Laura Angelico

Homework about the isle of Manhattan

Every day, the isle of Manhattan, the heart of New York City, is full of people. 1,5 million people

call this island home, and there are 3 million commuters every day. This part of New York is 13

miles long and 2 miles wide and is the mostly densed populated zone in the USA. It is also the

most valuable one: one square meter is worth over a million dollars and people are willing to live on

top of each other to be there. Because of the rapidly growing population, the town needs to expand.

This place is different from any other because it was built on a unique grid. Without it Manhattan

wouldn't be the same. In origin, this place was an island of hills and forests, but 200 years ago it

was completely transformed by John Randall Junior, who mapped the city with this new pattern. He

became the chief surveyor of the city of New York when he was young. He was so obsessed with

geometrical accuracy, that he wanted to turn Manhattan into a rigid grid of rectangles. In order to

put this project into practice, he put 2000 sticks in the ground in 6 years, but he didn't care about

permissions and private properties. As a result, he soon became very unpopular. The project was

considered unamerican and he was put in jail, but he had powerful allies in the city hall and soon

went back to work. He didn't take account of the existing terrain and demolished 700 houses. From

that moment on, there were 100,000 buildings to rise, and the value of land grew very rapidly. John

Randall Junior created modern Manhattan. Today, a sign of his work can be found in the most

visited park in the world, in the centre of Manhattan: a stick that used to mark the grid. Many

famous people appreciate the structure of Manhattan, such as Donald Trump and Jeremy Irons.

One peculiarity of the city is one diagonal street, that goes from Upper West Side to the tip of the

island. Because of this street, we can admire a triangular building, that is very famous because of its

shape.This diagonal road was already there 1,000 years ago: it was used by indians for the oyster

trade. The island at the tip of Manhattan produces half of the oysters sold in the world and for this

reason is also known as oyster island. The position of the island was perfect for oysters, because

two rivers came down there. For hundreds of years, oysters were the primary source of food . Now

oysters are very popular.In fact, oyster sales rose of 800% in the last decade. There is also a boom in

oyster bars: a very popular one, for example, is a converted fish boat and oysters aren't free, but for

three dollars a piece you can taste delicious oysters and customers like them.

There is another side of New York : it is the original meltin' pot and the place in which pursue the

American Dream. Many migrants come every day and they come to live also in Lower West Side.

Because there were many mouths to feed, cheap and street food was very common. The iconic

symble of street food and breakfast is the bagel. A cup of coffee and a bagel are the perfect way to

start the day in NY. There are many kinds of bagels and the thing that makes bagels special are the

way they are hand rolled: this makes them shiny and crispy outside and soft inside, just like 100

years ago. But 100 years ago making bagels was a very hard work and it was done for survival, not

gourmet. Bakers produced 800 bagels an hour for 0,50 cents a day and they had to work 14 hour

shifts. They worked in very harsh conditions and sometimes people collapsed for strokes.

Bagels are the demonstration tha immigrants define taste in the city.

New York is a very lively city. You can find everything there. Behind each part of its history there

are people: we have to thank John Randall Junior for the unique grid of Manhattan, the indians for

the oyster trade and migrants for bagels. Without them, all of this wouldn't exist. The strength of

this metropolis is its diversity.