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sniffnoyOK so I recently learned about this website where you can find something like the official NYC city street map (it may not be exactly the official street map, which is on paper?) and also some other maps. (This is a followup to this earlier entry.)
Some observations:
1. 208th street -- hoo boy, so 208th street does officially have a length, but also... the official map seems pretty detached from reality when it shows that area?? That does not in fact appear to be how 208th St and environs are arranged. In particular, it shows an "Exterior St" which doesn't seem to actually exist??
(Note: I am largely using Google Maps and street view to judge reality, as I haven't actually been to that area myself. :P )
Interestingly, though, before I clicked on the street map, I accidentally clicked on the landmarks map thinking it was the street map, and it shows a rather different picture of 208th St. Namely, where Google Maps seems to think the (closed-off) driveway to the parking lot is 208th St, the landmarks map seems to think that the closed-off continuation of 9th Ave is 208th St (and the parking lot is just a parking lot).
I'm going to trust the landmark map on this matter, rather than Google Maps, since it comes from the city. So 208th St does have a nonzero length, it's just closed off!
Meanwhile, 208th St has an official length of 45 ft, but given how disconnected from reality the official map appears to be in that area, I'm not sure how much to trust it. (Of course, the *actual* official map could disagree!)
2. Edgar St has an official length of 65 ft. Mill Lane has an official length of 21.8-22.6 (I guess there's some uncertainty here) ft. Regardless, Mill Lane is officially shorter than Edgar St!
OK, but what about Edens Alley? Oddly, the (semi-)official map doesn't seem to consider Edens Alley and Ryders Alley to be separate streets (which makes sense, but disagrees with every other map). And it gives the length of Ryders Alley as... unknown! Oh no!
So, I don't know what the shortest street in Manhattan is. It could still be either Mill Lane or Edens Alley!
3. Manhattan Alley and Republican Alley are still on the map despite definitely not existing anymore! Except that Manhattan Alley is called Manhattan Place instead. Huh.
In fact, you can turn on purple highlighting for streets that exist officially but not in reality. This turns up a few other things too (just looking at Manhattan here). Like there's an officially-mapped street in the civic center called "A New St". Hey, wait, that's the name of a street uptown! (Not to be confused with New St, which is in the financial district...) I have no idea what's going on there; this map shows that yes, they are both called "A New St".
Also, this map doesn't seem to show Marginal St at the east end of 34th and 35th Sts, but it does show a different Marginal St way uptown (of which part but not all is marked as nonexistent in reality). Huh. Checking against Google Maps (which doesn't know of any street by that name in that area), I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be the pedestrian trail (with woodchips...) or the closed-off driveway. :P
4. Apparently, the continuation of Cliff St north past Fulton St, and the continuation of Beekman St east past Pearl St, is officially called "Pedestrian St". Hm.
I'm sure there's way more that could be said but this is what I noticed fairly quickly!
EDIT 5/29: OK so it seems that even just sticking to ones that definitely exist, Manhattan has more than one Marginal St -- the street that runs from the end of St Clair Pl to 133rd St is also called Marginal St. I guess it's a generic reusable name? "A New St" may be similar, for streets that don't have proper names yet. Wonder why that street uptown doesn't have one yet? Maybe just no need?
Wondering if "Exterior St" and "Pedestrian St" are also similar.
Some observations:
1. 208th street -- hoo boy, so 208th street does officially have a length, but also... the official map seems pretty detached from reality when it shows that area?? That does not in fact appear to be how 208th St and environs are arranged. In particular, it shows an "Exterior St" which doesn't seem to actually exist??
(Note: I am largely using Google Maps and street view to judge reality, as I haven't actually been to that area myself. :P )
Interestingly, though, before I clicked on the street map, I accidentally clicked on the landmarks map thinking it was the street map, and it shows a rather different picture of 208th St. Namely, where Google Maps seems to think the (closed-off) driveway to the parking lot is 208th St, the landmarks map seems to think that the closed-off continuation of 9th Ave is 208th St (and the parking lot is just a parking lot).
I'm going to trust the landmark map on this matter, rather than Google Maps, since it comes from the city. So 208th St does have a nonzero length, it's just closed off!
Meanwhile, 208th St has an official length of 45 ft, but given how disconnected from reality the official map appears to be in that area, I'm not sure how much to trust it. (Of course, the *actual* official map could disagree!)
2. Edgar St has an official length of 65 ft. Mill Lane has an official length of 21.8-22.6 (I guess there's some uncertainty here) ft. Regardless, Mill Lane is officially shorter than Edgar St!
OK, but what about Edens Alley? Oddly, the (semi-)official map doesn't seem to consider Edens Alley and Ryders Alley to be separate streets (which makes sense, but disagrees with every other map). And it gives the length of Ryders Alley as... unknown! Oh no!
So, I don't know what the shortest street in Manhattan is. It could still be either Mill Lane or Edens Alley!
3. Manhattan Alley and Republican Alley are still on the map despite definitely not existing anymore! Except that Manhattan Alley is called Manhattan Place instead. Huh.
In fact, you can turn on purple highlighting for streets that exist officially but not in reality. This turns up a few other things too (just looking at Manhattan here). Like there's an officially-mapped street in the civic center called "A New St". Hey, wait, that's the name of a street uptown! (Not to be confused with New St, which is in the financial district...) I have no idea what's going on there; this map shows that yes, they are both called "A New St".
Also, this map doesn't seem to show Marginal St at the east end of 34th and 35th Sts, but it does show a different Marginal St way uptown (of which part but not all is marked as nonexistent in reality). Huh. Checking against Google Maps (which doesn't know of any street by that name in that area), I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be the pedestrian trail (with woodchips...) or the closed-off driveway. :P
4. Apparently, the continuation of Cliff St north past Fulton St, and the continuation of Beekman St east past Pearl St, is officially called "Pedestrian St". Hm.
I'm sure there's way more that could be said but this is what I noticed fairly quickly!
EDIT 5/29: OK so it seems that even just sticking to ones that definitely exist, Manhattan has more than one Marginal St -- the street that runs from the end of St Clair Pl to 133rd St is also called Marginal St. I guess it's a generic reusable name? "A New St" may be similar, for streets that don't have proper names yet. Wonder why that street uptown doesn't have one yet? Maybe just no need?
Wondering if "Exterior St" and "Pedestrian St" are also similar.
