrows into New York Harbor and into Long Island Sound, respectively.
I am from The Bronx and I don't think I would have ever gone to Staten Island if my cousin had not moved there. I also I don't think many people from The Bronx have ever been to Staten Island.
In middle school, my hockey league put me on a team in Brooklyn despite my living in The Bronnx. I commuted from the West Bronx to Coney Island for games on Fridays and to Staten Island for practice on Thursdays. My older sister and brother heroically did the driving. Throw in a few games at the old Worlds Fair in Queens, and we all learned a lot about New York geography. And to make it a five-borough hobby, there were clinics at Lasker Rink at the top of Central Park and pick-up games at Sky Rink in the west 30s.
So many comments about his pronunciation of Manhattan, and that’s how we say it out here. What got me was the pronunciation of “Rockaway”. We say “Rock-a-way”.
@@hewitc Language naturally changes, usually always simplifying. Contractions are formalized conventions for dropping sounds, I don't see replacing T's for glottal stops as any different.
Bro, the t glottalization in your accent is hella noticable.....i'm used to it wiht british people, but it sounds hella weird on an american. "Manha-en"
As a lifelong NYer I disagree. Young people today glottal stop, not annucuating the second "T". They also say "vokka" for "vodka". It's a lazy way to speak. Like using "Imma" instead of "I 'm going to".
What sounds odd to me as a brit is not the glottal stop itself but how the emphasis seems to be on the en sound at the end. Glottal stops normally come after an emphasized syllable then allow it to tail off often with a schwa. Here he seems to build up to a final attack on the last syllable.
I was born and raised here and it’s always been fun to catch glimpses of these things in the way the city’s laid out. Fantastic breakdown as to the scale of the boroughs and their relationships to each other.
No, the expanded land of Ellis island was not given to NJ because ot was soil from NJ. It's because all the water around the islands is NJ, so the court decided the land added on that water also belongs to NJ. In fact, neither NY nor NJ could provide the court the paperwork explaining where the soil came from
Halsey Street on the L is even weirder than you said! 3/4 of the station is actually in Queens because the border between BK and Queens jogs down from Wyckoff Ave to Irving Ave on Eldert Street. This is especially odd because the portion of Eldert Street where the border is doesn't exist so the border goes right through a building!
I used to agree with you, then I looked it up. Manhattan is a Borough that comprises Manhattan Island, other islands and Marble Hill. And, until 1984, Marble Hill was part of the Borough of Manhattan but part of Bronx County (not New York County). The NY State Legislature voted to redesignate Marble Hill as part of New York County. Confusing
@@hewitcTo call this “juvenile” is a bit asinine. I am not sure where you are from, but omitting t’s is quite common in American English and is certainly the most common way to pronounce “Manhattan” for someone who lives there. In essence, the t is softly appended to the second syllable (and held at the roof of the mouth) rather than at the start of the last syllable, ie. man-HA(t)-n rather than man-HA-tn. This is similar to how Americans pronounce “button”, “gluten”, identify”, “certain”, or “Staten Island”. You may argue that this is “incorrect”, but Manhattan is a place name. This is no different than how we pronounce Westchester, versus the British pronunciation of Gloucester (or even the famous Worcestershire sauce). Sometimes, names are pronounced differently than you think and I would hazard the video creator is quite correct.
@@theArcosa As a very long time native New Yorker, it is my observvation and opinion that someone who uses glottal stops instead of pronouncing the middle "T" is thought as someone from "The Boroughs" or a "Bridge and Tunnel" person, i.e. someone from the less educated lower classes. If you ever watch some skits on SNL, for example, the comedians use this to signify an unsophisticated New "Yawka". If I heard someone say "buh-un" instead of "but ton" or "glu-in" instead of "glu-ton" I would assume I was dealing with a dolt. Anyone with a decent education would have had this corrected by a good English teacher. Certain proper names like Gloucester get special treatment. Man-hat-tan is not one of them, as far as anyone in my professional group is concerned. I'm sure I sound like a snob, but my Mother was from Queens (from a poor family) and she made these mistakes all the time. She would say "Sad-day" instead or "Stat-ur-day", for example. You slide through the word without the effort of pronouncing the middle "T", which is more work for the tongue. It's the verbal equivalent of sitting in a slouch. Education can correct these inadvertent flaws. I find more young people today using lazy glottal stops, like "buh-un". I fault their schools and the shortcuts and slang used on texts. They might correct their speaking if they knew some people were looking down at them as "low class". Not good for job interviews. I agree that language is always evolving but in this case I would call it devolving.
I love geography and I’m used to new ideas and I am a bit surprised by this. I knew these ideas mostly but not in numbers. So it’s an eye 👁️ opener for me
Really sweet video! I had the opportunity to catch the R211 at 190th street on the A while visiting Fort Tryon. Theres a great dominican place called Boca Chica to check out if you're ever in the area.
Sad but true. Richmond County (Staten Island) is the only county within 50 miles of Manhattan that doesn’t have direct rail service to Manhattan. That includes counties in NJ, CT and PA.
As soon as I saw the thumbnail I said to myself “easy, it’s missing Roosevelt Island.” Little did I know there were a few other regions, one of which shares land with my own borough. Learn something new everyday, great video!
Bronx born. Love the video. A puzzle for you: I once remember reading that there were one or more "little bits" of Manhattan on the EAST side in Astoria Queens. If you search for Manhattan on Google maps, these little bits appear. But for the life of me I can't document these exclaves of Manhattan. If you think there is any merit to this, maybe you can track down the proof.
Choosing an area which borders another borough/state/country, and saying it’s closer to that second place, really isn’t weird. It’s how all borders in the entire world work.
As a former staten island southernmost tip resident, I can vouch for the distance thing. It is much easier & faster for me to get to Pennsylvania than it is to get to The Bronx for example. Honestly PA is sometimes easier than manhattan & queens too when accounting for traffic. And then going to NJ is a piece of cake. People in NJ would be so shocked that I came there "ALL THE WAY from New York" when in reality it's easier to get there than it is to any other part of New York.
I don't know if anything surprised me because I take map•trips to NYC a lot inside my home in San Francisco. Something about Breezy Point and actually both Rikers and Dag Hammersjold (sic?) Islands intrigue me like nobody's business. What you confirmed for me is that while NYC is uber inhabited, in its own way it's a desolate and wilderness filled place in the sense that much will always remain unknown to whoever is perceiving it.
@@TMD3453 yes!! Have you ever read that New Yorker article (maybe 15 years ago) about Manhattan before any, at least Western cultural layerings? Just the natural landscape. There's such a vibration to NYC. Like the painter Luchita Hurtado said about Mexico City, I think there are portals to certain wonderlands inside the New York City territory.
Love the video! Grew up on the Brooklyn/Queens border on the J line, going North/South across Queens via public transit is a pain in the neck. Cover Robert Moses next. He screwed the city up more than anyone even had the power to.
Great video! Another unique thing about Breezy Point is that it’s a private gated community that only allows entry to residents and guests. The same is true of the western end of Coney Island, there’s a security checkpoint
I'd say the Breezy Point to Ft Totten (Queens) line crossing into Suffolk is most surprising... dawns on me how narrow Nassau To put the Staten Island south extremity - Bronx NE extremity in perspective, those 36 miles on the NJ Transit NEC Line would get you past Jersey Ave... which is 34.4 miles from NY Penn
I hate the way he (and others) say words like Manhattan. Man-ha' 'en with all those Glottal Stops in the middle. There seems to be an unstoppable trend of younger English speakers in this country to drop the T's in the middle of words. American English is turning into the Cockney English of London. God help us all.
@@TubeintheTub I worked with a woman from New Jersey and she spoke that way also. This was 10 years ago, and she was in her mid 20's. I noticed the trend started on the East Coast and is slowly moving westward.
Of all the examples you could’ve used of household things, you picked going to sleep in Brooklyn and waking up in Queens? I usually fall asleep and wake up in the same spot lmao.
You should do a video on the geographic center of NYC. I have heard and seen an overwhelming number of arguments over the true location including a bar in Queens, a marker on Queens Boulevard, an intersection in Bushwick, etc., some of which exclude staten island in the measurements. If you have done so already, point me to that video. Thanks for this episode.
I live on a street in Pennsylvania that separates a borough from a township, with the border running down the middle of the street. This is not terribly uncommon. The houses on my side of the street are the township and the people on the other side are in the borough....EXCEPT for the lot of one of my neighbors, which is encompassed by a little tab/notch only around their property. So everyone else that side of the street lives in the township, but they live in the borough. This has something to do with what was originally there 100+ years ago before the street and houses were built.
Spring Creek was the Brooklyn-Queens boundary from City Line south to New Lots between Ozone Park & Lindenwood. Spring Creek has long since been buried underground and buildings put up over it and that explains the earlier weird border in that area- follow the river under the houses. Another interesting topic of Queens and Brooklyn geography is how many creeks, streams, and small lakes or ponds have been filled in or piped underground. Wonder why your basement floods a lot in the rain, your house may have been built over a stream or pond.
It's funny to me how viewers are jarred by your pronunciation of Manhattan because I was surprised (and a bit thrilled) to hear it pronounced the way I hear it most often growing up in Jersey City ( being closer to Midtown than parts of all the other boroughs) and being in NYC and NJ. Sometimes you still hear the T and it's not a full glottal stop but no one who lives here is really hitting that hard T, I shudder to think how Trenton is pronounced haha. Great video I love maps and this was fascinating!
You did not mention the counties. New York, New York So good they named it three times. The Manhattan DA in the news at the moment is actually the DA for the County of New York.
I rarely travel out to Queens because the city gave up on properly naming streets. I've traveled to 69th Street, which happens to be next to a 69th Lane, that goes to a 69th Road which is near 69th Place. Then you go down the block and the same weird naming confusion continues.
The original Ellis Island, and for that matter Liberty Island, are in New York, but the state line is the middle of the river, so the water surrounding the islands is New Jersey. So, When they added to Ellis Island, they actually filled in river area that was in New Jersey. Where the landfill came from did not determine what state the addition is in, the location where the landfill was placed did.
As a linguist, I’m curious about your accent. The “t” was suppressed when you said Manhattan (Man ha | in), but “t” was pronounced in most other words. GREAT VIDEO! Earned a subscriber here! Well researched and presented!
For what it’s worth, I grew up in NYC and I have never heard Manhattan pronounced with a hard t sound. It might be softly appended to the second syllable, but especially not if you’re speaking at a normal cadence.
@@theArcosa exactly right. More of a (Man had in). The missing/dropped “t” is typically PNW (Pacific Northwestern, Seattle-area) with words like: Wah | ah = water kih | in = kitten moun | n = mountain Buh | n = button Sir | n = certain These are different than the “d” wadder/water.
This is interesting. But there's a lot more. To scratch the surface just a bit - Staten Island really should have been part of New Jersey to the point that there was a dispute in the 18th Century over which state should have it that was settled with a boat race. And Queens and Nassau Counties were all Queens from inception until 1899. When the consolidation of the city was voted on in 1897, the Western 1/3 of Queens voted to be a borough and the Eastern 2/3 wanted to stay out of the city. Both groups felt so strongly that the Western part retained the identity of Queens County and became a borough while the Eastern 2/3 seceded and became Nassau County.
That Staten Island boat race is an old legend that never happened. Richmond County (Staten Island) is one of New York’s original 11 counties and has been part of New York since the late 1600s.
Next time you talk about the geography of NYC, be sure to include the "The Hole" - a neighborhood that straddles both Brooklyn and Queens and is easily the most forgotten part of the entire city (in more ways than one).
I always forget about that place. I figured it would have a come up along with all of that Gateway progress. Didn’t they put a strip mall right next/in front of it?
@@NiKiMa023 Yes. Just east of it is Linden Center shopping mall. www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1HtjPegOAIDm6nDH3gJWucWQYaEATQEah&ll=40.67156722890724%2C-73.85732347802029&z=17
Suffolk was never part of Queens County, only Nassau The Bronx used to be a bunch of towns that was part of Westchester County. Then the Southwestern part of Westchester County (now West Bronx) became part of New York County when it was annexed by New York City. Once the Borough of The Bronx was created in 1898 (with the Southeastern part of Westchester County also becoming a part of The Bronx), it was a part of New York County until 1914, when it became Bronx County.
@@amazing50000 Actually, the part that's now Caumsett State Park was considered to be in the Town of Oyster Bay. That was Queens County before it was Nassau. You're right about the Bronx though. I just wish it was covered here like the other boroughs.
Real Life Lore but he talks about trains.
real life lore is one of my favorite UA-camrs lol
and i thought it couldn’t get any better
Real life lore but good
i would be so offended if i was compared to rll
@@henrystoes6508I Make yiutube content
I'm glad you touched on the Brooklyn/Queens border, because it's also the reason there is such an abundance of cemeteries located there in neighborhoods like Cypress Hills and Glendale.
When the Rural Cemetery Act (which essentially banned new burials in Manhattan) was passed in 1847, churches and synagogues looked to the then expansive rural land in Brooklyn and Queens to establish new cemeteries.
Because the two boroughs existed as separate counties and cemeteries were property tax-exempt, purchasing land for cemeteries that straddled both Kings County and Queens County allowed religious organizations to buy up more land for burials without being property taxed.
If you ever have the opportunity, the best place to view the effect of this stipulation is a drive along the Jackie Robinson Parkway, which bisects a number of the cemeteries concentrated on the border.
Another great place to understand the effect from is the J train just before and after the Cypress Hills stop.
I have family buried in one of those cemeteries in Glendale.
@@stuartaaron613 Can you tell me which cemetery?
One thing that he didn't mention was that a portion of Brooklyn was transferred to Queens, increasing its size. But, Brooklyn is still the largest borough, by far, in population and it was once its own, independent city, being incorporated into Greater New York in the 1880's. If you come off the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn, there is a sign, welcoming you to Brooklyn, "the fourth largest city in America".
Brooklyn became part of NYC in 1898 along with Queens and Staten Island. The Bronx was already part of NYC before then.
What about the Bronx?
@@dennisreeder6637 Like I said, it was already annexed to NYC long before the remaining 3 boroughs.
Anyone who ever watched Welcome Back Kotter knows about the 4th Largest City thing :)
How many decades ago was that, the 70's, or 80's? People born after that date have like never seen that show and even if they have, they still may not know that Brooklyn was was an independent city and not just a borough of Greater New York.@@billcook4768
Yeah the bronx - SI line actually going OVER Trenton into Levittown in PA was surprising to me. Also, I love how you just mention Flushing Ave having nothing to do with Flushing and then just cut to the next bit. WHAT NEFARIOUSNESS IS THIS??! We need to know! Seriously though, as a native, Queens is the GREATEST!
Queens used to be even bigger, as what's now Nassau County used to be part of Queens! The name of Nassau County originated from an old name for Long Island, which was at one time named Nassau, after the Dutch family of King William III of England, the House of Nassau, itself named after the German town of Nassau. In 1784, following the American Revolutionary War, the Town of Hempstead was split in two, when Patriots in the northern part formed the new Town of North Hempstead, leaving Loyalist majorities in the Town of Hempstead. About 1787, a new Queens County Courthouse was erected (and later completed) in the new Town of North Hempstead, near present-day Mineola.
Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to Long Island City from Mineola. As early as 1875, representatives of the three eastern towns began advocating the separation of the three eastern towns from Queens. In 1898, the western portion of Queens County became a borough of the City of Greater New York, leaving the eastern portion a part of Queens County but not the Borough of Queens. The areas excluded from the city's consolidation included all of the Town of North Hempstead, all of the Town of Oyster Bay, and most of the Town of Hempstead. In 1899, following approval from the state legislature, the three towns were separated from Queens County, and the new county of Nassau was constituted.
What surprised me the most was the way he pronounces Manhattan.
Made me want to scream.
It's a very New York pronunciation.
That glottal stop is a 21st century innovation
@doodlegoat so's the iPhone but we don't act surprised when we see one of those. The 21st century is almost a quarter through.
exactly @@vincefitzpatrick9206
Roosevelt Island is quite interesting! The island was first called Minnehanonck (meaning "Nice Island") by the Lenape and Varkens Eylandt by the Dutch during the colonial era and later Manning's Island and Blackwell's Island. It was known as Welfare Island when it was used principally for hospitals, from 1921 to 1973. It was finally renamed Roosevelt Island in 1973! In 1637, Dutch Governor Wouter van Twiller purchased the island from the Canarsie tribe. After the Dutch surrendered to the British in 1664, Captain John Manning acquired the island in 1666, which became known as Manning's Island, and twenty years later, Manning's son-in-law, Robert Blackwell, became the island's owner and namesake before Welfare Island.
The reason the island has its own aerial tramway is because after the NY state government leased the island from the city in 1969, they opted to build large housing developments and transform it into a transit-oriented community. A new subway station would be built to serve as the centerpiece. However, the Roosevelt Island station that was proposed was delayed. So the temporary solution was to build an aerial tramway! The tramway would open in 1976. The subway station ended up opening in 1989, however it was decided to keep the tramway open! The tramway was the last to stop using tokens, as it still accepted tokens until March 2004 while the subway stopped doing so in 2003!
Im sad that KLT Disabled his comments
There are lots of technicalities with NYC geography that are officially ignored, but here's a few interesting ones I always remember:
* Coney Island isn't actually an island, but more of a peninsula.
* The East River isn't really a river, but a large tidal straight that connects Long Island Sound with Upper New York Bay.
* Liberty Island technically sits in New Jersey waters.
Coney Island was actually on an Island until they filled in part of the creek for the belt parkway.
@@mrmaison4924 I know, but it's still a misnomer.
Actually, Coney Island was an island, but was connected by landfill. Liberty Island's natural part (not the added landfill) is still NY. Only the added landfill was ruled as part of NJ. It all had to do with a boat race, that determined who got to keep Staten Island. NJ lost, so NY got it. As for Liberty Island, from Quora: "There was a dispute between the two states. NJ brought suit. However, the two states came to an agreement that the border between the two states would be the midpoint of the waters between them. However, the islands on the New Jersey side would be retained by New York. This means that Liberty Island is part of New York, but completely surrounded by New Jersey."
@@squash4david Yeah to get more into the last point, NY and NJ have disputed over the river since colonial times with them even going to war over it. For a long time NY controlled all of it until the federal government made them make a compromise with NJ. The compromise is the compromise that you mentioned
@@mrmaison4924 I was about to say that! Coney Island was in fact an Island until landfill...
New Yorker here. It’s nuts how a change of perspective changes your… um…. Perspective.
Valley Stream, Long Island is closer to Allentown, PA than it is to Montauk.
Mind blowing - Can’t believe that PA is closer to Tottenville Staten Island than Staten Island is to Yonkers
Yeah, that was the most surprising thing to me, too!
It’s dead used to take me 2 hours plus to get to Manhattan from tottenville and 1hr plus driving If I did but like 45 mins to get to PA for a sports event😂
As someone who used to live there, I can believe it. Much easier to go to NJ or even PA than most parts of NY. Many mornings it took longer for me to get to midtown with traffic than it would've taken me to get to Lehigh Valley, PA.
So what ? NYC is huge. What did you expect ?
@@wilmars9146 yeah have lived here all my life it doesn’t seem that geographically huge
I knew you were going to mention Marble Hill. Glad you did! Best kept secret in Manhattan! Not part of the island, but part of the Borough!
To go further into the Ellis Island case: While this was finally settled in 1998, it goes deeper than that. As early as 1804, attempts were made to resolve the status of the state line. NYC claimed the right to regulate trade on all waters. This was contested in Gibbons v. Ogden, which decided that the regulation of interstate commerce fell under the authority of the federal government, thus influencing competition in the newly developing steam ferry service in New York Harbor. In 1830, New Jersey planned to bring suit to clarify the border, but the matter was resolved with a compact between the states, ratified by Congress in 1834. This compact stated that the island was NY's, but the submerged land around it was NJ's.
This set the boundary line at the middle of the Hudson River and New York Harbor, however, New York was guaranteed "exclusive jurisdiction of and over all the waters of Hudson River", and it was between 1890 and 1934 that Ellis Island was expanded, so New Jersey kept on fighting for decades. Like in 1956 when the Mayor of Jersey City led an expedition to claim Ellis Island. While New Jersey argued that the landfill came from New Jersey, New York argued that it was material excavated from the first line of the NYC Subway. Besides this, it's been also said it was from the ballast of ships as well as from the NJ railyards of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The latter was stated in Central R. Co. of New Jersey v. Jersey City in 1908. But neither state could provide the paperwork for proof, so this was the compromise.
this is great further context! I'm from Jersey City so this history is very cool
I've felt for years that the reason why New York state has both Staten Island (even though it is much closer to New Jersey) and Fisher's Island (much closer to Connecticut than Long Island) was an attempt by New York to control maritime commerce through the Narrows into New York Harbor and into Long Island Sound, respectively.
I am from The Bronx and I don't think I would have ever gone to Staten Island if my cousin had not moved there. I also I don't think many people from The Bronx have ever been to Staten Island.
Conversely, very few Staten Islanders have ever been to the Bronx.
@@edwardp3502 I feel like there are more Staten Islanders who have been to the Bronx than the other way around
@dani: Only if you count visits to Yankee Stadium. Otherwise, no reason for Staten Islanders to go there.
In middle school, my hockey league put me on a team in Brooklyn despite my living in The Bronnx. I commuted from the West Bronx to Coney Island for games on Fridays and to Staten Island for practice on Thursdays. My older sister and brother heroically did the driving. Throw in a few games at the old Worlds Fair in Queens, and we all learned a lot about New York geography. And to make it a five-borough hobby, there were clinics at Lasker Rink at the top of Central Park and pick-up games at Sky Rink in the west 30s.
@@edwardp3502Perhaps also cross country meets at Van Cortlandt park
Something that is pretty simple but I found interesting is that South Bronx is closer to Yonkers than Woodhaven
Lived in Washington Heights for 4 years. I love this kind of NYC stuff.
What Surprised me most is that Staten Island to Bronx is the Same Distance as Staten Island to Pennsylvania
As a person who lives on staten island, I can confirm that it's definitely easier and quicker to get to pennsylvania then the bronx
So many comments about his pronunciation of Manhattan, and that’s how we say it out here. What got me was the pronunciation of “Rockaway”. We say “Rock-a-way”.
I've learned so much more about Stettin Island and Manha'en.
Mah’ eht’un
It seems the lazy glottal stop way of speaking is more common in young people.
@@hewitcBlack influence.
@@Brap-pl2me Maybe. It seems to be common with young people today. Teachers should correct this. It's sloppy and lazy.
@@hewitc Language naturally changes, usually always simplifying. Contractions are formalized conventions for dropping sounds, I don't see replacing T's for glottal stops as any different.
Bro, the t glottalization in your accent is hella noticable.....i'm used to it wiht british people, but it sounds hella weird on an american. "Manha-en"
That’s literally how we say it in NY
@@MONET8iAM only young or uneducated people
@@hewitc Incorrect
As a lifelong NYer I disagree. Young people today glottal stop, not annucuating the second "T". They also say "vokka" for "vodka". It's a lazy way to speak. Like using "Imma" instead of "I 'm going to".
What sounds odd to me as a brit is not the glottal stop itself but how the emphasis seems to be on the en sound at the end. Glottal stops normally come after an emphasized syllable then allow it to tail off often with a schwa. Here he seems to build up to a final attack on the last syllable.
I was born and raised here and it’s always been fun to catch glimpses of these things in the way the city’s laid out. Fantastic breakdown as to the scale of the boroughs and their relationships to each other.
What the hell is Man ha-en?
A NYC accent
No, the expanded land of Ellis island was not given to NJ because ot was soil from NJ. It's because all the water around the islands is NJ, so the court decided the land added on that water also belongs to NJ. In fact, neither NY nor NJ could provide the court the paperwork explaining where the soil came from
Halsey Street on the L is even weirder than you said! 3/4 of the station is actually in Queens because the border between BK and Queens jogs down from Wyckoff Ave to Irving Ave on Eldert Street. This is especially odd because the portion of Eldert Street where the border is doesn't exist so the border goes right through a building!
As a New Yorker living in Albany County, I wish you used county names than boro names, as Manhattan is an island, but not all of NY County.
I used to agree with you, then I looked it up. Manhattan is a Borough that comprises Manhattan Island, other islands and Marble Hill.
And, until 1984, Marble Hill was part of the Borough of Manhattan but part of Bronx County (not New York County). The NY State Legislature voted to redesignate Marble Hill as part of New York County. Confusing
@@tonymagroganmarble hill area code is 718 and a 104 zip code and it is serviced by the bc police and fire departments.
Yep! Confusing
The glottal stops were killing me
Man hah un. Sounds juvenile or unprofessional. But great research. Excellent video.
Same here! 😱
@@hewitcTo call this “juvenile” is a bit asinine. I am not sure where you are from, but omitting t’s is quite common in American English and is certainly the most common way to pronounce “Manhattan” for someone who lives there. In essence, the t is softly appended to the second syllable (and held at the roof of the mouth) rather than at the start of the last syllable, ie. man-HA(t)-n rather than man-HA-tn. This is similar to how Americans pronounce “button”, “gluten”, identify”, “certain”, or “Staten Island”.
You may argue that this is “incorrect”, but Manhattan is a place name. This is no different than how we pronounce Westchester, versus the British pronunciation of Gloucester (or even the famous Worcestershire sauce). Sometimes, names are pronounced differently than you think and I would hazard the video creator is quite correct.
@@theArcosa As a very long time native New Yorker, it is my observvation and opinion that someone who uses glottal stops instead of pronouncing the middle "T" is thought as someone from "The Boroughs" or a "Bridge and Tunnel" person, i.e. someone from the less educated lower classes. If you ever watch some skits on SNL, for example, the comedians use this to signify an unsophisticated New "Yawka". If I heard someone say "buh-un" instead of "but ton" or "glu-in" instead of "glu-ton" I would assume I was dealing with a dolt. Anyone with a decent education would have had this corrected by a good English teacher. Certain proper names like Gloucester get special treatment. Man-hat-tan is not one of them, as far as anyone in my professional group is concerned. I'm sure I sound like a snob, but my Mother was from Queens (from a poor family) and she made these mistakes all the time. She would say "Sad-day" instead or "Stat-ur-day", for example. You slide through the word without the effort of pronouncing the middle "T", which is more work for the tongue. It's the verbal equivalent of sitting in a slouch. Education can correct these inadvertent flaws. I find more young people today using lazy glottal stops, like "buh-un". I fault their schools and the shortcuts and slang used on texts. They might correct their speaking if they knew some people were looking down at them as "low class". Not good for job interviews. I agree that language is always evolving but in this case I would call it devolving.
@@hewitcyou truly sound insane right now
This was great. Do more NYC stuff
Bronx- Westchester border has some interesting quirks, though generally straighter.
I love geography and I’m used to new ideas and I am a bit surprised by this. I knew these ideas mostly but not in numbers. So it’s an eye 👁️ opener for me
I am a Inwood resident!!!! Uptown baby
"You know I'm in love with an Uptown girl!"
@@Cjnw I don’t blame you….. 😂😂😂
Really sweet video! I had the opportunity to catch the R211 at 190th street on the A while visiting Fort Tryon. Theres a great dominican place called Boca Chica to check out if you're ever in the area.
Why are you saying Manhattan like that
Because he's probably from Jersey. That's how some of them say it.
@@TubeintheTubpeople from New York say it that way too. Neither of you are from here
That Arbitration rock surprised me I lived 6 minutes near that rock never even knew it was there 😂
Oh wow. 2:53 I grew up in the Marble Hill Houses back in the early 70s, during my nursery school days.
Yo that flushing Ave line took me out 🤣🤣🤣😭
No train connecting Statenisandl to the rest of the citty also makes thaht trek to PA easier than north bronx
Sad but true. Richmond County (Staten Island) is the only county within 50 miles of Manhattan that doesn’t have direct rail service to Manhattan. That includes counties in NJ, CT and PA.
As soon as I saw the thumbnail I said to myself “easy, it’s missing Roosevelt Island.” Little did I know there were a few other regions, one of which shares land with my own borough. Learn something new everyday, great video!
Basically 10 mins of: “when things are rotated, west can be east”
…or place the International Date Line through NYC!
Now I'm looking for a tilt of California video, showing Los Angeles is in eastern California.
Bronx born. Love the video. A puzzle for you: I once remember reading that there were one or more "little bits" of Manhattan on the EAST side in Astoria Queens. If you search for Manhattan on Google maps, these little bits appear. But for the life of me I can't document these exclaves of Manhattan. If you think there is any merit to this, maybe you can track down the proof.
UA-cam never ceases to educate me in the most fun way possible. Thanks!
Choosing an area which borders another borough/state/country, and saying it’s closer to that second place, really isn’t weird. It’s how all borders in the entire world work.
As a former staten island southernmost tip resident, I can vouch for the distance thing. It is much easier & faster for me to get to Pennsylvania than it is to get to The Bronx for example. Honestly PA is sometimes easier than manhattan & queens too when accounting for traffic. And then going to NJ is a piece of cake. People in NJ would be so shocked that I came there "ALL THE WAY from New York" when in reality it's easier to get there than it is to any other part of New York.
I don't know if anything surprised me because I take map•trips to NYC a lot inside my home in San Francisco.
Something about Breezy Point and actually both Rikers and Dag Hammersjold (sic?) Islands intrigue me like nobody's business.
What you confirmed for me is that while NYC is uber inhabited, in its own way it's a desolate and wilderness filled place in the sense that much will always remain unknown to whoever is perceiving it.
It’s a city of islands, except the Bronx - a non island island anyway. Surrounded by water, medieval! - an Eastern Seaboard, Atlantic feeling! Cheers
@@TMD3453 ooh. Cheers to you too and thanks for your beautifully phrased and thought provoking comments!! 😊
@@RebekahCurielAlessi Oh thanks, glad they were understandable and they said something. New York has a natural setting and is more than buildings!!
@@TMD3453 yes!! Have you ever read that New Yorker article (maybe 15 years ago) about Manhattan before any, at least Western cultural layerings? Just the natural landscape.
There's such a vibration to NYC. Like the painter Luchita Hurtado said about Mexico City, I think there are portals to certain wonderlands inside the New York City territory.
@@RebekahCurielAlessi Love that about wonderlands inside NYC. Thanks in re the New Yorker article. I will have to check it out!
You forgot about the Queen-Nassau line in bellrose, & between NY-25/A: Jericho Tpke. & Hillside Ave.
I wish the border with Nassau - Queens was more solidified lol
What surprised me the most was how many of this kid’s consonants have been replaced with glottal stops.
Denver’s downtown next please! Any locality on a 45° is challenging to navigate…
The most surprising thing ... is the glottal stop for "t" in the word "Manhahin"
Love the video! Grew up on the Brooklyn/Queens border on the J line, going North/South across Queens via public transit is a pain in the neck.
Cover Robert Moses next. He screwed the city up more than anyone even had the power to.
you pronounce manhattan very weirdly ngl
They could easily attach a floating (raft) city to the edge of Staten Island and connect it to Manhattan, forever solving the issue.
Manhat-an
"The geography and history of New York City is so whack" is my new favorite historical commentary.
Basically it's all about the tilt. Gotta respect the tilt.
Wow! That was very interesting. I had no clue how unusual the borough boundaries were. TFS! ❤
Hey Thom! Didn't know about this channel. Have a great day. Very interesting video.
Neat explanation on geography being inaccurate on Manhattan along with some other boroughs.
Great video! Another unique thing about Breezy Point is that it’s a private gated community that only allows entry to residents and guests. The same is true of the western end of Coney Island, there’s a security checkpoint
I'd say the Breezy Point to Ft Totten (Queens) line crossing into Suffolk is most surprising... dawns on me how narrow Nassau
To put the Staten Island south extremity - Bronx NE extremity in perspective, those 36 miles on the NJ Transit NEC Line would get you past Jersey Ave... which is 34.4 miles from NY Penn
"manHATTIN". Sounds so weird.
I was surprised that Queens alone is 109 square miles. Certainly need to a few weeks to visit even half the places mentioned in the video!
Fav trivia - Staten Island Outerbridge Crossing : Eugenius Outerbridge - first chairman of the NY Port Authority! The bridge was named after him.
I hate the way he (and others) say words like Manhattan. Man-ha' 'en with all those Glottal Stops in the middle. There seems to be an unstoppable trend of younger English speakers in this country to drop the T's in the middle of words. American English is turning into the Cockney English of London. God help us all.
I know a Jerseyite of Italian origin (in his mid-50s) and Brooklyn Jews (in their 30s and 40s) who both pronounce it that way.
@@TubeintheTub I worked with a woman from New Jersey and she spoke that way also. This was 10 years ago, and she was in her mid 20's. I noticed the trend started on the East Coast and is slowly moving westward.
I've always known that New York City was very big but this video shows that it's even bigger than I realized.
Im from inwood. My elementary school was built on top of a indian burial ground.
Many buildings and sites in Manhattan are built on top of former burial grounds.
Of all the examples you could’ve used of household things, you picked going to sleep in Brooklyn and waking up in Queens? I usually fall asleep and wake up in the same spot lmao.
Awesome video. I loved it.
You should do a video on the geographic center of NYC. I have heard and seen an overwhelming number of arguments over the true location including a bar in Queens, a marker on Queens Boulevard, an intersection in Bushwick, etc., some of which exclude staten island in the measurements. If you have done so already, point me to that video. Thanks for this episode.
Some great Jeopardy items in this very informative video.
@KenJennings
Bud really thought we didn’t see that Queenslink plug 😭
You should try being in the same room as your microphone
Maybe you should try to turn up your volume I can hear it perfectly fine
I live on a street in Pennsylvania that separates a borough from a township, with the border running down the middle of the street. This is not terribly uncommon. The houses on my side of the street are the township and the people on the other side are in the borough....EXCEPT for the lot of one of my neighbors, which is encompassed by a little tab/notch only around their property. So everyone else that side of the street lives in the township, but they live in the borough. This has something to do with what was originally there 100+ years ago before the street and houses were built.
What surprises me the most is that New Jersey is in another state and not incorporated with New York City. It is clearly part of Greater NY.
Because New Jersey is a separate state. Just because people commute from there to new York for work doesn’t make it a part of NY.
I see you at 8:10
#buildthequeenslink
Spring Creek was the Brooklyn-Queens boundary from City Line south to New Lots between Ozone Park & Lindenwood. Spring Creek has long since been buried underground and buildings put up over it and that explains the earlier weird border in that area- follow the river under the houses. Another interesting topic of Queens and Brooklyn geography is how many creeks, streams, and small lakes or ponds have been filled in or piped underground. Wonder why your basement floods a lot in the rain, your house may have been built over a stream or pond.
I don't know why but I like this video 😊
It's funny to me how viewers are jarred by your pronunciation of Manhattan because I was surprised (and a bit thrilled) to hear it pronounced the way I hear it most often growing up in Jersey City ( being closer to Midtown than parts of all the other boroughs) and being in NYC and NJ. Sometimes you still hear the T and it's not a full glottal stop but no one who lives here is really hitting that hard T, I shudder to think how Trenton is pronounced haha. Great video I love maps and this was fascinating!
This was a really good video.
Great video bro
Suing for custody of your dirt is so new jersey
You did not mention the counties. New York, New York So good they named it three times. The Manhattan DA in the news at the moment is actually the DA for the County of New York.
What surprised me the most in this video was how you pronounced Manhattan.
I rarely travel out to Queens because the city gave up on properly naming streets. I've traveled to 69th Street, which happens to be next to a 69th Lane, that goes to a 69th Road which is near 69th Place. Then you go down the block and the same weird naming confusion continues.
And when the street grid goes from 11th to 21st St in Western Queens.
Or, long ago, Queens changed from names to numbers which left us with Avenue, Road, Lane & Courts 😩
#Noice!…
literally!
The original Ellis Island, and for that matter Liberty Island, are in New York, but the state line is the middle of the river, so the water surrounding the islands is New Jersey. So, When they added to Ellis Island, they actually filled in river area that was in New Jersey. Where the landfill came from did not determine what state the addition is in, the location where the landfill was placed did.
The Brooklyn Bridge is on the lower east side of Manhattan
As a linguist, I’m curious about your accent. The “t” was suppressed when you said Manhattan (Man ha | in), but “t” was pronounced in most other words.
GREAT VIDEO! Earned a subscriber here! Well researched and presented!
For what it’s worth, I grew up in NYC and I have never heard Manhattan pronounced with a hard t sound. It might be softly appended to the second syllable, but especially not if you’re speaking at a normal cadence.
@@theArcosa exactly right. More of a (Man had in).
The missing/dropped “t” is typically PNW (Pacific Northwestern, Seattle-area) with words like:
Wah | ah = water
kih | in = kitten
moun | n = mountain
Buh | n = button
Sir | n = certain
These are different than the “d” wadder/water.
I couldn't get past 90 seconds into the video because every 4th word was "Manha'en"
@@asdfate1 I hear you. It was a challenge. I’m finding this dropped T more often these days. Moun*ain, wa*er, cer*ain.
None of you understand language or accents, that’s why
why did u exclude pelham bay park and city island from the outline of the bronx?
The best part of NYC? The view out of the plane window as you're leaving.
Or the observation floor of the Empire State Building. Very central.
Let the debate about what state Liberty Island is in... BEGIN!
This is interesting. But there's a lot more. To scratch the surface just a bit - Staten Island really should have been part of New Jersey to the point that there was a dispute in the 18th Century over which state should have it that was settled with a boat race. And Queens and Nassau Counties were all Queens from inception until 1899. When the consolidation of the city was voted on in 1897, the Western 1/3 of Queens voted to be a borough and the Eastern 2/3 wanted to stay out of the city. Both groups felt so strongly that the Western part retained the identity of Queens County and became a borough while the Eastern 2/3 seceded and became Nassau County.
That Staten Island boat race is an old legend that never happened. Richmond County (Staten Island) is one of New York’s original 11 counties and has been part of New York since the late 1600s.
i always felt as a brooklynite that part of the rockaways was part of Bklyn since i cud clearly see it from my side! lol\ geography vs politics.
Next time you talk about the geography of NYC, be sure to include the "The Hole" - a neighborhood that straddles both Brooklyn and Queens and is easily the most forgotten part of the entire city (in more ways than one).
I always forget about that place. I figured it would have a come up along with all of that Gateway progress. Didn’t they put a strip mall right next/in front of it?
@@NiKiMa023 Yes. Just east of it is Linden Center shopping mall. www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1HtjPegOAIDm6nDH3gJWucWQYaEATQEah&ll=40.67156722890724%2C-73.85732347802029&z=17
I didn’t know Ellis Island was half New Jersey
Your pronunciation of "Manhattan" is weird.
Take A Shot everytime he says "Manhattan" 🥛🥛🥛
I never heard him say Manhattan. He did say Manha’en a lot, though.
@@Brap-pl2me So take double
@@kayleighgroenendal8473 I like the way you think.
ua-cam.com/video/_2ZxORGxTz4/v-deo.htmlsi=4zit3K_0Pkhjtfu1
Man-ha-in. That sounds funny and distracting. Video is very informative, however.
Sounds like most cats in NYC. Where are you from, Kansas?
@@TopBillinSportsPeople in NYC don’t speak like that lol
@@Brap-pl2me - Uh, us black people do. Shit, most people in this general area of Jersey/Philly/NYC do with words that have T's in the middle of them.
@@TopBillinSports Educated people don’t, regardless of their skin color.
@@Brap-pl2meI do and I’m educated. It’s a natural speech impediment, like the briish and their boohs oh woahs
There is no city in the world like NYC, I swear….lol
Nassau County used to be part of Queens until 1899. Lloyd Harbor in Suffolk County also used to be part of Queens.
Nothing about the Bronx?
Suffolk was never part of Queens County, only Nassau
The Bronx used to be a bunch of towns that was part of Westchester County. Then the Southwestern part of Westchester County (now West Bronx) became part of New York County when it was annexed by New York City. Once the Borough of The Bronx was created in 1898 (with the Southeastern part of Westchester County also becoming a part of The Bronx), it was a part of New York County until 1914, when it became Bronx County.
@@amazing50000 Actually, the part that's now Caumsett State Park was considered to be in the Town of Oyster Bay. That was Queens County before it was Nassau.
You're right about the Bronx though. I just wish it was covered here like the other boroughs.
Suffolk County wasn't part of Queens.
@@wilmars9146 No, just the segment in Lloyd Harbor. Suffolk County got it from Queens in 1886.
Wake up in Brooklyn, brush your teeth in Queens, I like that, LOL!!!
you sound like Sam from Wendover with a worse mic
Rockaway Park and Breezy Point should be in Brooklyn