Hey Folks!
I was a little backwards in New York on my last visit. What is the easiest way to keep your bearings? How can you tell North, South, East and West? Also, without cross streets how do you figure out an address such as 272 Bleecker Stree? Thanks!

There are formulas for each avenue to figure out the cross street, but people giving you directions should tell you about it.

[292 Bleecker is at 7th Ave, according to various maping websites.]

It's not hard to keep your bearings from the lower mid-town northwards. Avenues go north-south, streets go east-west. On avenues, number go higher heading uptown. On streets, they count from 5th Ave. Going to east is East xxth st, going west is West xxth st.

People don't say north or south. North is "uptown", south is "downtown".

There's no 4th Ave, but between 3rd and 5th are (from east to west) Lexington, Park and Madison.

Actually the city isn't quite as hard to figure out once you get just some basics.

The earlier post is right on, with directions for mid and uptown. Below Houston St there are no numbered streets so it's a little more difficult so you might mapquest if you have specific questions.

From Houston St on heading uptown, the Avenues on the east side
1st - North
2nd -South
3rd -Both until 23rd then North
Park - Both ways
Madison -North
5th - South

West Side
Central Park West -Both ways
6th - North
Broadway -Both ways until 59 then South
7th - South
Columbus - South
Amsterdam - North
8th - North
9th - South
10th - North
11th - South
12th - North

That might help a bit, and some of the Avenues for a short time go both ways (Amsterdam and Columbus)

The even number streets generally go east and the odd streets go west.

Oh and one note there actually is a 4th Ave it's very short and starts at 14th ST heading south and ends around Astor Place.

Hope this helps a bit.

Some people find it easier to manage with a compass. That can help with the uptown/downtown east/west issue. It's very hard to find any location with at least 1 cross street (ie Lexington & 42 st.) or better still 2 cross streets (Lexington between 42 & 43 st.) If you have a computer, you can put an address on mapquest.com or some other mapping system and it will give the cross street.

Here's a street locator, but I don't think it will work for the example you gave. http://www.ny.com/locator/

Hopstop.com is another good site. You can even get walking directions (in addition to subway and bus) and estimated taxi cost in Manhattan.

That should read "...hard to find any location withOUT at least 1 cross street..."

Another way to orient yourself is by landmarks - buildings and rivers.

Compass? Keep in mind that Manhattan isn't perfectly lined N-S. "Uptown" is actually NNE.

How about just getting a handheld GPS if one's having so much trouble?

travelbuff's explanation is very good. Take note of the order that the avenues occur (as indicated) so when you're walking from one to the next on a cross street, you know which direction you're heading. I would just add that the directions are for which way the vehicular traffic is moving: i.e., traffic on 1st Ave moves north, so walking with traffic you also will be heading north.

Also, before the advent of easy to use computer mapping, street addresses were computed using a formula. I found it online: www.nyctourist.com/nycinfo_address.htm

And a slight correction to rkkwan: people do say north/south etc. all the time, as in "the doctor's office is on the north side of the block, closer to Lex than 3rd" or "the Starbucks is on the southeast corner of Madison and 55th; I'll meet you in front". We just don't use it in a general directional sense; in that case, everything is uptown-downtown-crosstown, relative to where you are standing or to the map of Manhattan.

Just remember

"The Bronx is up and the Battery's down" and you'll be fine.

J62, I like your directions best.

As in any city, the best way to get a grip on it is to refer to a map. Look at a map before you go, see where your hotel, sights, etc are and get a sense of it.

After you arrive, even if you don't want to open a map on the street, refer to it while at your hotel to keep a sense of things. In time it will become clear.

I've lived in NYC for 30 years and I still look at a map once a week or so.

Finding a numbered address is fairly easy on numbered streets. As said above, "55 EAST 50th street" is east of Fifth Ave. "55 WEST" is west of 5th. Avenues are a hodgepodge - each numbers differently and requires an "address finder" to figure out. BUT if you always ask the restaurant or whatever what the cross street is, you'll have no trouble. (Truly, in ads etc, many businesses will include that info.)

If you know that streets get higher in number as you go uptown (north) and Avenues number from East to West (1st is East and 12th is west) you have the basics.

As for downtown: Wall ST, Soho, Tribeca, The Village(s) - only the rare NYer can find their way through these old neighborhoods without a map and/or directions. And all of us get turned around and momentarily "lost" from time to time.

New York north of 4th St - where the grid pattern is in effect is easy.

Lower number streets 10th or 11th are further south and higher number streets 35th or 36th are farther north. Once you hit the numbers all the streets have numbers.

For Avenues (the major streets that run north to south)the lower numbers (First Avenue) are farther east and the higher numbers (8th/9th) are farther west.

To find an address on a number street - the dividing line is Fifth Avenue. Going west from Fifth Avenue will be 1 (first block) west whatever, then 50 , then 100 - usually each avenue starts a new hundred (100 west, 200 west). Similarly the addreses east start at Fifth Avenue - that is 1 W 34th St will be at fifth Ave, 50 W will be at Madison, 100 west will be at Park (some of the east side avenues have names versus number - and all you can do is memorize them).

You cannot tell addreses on the Avenues by the number -that is - numbers on Fifth Avenue ran at a completely different rate than do those on Madison or Broadway. For example at 42 St you may hae 500 Fifth Avenue and 300 Madison Avenu and 1500 Broadway. Again - you need to consult a map to figure this out.

When you in downtown Manhattan the oldest section without a grid pattern - there is no way to tell anything by the numbers unless you're personally faniliar with it - you just have to ask what the cross streets are.

Suggest you get a good street map and study it in advance - as well as a subway map.

agree with lizzie, when i first moved to NY I would always look up for either the WTC or Empire State to give a good judge of direction.

Or you can do what my cub-scout nephew suggested. Look for the moss, which reportedly grows on the north side of trees.

His father and I had a good chuckle over that one.

Actually, there is a 4th Ave in the East Village between 8th and 14th Streets.

Here is a site for calculating addhttp://www.ny.com/locator/

I tried to copy part of it but it became jumbled.


Manhattan Address Locator
FIND THE CROSS STREETS with the building number and avenue:

This street locator is based on an algorithm which will ESTIMATE cross streets for any address on a numbered street in Manhattan. It does not work for downtown streets which are not numbered. The algorithm can be found in any print telephone directory. For maps try Yahoo! Maps.
Building #:
Avenue:
First AvenueSecond AvenueThird AvenueFourth AvenueFifth AvenueSixth AvenueAve of AmericasSeventh AvenueEighth AvenueNinth AvenueTenth AvenueEleventh AvenueAvenue AAvenue BAvenue CAvenue DAmsterdam AvenueAudubon AvenueBroadwayColumbus AvenueConvent AvenueEdgecomb AvenueFt. Washington AvenueLenox AveCentralParkWestLexington AvenueMadison AvenueManhattan AvenuePark AvenuePark Avenue SouthPleasant AvenueRiverside DriveSt. Nichols AvenueWadsworth AvenueWestEnd AvenueYork Avenue





FIND THE AVENUES with the building number and street:


West Side: Above 59th Street
Building # Avenues
1-99 Central Park West and Columbus
100-199 Columbus and Amsterdam
200-299 Amsterdam and West End
300-399 West End and Riverside Drive
West Side: Below 59th Street
Building # Avenues
1-99 5th and 6th Avenues
100-199 6th and 7th Avenues
200-299 7th and 8th Avenues
300-399 8th and 9th Avenues
400-499 9th and 10th Avenues
500-599 10th and 11th Avenues

East Side Addresses
Building # Avenues Notes
1-49 5th and Madison
50-99 Madison and Park Ave Park is 4th Ave below 14th
100-149 Park and Lexington
150-199 Lexington and 3rd
200-299 3rd and 2nd Avenues
300-399 2nd and 1st Avenues
400-499 1st and York York is Ave A below 14th
500-599 Ave A and Ave B

It's a misleading to say that York turns into Ave A. If anything, York turns into Sutton Place, which terminates at 53rd. Ave A begins below 14th St. There's absolutely nothing connecting Ave A to York or Sutton Place.

Kind of funny, really. I lived in Tampa for a year and quickly realized that I would spend my days driving lost around Pinellas and Hillsborough counties (Tampa/St.Petersbug/Clearwater) if I didn't keep a good street map in the car. Directions are one thing, but with a map you can turn those directions into an actual concept of where you are.

REading all of our instruction on finding one's way around Manhattan makes it all seem more confusing than the OP's original question - at least in aggregate.

The classic title for the "number addresses on Avenues" chart is "Arithmetic of the Avenues", which feels pretty apt. And none of us walk around with that in our heads - even if some probably have it in a wallet.

People do say North and South all the time. My sister is constantly telling me she'll meet me on the N/E corner, etc and I always end up saying "WHAT ARE YOU STANDING IN FRONT OF". Unless the sun is actively rising or setting in my eyes I can't find the direction without compass!

So true.
I'm always hearing from people who live on the south side of the street that their apartment "faces south", when it clearly faces north.

With all our tall buildings (and usually no moss growing on the north side ...) it is sometimes a challenge to get one's bearings - especially when coming up to the surface after riding the subway, and especially, of course, if it's not a familiar station. Every New Yorker has had the experience of walking a block in the wrong direction ...

Living at the intersection of W 72 St, Broadway and Amsterdam Av, where our subway stop means a consistent flow of riders rising from the dark into the bright sunlight of the street, you can barely walk down the street without hearing someone asking, "Which way is Riverside?" "Which way is Columbus Ave?" "Which was is uptown?"

So, visitors, console yourselves that you are asking a question locals ask - and answer - every day.

Although the exit usually says that you are getting out on the NE corner of x st and x avenue, it would require me actually having to think about it. It's much more efficient to walk a block in one direction, or strain my eyes trying to see if the street numbers are going up or down on the next block