NYC Orientation Advice

May 7, 2004 3:45 PM

Are there any tricks for navigating downtown Manhattan? Whenever I get off the subway at Canal or whatever, I'm utterly lost without numbered streets.
posted by smackfu to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

What subway line? Where are you trying to go?
posted by PrinceValium at 4:00 PM on May 7, 2004

I think you just get a map & get used to the streets. Or look for the Woolworth Building (cake-looking with a green top). That's downtown. Or pick a street that's near where you get off, remember which way it runs (traffic on Broadway heads downtown; I'm pretty sure Sixth Avenue is up).
posted by dame at 4:11 PM on May 7, 2004

Used to be you could just look for the World Trade Center to figure out which was was north. Sigh.

Hate to say it, but your best bet is to just memorize the streets. Have lunch downtown a few times a week and you'll have it in no time.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:14 PM on May 7, 2004

I navigate by Canal and Broadway, it's right in the middle of downtown, just try to know the neighborhood of your ultimate destination. Southwest is Tribeca, the WTC, and Battery Park City. Southeast is Chinatown, the South Street Seaport, and the Wall Street Area. Northeast is Little Italy, the Lower East Side, above all that, the East Village. To the Northwest is Soho, and above that, the West Village.
posted by lilboo at 6:38 PM on May 7, 2004