How Did The Streets Of New York Get Their Names?
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- Опубліковано 18 лис 2019
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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
NYC Streets: www.nycgo.com/articles/nyc-st...
Streets vs Avenues: becomeanewyorker.com/streets-a...
Designing The City Of New York: www.nypl.org/blog/2010/07/30/...
Why Is There No 4th Avenue?: www.huffpost.com/entry/why-is...
Why Is Is Called Wall Street?: www.livescience.com/32563-why...
The Sweet Story Of Love Lane: ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.co...
Brooklyn’s Fruit Streets: www.brownstoner.com/history/b...
Sesame Street: www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...
Houston Texas: www.mentalfloss.com/article/6...
"Opportunity Walks"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Name Explain Suggestion: How did the word “Seltic” get its origin?
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9:02 *Brede Weg
Why Arkansas and Kansas have such a different pronunciation? 🤔
Wait that's it. There's so many more Street names. We need a part 2 and 3.
Hello from New York! One nitpick to unpack: 4th Avenue as a name does still exist. When they renamed the section of 4th Avenue between 34th Street and 40th Street to Park Avenue in 1860, they were naming it after the park-like median that had been installed in the center in the 1850s to cover the unsightly train track cut in the middle of the avenue. The name was, at some point, extended south another two blocks to 32nd Street. Later, when the upper reaches of 4th Avenue were built-up with new residential development, the name was extended north over the rest of 4th all the way up to Fordham Plaza in The Bronx as a marketing ploy, to make the newly-constructed homes on the avenue sound more-appealing. This was later followed in 1959 by “Park Avenue South” being applied between 32nd Street and 17th Street, with the section alongside Union Square Park south to 14th Street being already-named Union Square East. I mention all of this because that leaves one section unaltered: 8th Street to 14th Street, from Cooper Square to Union Square. That section is still called “4th Avenue.”
Christian Boscherini came here to say this, albeit with less details! I lived off 4th Ave when I first moved here
Samurai X fans woud be proud
Christian Boscherini you beat me it!
Said it better than me (though I was going to initially)
What borough r u from? Im from the bronx
3:45 4th Avenue DOES exist in New York City, although it is much shorter than the other numbered avenues. It starts at 8th Street, near the Cooper Triangle, and it ends at 14th Street, at Union Square.
Yes, I was going to say that. 4th Avenue goes somewhat diagonally (like Broadway, but shorter)
Then there is 4th Avenue in Brooklyn
I was born, raised, and grew up on Utopia Parkway in Queens and never knew the derivation of the name. Utopia Parkway is also the name of an album by Fountains of Wayne.
Broadway -> Brede Wen should be Brede Weg. I wonder where you got that N from.
Cool video!
and the r in brede should not be pronounced as an L
Most Germanic languages had and still have spellings as "weg" for the word "way." If Patrick had the time he might have corrected himself if he had been to Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens & had looked up the history and etymology of the name of the street and village which was actually named after the piano company Steinway & Sons, where the head of the family was Heinrich E. Steinway. The family didn't change their name from Steinweg to Steinway until 1864. The Astoria neighborhood of Queens was originally called Steinway Village.
www.nytimes.com/1989/08/30/obituaries/john-h-steinway-is-dead-at-72-headed-family-s-piano-concern.html
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinway_%26_Sons
G and N are close together on the keyboard.
"Broad/wide road" in Dutch is "Brede weg", not "brede wen". "Wen" is the I conjugation of the verb "wennen", which has nothing to do with this
Also, a nice historical tidbit to add to Broadway - before it was Brede Weg, it was Wickquasgeck and was originally part of the main Lenape trade route through Manaháhtaan.
So that's why google maps mispronounces Houston street near the Alamo.
I've got three streets in my city that are called, Whicha way, Thisa way, and Thata way. They are small, but when I first saw those I thought it would fun to telling people I live on whicha way right past thata way
There is also a county in Georgia called Houston (Howston)
And Houston, Mississippi, and Houston, Missouri.
Ireland has Hewston station same as Bono’s surname.
Thanks for making this video and accepting my suggestion! ❤ (You even pronounced my name correctly xD ) I still remember calling it Hyooston Street when I was young and didn't know better, but now, it's become an easy way to spot foreigners, as they'll usually call it Hyooston Street instead of House-ton Street 🤣
I've always been curious what the ethomology of 5th, 6th, 7th avenue and streets came from ;D!
It was briefly mentioned in the video, but the City's grid originates from the 1811 Plan, which set forth a grid layout for all streets and avenues north of Houston Street. The numbered streets increase going up the island, whereas the avenues increment from right to left, with Fifth Avenue delineating East from West. For some more entertaining, mathematical insight into this, I recommend mathematician Matt Parker's video "The Equation of Broadway," where he plots the coordinates of Broadway with respect to the City's grid (as it cuts diagonally through it) and calculates its y=mx+b linear equation. It's quite arguably the nerdiest video about Manhattan you'll ever see 🤓 (Although, annoyingly, he calls Houston Street "Hyooston Street" in the video.) 🤣
@@AlexSh789 Actually, he never discussed why 5th avenue is the divider. Everything west of it is West Xth Street and everything east of it is East Xth Street.
@@jonahfalcon1970 - I never said he discussed it.
Broadway is comes from Brede Weg not Brede wen . Weg means road in Dutch.
I love your video. Wallstreet is not a wall but comes from the Dutch word wal (a brick side of a river used for ship docking)
9:03 do you perhaps mean brede weg or am i being stupid about my own language?
New York makes sense until you go to queens and then you go in a straight line and pass 33rd st, 33rd road, 33rd ave, and 33rd blvd
I used to know someone who lived on 236th Street in Queens! At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.
You said avenues all go north to south in New York. Queens would like to have a word with you lol
yeah, all bets are off in Queens. I've also been visiting a friend in LIC and seen 46th Rd. and 46th Ave. right near each other.
@@Nzie Well, New York could refer to the name of the COUNTY. Aka Manhattan.
@@jonahfalcon1970 that's true, but didn't this video also mention the Bronx and Brooklyn?
Yes, Queens is hell to navigate - do you want 52nd Road, 52nd Drive, or 52nd Avenue?
@@Nzie Not Broadway in Brooklyn, no.
I live in NY, glad you talked about the streets and avenues. It’s the city that never sleeps and the city of dreams
Nice video, but I am Dutch, so I have some things to say about it, If you don 't mind.
First of all: I personally didn't think about a boerderij, or farm, with the name Bowery. Second is that the Dutch name of Broadway is brede weg and not brede wen, as you said.
someone triggered Hilbert!
Bowery is vernoemd naar een 'Bouwerij', waar het woord 'Boerderij' van afstamt
Yoris Kerkhoff Ah. Dat wist ik niet. Dank je.
At least Ha(a)rlem was less of a transition. 😀
There is a 4th Avenue in Manhattan. It lasted from Astor Place to 14th Street.
There is a 4th Ave in Manhattan, it's between 14th Street and Astor Place (Cooper Square) in the East Village. It turns into Park Ave South, north of 14th Street
Thanks for covering my city! I had long wondered where the name Mosholu came from. I happen to live quite near Mosholu Parkway.
I know nobody will ever make a video about this but in Belgium we got some really strange street names.
True man, it’s weird
The wall that ran along Wall Street separated the Dutch and later British settlers from the hostile indian tribes that weren't happy about their island being occupied. The canal on Canal Street was used as a flushing canal, where people would throw their waste and garbage, and the canal would carry it out to the rivers. Broadway was a native american trail that goes all the way from the southern tip of Manhattan to Sleepy Hollow in New York State. Water street in Manhattan was where the original waters edge was, everything east of the street is built on landfill.
The wall that the Dutch built was actually initially to keep out the Lenape tribe who did NOT sell the Dutch Manhattan island, but had instead traded goods to share the land together. There was a miscommunication on this between both the Lenape and the Dutch though and when the tribe kept refusing to leave (rightfully so), the Dutch eventually got frustrated enough that they forced the tribe out and built a wall in response. It was just lucky that the wall kept out the British too.
President James Madison not well known? Tell that to a "Hamilton" fan.
YES
Indeed not. We do have the web outside the USA, you know.
If Sporcle's US Presidents quiz (www.sporcle.com/games/g/presidents/results) is an accurate indication, Madison is the 22nd best known president.
The most obscure ones are Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Warren G. Harding.
Old New York was once New Amsterdam
During this time there was a rather large population of hogs that's right swine pigs it was a staple food of early residents of New Amsterdam the name Wall Street literally takes its name from the wall that prevented the pigs from running loose in downtown New Amsterdam you are welcome for that that imagery is awesome
If I'm not mistaken one of the biggest most common nicknames used for New York was Gotham
No, it's only Gotham at night. In the day, it's Metropolis.
Linguistically oversight 86 do you mean "empire Bay"
In the metropolitan Phoenix area, known collectively as the “Valley of the Sun”, the streets and avenues are parallel running north & south, with the avenues on the west side of the valley getting higher the further you go west and the streets on the east side of the valley getting higher the further you go east. Central Avenue is right in the middle which is basically zero. Also any 8 streets or avenues is one mile.
The name streets are the ones that run east and west and every major one is also a mile apart. Therefore the whole metropolitan area, comprised of over 40 cities, is one giant grid!
So in Brooklyn, Williamsburg has mostly guys who signed the constitution, Bed Stuy has your presidents and civil war participants, Crown Heights has your various upstate NY cities, ENY has the various states while streets in between these parts are named after a lot of Northern European people as well as towns. Most of the NYC housing developments are named after former Mayors, Governors and Presidents.
There are TWO Broadways in NYC. The Broadway in Brooklyn runs West to East, and the J-M elevated line runs over it.
Also, Broadway in NYC is no longer broad. It was turned into a single lane street.
I would like to point out that the distinction between "street" and "avenue" given in the video only applies to American English, possibly only to New York. In British English an "avenue" is a road lined with trees, or at least a road which had trees lining it when it was named.
You forgot the infinite debate over how to pronounce Schermerhorn and Koscuiuszko.
Greetings from Chicago. For the latter is the debate there the same as here: ko-SHOOSH-ko versus koz-ee-OSS-ko? The first I'd think is SHIM-mer-horn, what's the other?
timmmahhhh If you want to pronounce it like the Dutch town, its difficult because the English language doesn’t use the sound of ch like the Dutch do. Ch has the same sound as g, a sort of guttural sound, while in English it’s more a k sound. Like in the word school, which is pronounce like skool, while we pronounce it as sghole. The E of schEmErhorn is pronounced as the soft A in Away. Horn is pronounced almost the same in English as in Dutch, but with a rolling r (in the front of the mouth) a sort of double r. So something like Sgarrmarrhorrn.
Schermerhorn is pronounced Scheme-er-horn. Kosciuszko is a little tricky, its Kosh-she-oo-scoo.
In Brooklyn, we pronounce Schermerhorn ad SKIM-mer-horn
In proper Polish Kościuszko would be pronounced something similar to Koshchooshkoh. The sz sound is kinda inbetween a regular s and a sh sound. Someone else already explained Schermerhorn with a Dutch pronounciation, so I won't repeat that. :P
“It’s a grid system you simple child!”
Not really... I’m from Staten Island which IS a borough, and it’s streets aren’t at all a grid.
In Harlem, there's a street with two names: Lenox Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard.
There's also 116th Street which was renamed Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.
In Harlem there’s also Peepeepoopooshitpiss SHUT THE FUCK UP.
It’s originally “James Lenox BLVD” but was renamed after Malcom X in 87
Thanks for telling me how to pronounce W Houston St. I work for a medical alarm company and frequently have to call the NYC dispatch center. If I ever saw this street pop up, I would've said "west hyooston" st. Now I know that it's "double you house-ton" st. Thanks Name Explain!
Well, it would be "West House-ton", yeah.
West of the 3-Ave block of Madison/Park/Lex, the EVEN avenues go North, and the ODD avenues go South. This is incredibly helpful to know this when you’re trying to get a cab, so you know if you have to grab a cab or Uber, you want to make sure you’re on the right ave facing the right direction. Knowing that also helps you know which direction to go to get from 20th to 23rd, or 30th to 27th, for examples. East of the three-avenue section, they flip, so 1st and 3rd go North, and 2nd goes South.
Also, right in the beginning of your video one of the first screenshots shows “4th Ave”. Lol.
8:35 Ok that is NOT what the Victory Boulevard exit sign looks like. The Staten Island expressway doesn’t have that many exits.
FYI: There are many streets in the Netherlands called 'Walstraat'.. They either refer to the 'city wall' ('stadswal') that many cities had long ago _or_ to it being close to the 'wal' (which means 'quay' or 'shore' in Dutch). Of course, the 'stadswal' _was_ a wall, it being a city wall. Semi-interestingly, in Dutch the word 'wal' does not mean 'wall' (that's reserved for the word 'muur'). That said, I think in _this_ particular case it does refer to a city wall though.
You should do how American Cities got their names (ie Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco, etc.)
History With Aidan: The city I live in which is Phoenix got its name because it was burned down in a fire and rebuilt itself bigger and better than ever just like the famous mythological bird that died in a fire and rose from the ashes.
Steve Leuniz That’s really cool, I would have never thought that, my home city Philadelphia means the city of brotherly love, William Penn the founder of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania, named it because he was a Quaker, and wanted his colony to allow religious freedom, which the Quakers didn’t have in England.
Yes, we learned all that in American history. :) May I ask your age or what grade you're in?
I was waiting for you to get to Houston Street
2:11 Off topic, but 19th and 21st street (Chelsea -Flat Iron ) is one of the best parts of the city. Also, Matto Cafe on 7th and I think 21st, has everything on the menu at 2 dollars.
FDNY shirts became a thing after 9/11 in case you were really wondering why they have merch
HOLD ON!
There is a 4th avenue in Manhattan. It starts at E.14th street (the south border of Union Square).
there is a 4th avenue in manhattan it runs between east 8th and union square
Yay my university was sorta featured on Name Explain! It’s right on utopia parkway
The accent made me hear "This episode is sponsored by the rich" love it
I'm from NY near NYC, and yeah NYC is freaking difficult to navigate. Go to the High Line if you haven't done it yet, it's built on an old decomissioned train tracks
It should be brede weg, not wen. Literally means broadway as well. Boerderij is pronounced like: boo-r-der-ai. In case you like to know. Like the video though
So how is the street name in Brooklyn called Boerum Street is supposed to be pronounced in Dutch? We say "bore-uhm" here in NYC.
Lee Kwok Boorum, oe in Dutch has the same sound as oo in English. And the rum is pronounced the same. Broek in dutch sounds similar as brook in English, although we Dutch let our tongue ‘roll’ more in the front of our mouth when pronouncing the letter r. Broek means trousers by the way.
Brooklyn is named after a little town called Breukelen. Boerem comes from the Dutch word boeren I suppose? That’s the same boeren as the wars in South Africa. It just means “farmers”.
Petition for name explained of all kinds of roads
Just a small correction, the wall where Wall Street now is was built to keep out native Americans, not the British
Talking about Utopia Pkwy got me thinking you could do a series on book titles. Titles that have themselves become words like Utopia, Odyssey, Catch-22, etc. Also, titles that the author took from somewhere else and then put a twist on, like Watchmen (an ancient Roman joke about harem guards becoming a meditation on the impotence of authority in the face of danger, plus how the particular translation of "ipsos custodiat" to "watchmen" (instead of, say, "guards") lent itself to all the clock and time imagery). Legions of lit students being asked "what does the title mean?" on a pop quiz will be forever grateful to you!
LexiDizzle The biography of the artist Joseph Cornell is named Utopia Parkway because he lived in a house on that street for most of his life.
It's not brede wen but brede weg. And when I hear Bowery I don't think: Ah, that's boerderij....
In Phoenix, all the North-South roads are numbered, starting from Central Ave in downtown. The numbers count up going west and the roads are named Avenues; the numbers go up going east and are named Streets (so it is super important to know if you're going to 67th Street or 67th Ave). There is also a diagonal Grand Ave that cuts through the grid.
At 9:04 it’s “brede weg” not “brede wen”
In my city there is also a Frist through Fifth Avenue but for some reason the first four are all next to each other in one suburb and Fifth Avenue is several kilometres away in another suburb. I've yet to find out why this is the case though.
Manhattan: I have perfect grids
Broadway: *diagonal*
There's a Houston in Renfrewshire near Glasgow . It is pronounced Hooston though. There's a Dallas in north east Scotland too.
Wow, I had no idea Broadway extended way beyond NYC. Adjacent to my college in southern Maryland is a road called Mattapany (ma-duh-pun-EYE) Road. People would say it's the oldest road in the US that's still in use. That's a gutsy claim, considering that it's not just verifiably false, but by literally the most famous road in the world.
There is a street in my town in India called randhawa road which literally means runway road. The name of my hometown translates to UK.
We do have a fourth avenue in the city. South of union square when Park Avenue south ends.
Does/did any of your Patreon patron has suggest about "anime vs cartoon" thing? That would be a nice video
Sorry for grammar, but you know what I mean, don't you?
i thought w houston was named after whitney houston
It's pronounced HOW-stun. Us New Yorkers can tell if someone is a tourist if they say HEW-stun.
And that street is older than her ancestors
seasme street used to be shown on Channel 4 in the UK
8:34 the photo you used for Victory Blvd is from Portland, Oregon, not from Staten Island 😂
There is a Houston County in Georgia which is pronounced like the "Houston" in New York.
Broadway was also built over top a trail created and used by Native Americans, which is probably why it's a rare street in upper Manhattan that isn't just north-south/east-west. The southern tip of Manhattan is much less regular. But above the oldest part of the city you can also just get to know which streets go which way. The Sesame Street thing isn't uncommon, either-a lot of streets get second names based on what they want to honor (or who they want to annoy). I always get a smile at the political ones, like Sakharov-Bonner corner, named for two Soviet dissidents, and placed right around what was then the Soviet Mission to the UN.
42nd St and 2nd Avenue - Nelson and Winnie Mandela Corner
I'm from da Bronx - it's pronounced MA SHOE LA (Moshulu Pkwy). Also there's the Grand Concourse - huge palatial apartments where in the 30s and 40s the NY Yankees lived (it's a short walk to the stadium on 161st St/Grand Concourse).
You've spelled and pronounced it wrong.
It's Mosholu
Pronounced mahsh uh loo
Grand Concourse comes from its wide width.
@@RRansomSmith You're right my typo MOSHOLU is correct. But I've lived in the Bronx 50 years. You're "pronunciation" is an adapted one because the subway announcement says it your way (that's wrong). The correct way to say it is MA SHOE LA.
In Georgia we have a county named Houston county which is pronounced just like NY
You should do one on Dixie Highway, runs through almost all of the US to the gulf of Mexico.
explain why the buses have the numbers that they have in London!
yes
wouldn’t that be a video more fitting for number explain...?
...? Well, the M11 is the M12 because it's in *M*anhattan and it goes up 12th avenue (and down 11th).
Park ave is still called 4th ave! Just on the lower east side
1. There is a 4th Avenue- park ave between Union square and Lafayette street
2. 6th Avenue is on the west side not the east side.
3. Madison square garden is not in Madison square park as you alluded.
I didn't notice about these names I of those streets, Avenue, blvd or road on NYC
There Actually IS a 4th avenue by Union Square.. It is very small I think just a few blocks but it does exist
can you please talk about viennas district names?
Very interesting. Explains a lot. But what about “Gay St”. Seriously. It’s there and isn’t very long.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Street_(Manhattan) says that it's probably named after a family who lived in the area in the 1700's.
Don’t associate W 228 St in Marble Hill as part of the Bronx.
Hi, I'm from New York as well. There is East Broadway and Broadway, Queens.
(cough) Broadway is in Brooklyn.
@@jonahfalcon1970 Thanks for reminding about Brooklyn's Broadway.
Manhattan: Starts naming their streets after numbers
Bronx: Nice
Brooklyn: Ooh
Queens: What is this-
Now you have to do a video on how the Big Apple got its nickname, the Big Apple. And other large cities with prominent nicknames.
It was slang meaning it was the best city for musicians to gig, it means the band was successful if they got to play gigs there.
Please do more videos with geography or history.
Australian name places logically = boring
New yorker name streets numerically = logical
Change New South Wales to Eastern Australia, Victoria to Southeastern Australia and Brisbane to Northeastern Australia.
Tsz Fung Li well Australia is a boring place so anything they do is boring...........😁🤣
@@ashiqurrahman1343 the Aboriginal names for places are more interesting
Thought this whole thing was going to be about the chain restaurant "Streets of New York"
San Houston was actually both 3rd AND 1st president of the Republic of Texas
There is a 4th Avenue below Union Square
I'm not even gonna lie I walked down the street n NewYork when I was younger n the numbers changed n I just turned around n a maze n went back to my aunt's house feeling shopping plaza bound
How about Thomas street and the Long Lines building
Madison Square garden isn't even on Madison Avenue.
Actually, that's where the first Madison Square Garden was located, the one that exists now is the third incarnation of the arena. Also, Madison Avenue runs along Madison Square Park, which was across from where the original garden was.
@@Lv-nq9qz Because that fucktard decided Penn Station was too beautiful and wanted to build an ugly building on its site and call it Madison Sq. Garden.
There are a few typos on your Patreon Support page list. You have a line that reads: Something to get invloved with Monday to Friday, it should be involved and later you call yourself an indepent not independent creator. Otherwise great work.
For a moment I thought he said"This video is sponsored by the rich"....I thought"nice!" 😃
This was a different video. There wasn't much to talk about. I liked this video.
Weg or Wegh, not Wen.. otherwise great video as always!
explain the names of each & every native american tribe
There are like 500
The thousands of them? Or the ones that are subdivisions of the others with their own names?
I'm pretty sure that the NY Stock Market is on Broad St, not Wall St.
I alway thought Wallstreet was named after De Wallen in Amsterdam. Never asked myself why New York would name such an important street after a place that is known for its prostitution! haha
They’re a Memory Lane in my city lol
There actually is a 4th Ave , it's just a few blocks long tho
19th St to 21st St is not across. It's up.