I'm planning our itinerary for NYC and trying to figure out just how far apart things really are. I hear the blocks are larger than average, so I'm having a hard time really grasping distance.

Specifically, can we easily walk from:
- the UN headquarters to the Brooklyn Bridge?
- Time Square to the WTC site?
- from the south of Central Park to the north of Central Park?

Plus, we'll be there in about two weeks--how are things looking to recover from the flooding? The news makes it look pretty miserable right now.

Thanks for any input!

well..it depends on how good a walker you are.
In Manhattan,20 north south streets make a mile. For the avenues (east west streets) 5-10 make a mile (depending on what part of Manhattan you're in )
so:
the UN is at 42nd street, all the way on the East side. Brooklyn bridge is about 20 blocks below Houston (which would be 0 street)so that makes 62 blocks, about 3 miles.
Times Square to WTC is about the same.
Central park is from 59th to 110th street, 51 blocks, 2 1/2 miles.
And no more flooded streets in Manhattan--tha was pretty much a one day thing...

It might be helpful for you to use mapquest.com for distances. Or perhaps better still, hopstop.com will tell you exactly how to get from a to b and if you chose 'walking only,' will give you the distance and an estimate of time.

The Brooklyn Bridge and WTC are not far from each other. The UN and Times Square are across town from each other. Central Park is 843 acres.
http://www.centralparknyc.org/centralparkhistory/faqs

The main tourist area of Manhattan (from South Ferry up to the Museums in the 90's is about 8 miles). the island is between 1 and 2 miles wide.

So while a lot of things are within a reasonable (15 to 20 minute) brisk walk, alot of places are better served by subway - unless you feel like walkng 10 plus miles per day. (If you group activities by area walking is easy for most things - if you pick things at the far ends - not).

Central Park, for example, is larger than Monaco. It runs from 59th to 110th St (2.5 miles long) by about 1/2 a mile wide. So - you need to pick what things you want to see - covering all of it would take a LONG time.

Flooding is strictly a temporary issue -except for a few townhouses built on a cliff in Staten Island. Not an issue for tourists.

Thanks everyone! You provided exactly the info I was looking for, as always

Thanks for the link to hopstop McLaurie. Was wondering if I could easily walk from the LES Tenement Museum to Balthazar and found out that it is only 10 minutes. Love that site!

Hi

You can also use http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ to measure distances

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures