Manhattan

MANHATTAN

MANHATTAN. Geography largely shaped the character and development of Manhattan, the acknowledged heart of New York City. An island, Manhattan was only linked to the "outlet" boroughs by bridges and tunnels in the late nineteenth century. Its location, dominating New York Harbor, ensured that it would emerge as one of the major centers of colonial and national commerce. Originally settled around its southern tip (the Battery), Manhattan expanded northward to Canal Street by the American Revolution, continued to Greenwich Village by the Age of Jackson, and encompassed the upper East and West Sides above Herald Square (Thirty-third Street) in the mid-and late nineteenth century. The fields of Harlem and beyond, above Central Park, were settled at the end of the nineteenth century and just after.

Manhattan's economic centricity in turn guaranteed its political clout and helped shape its national claim to cultural prominence. This island has always had an enormous impact on American literature, theater, and art. Writers centered on Manhattan, for example, included the Algonquin Round Table, Greenwich Village bohemia, and the Harlem Renaissance. Broadway and later off Broadway dominated the landscape of American drama. Manhattan's great museums, particularly the famed "museum mile" along upper Fifth Avenue, became among the best in the world. Its prominent role along the entire spectrum of human endeavor has not always made Manhattan beloved by Americans, but it is a place most Americans want to visit.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace. Gotham. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. The Encyclopedia of New York City. New York: New-York Historical Society, 1995.

Carl E. Prince

See also New York City .