What are your cities zero points?

[elsmere241]

My street's block number (it's a short cul-de-sac with only nine houses on it) is based on the distance from the center of Bel Air, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb and the seat of Harford County. Bel Air's zero points are the intersections of the northbound-only Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and the southbound-only Bond Street and Pennsylvania. Address numbers start counting up on Main north of Pennsylvania and Bond south of Pennsylvania. Main and Bond streets carry U.S. Route 1 Business and Maryland Route 924 through downtown Bel Air.

Ah, you've reminded me of Utah.  Salt Lake City's zero point is Main Street and South Temple (not at Eagle Gate, I do not believe).  However, its grid extends very far south into other incorporated communities, (e.g., Draper, where you have 14000 "140th" South; looks like it goes out to 150th South on the other side of I-15), but not as far north (2300 "23rd" North?).  I believe Salt Lake City's zero point is the zero point for many of its suburbs in the Salt Lake Valley on the grid (at least it works out where my relatives live, including the stubbornly independent White City).

Wow i thought state st was the e/w divider

Just rechecked and it is indeed Main St.

At some point south, State Street jogs over to follow the range/township line and becomes the east-west divider.

[hobsini2]

In Bolingbrook, IL it is Briarcliff Rd for N-S and Bolingbrook Dr (Route 53) for E-W.
In Naperville, it is Benton St for N-S and Washington St for E-W including the arc bend along the DuPage River south of Downtown.
In Wheaton, IL it is Front St for N-S and Main St for E-W.

In my Grandmother's tiny town of Princeton, WI, it it Main St for N-S (which makes a ton of sense since it is the only street that crosses the Fox River) and Fulton St for E-W (which makes little sense because all but 3 streets then have a west address as Fulton is on the far east side of town).

[lepidopteran]

I attempted to find a zero point for Brooklyn, NY.  Of course, having lots of varied street grids in town, I could not find any.   But here's what I did find.

There is one main numbered grid (angled) to the west, modified, interrupted, and with exceptions.  North-south, numbers go as high as 101st Street.  East-west, it goes as high as 21st Avenue.  The addresses on the e-w streets seem to use the harbor as a zero, and more-or-less match the avenues in increments of 100.  But on the avenues, addresses only match the cross streets starting at 39th St.  Below (north of) that, the address numbers seem to be zero from where the street begins.  This seems to be the rule all over town.  An address on one avenue can vary greatly from that of the avenue a block away, and it is not uncommon for address numbers to increment steadily, with multiples of 100 (or their position) to be in the middle of a block!

To the east is another grid, but this one has the numbered "Streets" go (approximately) N-S and the "Avenues" are E-W -- which are named by letter, starting from Avenue C and going all the way to Avenue Z, albeit with a few letters missing.  But there are also some N-S Avenues in place of some of the Streets, such as Coney Island Ave. and Nostrand Ave.  What's more, these numbered streets have an "East" prefix.  So, for instance, 4th St. and East 4th St. are not the same road.  The "East" streets go as high as 108th, all the way to the Queens border, but at some points the numbering continues when the grid shifts angles,  or even assumes smaller sub-grids.  (There is also a numbered grid with a "West" prefix between the two grids, but it only goes up to 13th and has a much smaller N-S footprint than the others.)  Address numbering appears to be largely based on where the road begin, with the zero to the north or west, though there are some cross-streets that honor the numbered streets.

Did I mention there's also a "Bay nth Street", a "Brighton nth Street" and a "Flatlands nth Street" grid?

[cl94]

I attempted to find a zero point for Brooklyn, NY.  Of course, having lots of varied street grids in town, I could not find any.   But here's what I did find.

There is one main numbered grid (angled) to the west, modified, interrupted, and with exceptions.  North-south, numbers go as high as 101st Street.  East-west, it goes as high as 21st Avenue.  The addresses on the e-w streets seem to use the harbor as a zero, and more-or-less match the avenues in increments of 100.  But on the avenues, addresses only match the cross streets starting at 39th St.  Below (north of) that, the address numbers seem to be zero from where the street begins.  This seems to be the rule all over town.  An address on one avenue can vary greatly from that of the avenue a block away, and it is not uncommon for address numbers to increment steadily, with multiples of 100 (or their position) to be in the middle of a block!

To the east is another grid, but this one has the numbered "Streets" go (approximately) N-S and the "Avenues" are E-W -- which are named by letter, starting from Avenue C and going all the way to Avenue Z, albeit with a few letters missing.  But there are also some N-S Avenues in place of some of the Streets, such as Coney Island Ave. and Nostrand Ave.  What's more, these numbered streets have an "East" prefix.  So, for instance, 4th St. and East 4th St. are not the same road.  The "East" streets go as high as 108th, all the way to the Queens border, but at some points the numbering continues when the grid shifts angles,  or even assumes smaller sub-grids.  (There is also a numbered grid with a "West" prefix between the two grids, but it only goes up to 13th and has a much smaller N-S footprint than the others.)  Address numbering appears to be largely based on where the road begin, with the zero to the north or west, though there are some cross-streets that honor the numbered streets.

Did I mention there's also a "Bay nth Street", a "Brighton nth Street" and a "Flatlands nth Street" grid?

The main grid generally uses Flatbush as a zero for the avenues, increasing as one heads south. 1st and 2nd are the exception here. Numbers even out south of Green-Wood Cemetery.

[noelbotevera]

Manhattan's grid is less of a nightmare. Streets generally run East-West, and Avenues run North-South. Houston Street is special, and that it ends the numbered street grid. South of Houston, streets are not numbered, and date back to New Amsterdam, meaning they have a pretty strange grid, like THIS.

North of Houston, the numbered street grid is slightly skewed, but evens out at 14th Street. It becomes pretty linear from there. There's also East and West prefixes for streets, but unlike Brooklyn, they are the same road. 5th Avenue is the dividing line for the prefixes. The only real oddity is that there's places like Inwood and Washington Heights that just have West prefixes, while The Bronx (it's always The Bronx, not the Bronx. It's just too special) has the East prefixes.

The only strange road north of 14th is Broadway, and I have no idea why it's a diagonal.


Now...don't get me started on Queens.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The only strange road north of 14th is Broadway, and I have no idea why it's a diagonal.

The history of Broadway dates back to before the original Dutch colonists, so what happened was merely that the rest of the grid just popped up around Broadway as the Dutch, then the British, and then the Americans continued to use it.

[cl94]

The only strange road north of 14th is Broadway, and I have no idea why it's a diagonal.

The history of Broadway dates back to before the original Dutch colonists, so what happened was merely that the rest of the grid just popped up around Broadway as the Dutch, then the British, and then the Americans continued to use it.

Broadway and US 9/NY 9H from Lower Manhattan to Albany generally trace an old Native American trail. The route greatly predates independence and was the main non-rail land route Upstate until construction of the Thruway.

[silverback1065]

anyone know jacksonvilles?

[mapman1071]

Manhattan's grid is less of a nightmare. Streets generally run East-West, and Avenues run North-South. Houston Street is special, and that it ends the numbered street grid. South of Houston, streets are not numbered, and date back to New Amsterdam, meaning they have a pretty strange grid, like THIS.

North of Houston, the numbered street grid is slightly skewed, but evens out at 14th Street. It becomes pretty linear from there. There's also East and West prefixes for streets, but unlike Brooklyn, they are the same road. 5th Avenue is the dividing line for the prefixes. The only real oddity is that there's places like Inwood and Washington Heights that just have West prefixes, while The Bronx (it's always The Bronx, not the Bronx. It's just too special) has the East prefixes.

The only strange road north of 14th is Broadway, and I have no idea why it's a diagonal.


Now...don't get me started on Queens.

Jerome Avenue In the Bronx Is the E/W Divider, before 1914 Bronx county was part of New York County. 5th Avenue and Jerome Avenue are on the same alignment.

[mrose]

In Denver it would be the intersection of Ellsworth and Broadway, at least the main N-S and E-W grids. We have a weird diagonal downtown grid where you have numbered "streets" that go NW-SE inside the main grid which has numbered "avenues" that run E-W; 1st Ave is one block north of Ellsworth. A lot of people think it is Alameda because of its status as a very major artery, but Alameda is actually three blocks south of the zero line. Ellsworth is a comparatively minor street that is mostly residential and is frequently interrupted and cut off from itself.

North of the I-270/US36 interchange, I-25 more or less supercedes Broadway and is the de facto E/W dividing point.

[bing101]

In San Francisco the zero points would be at San Francisco City Hall. I remember US-101 James Lick Freeway at one point had a control cities sign for "Civic Center" and it was pointing towards the Central Freeway.

[BakoCondors]

Bakersfield, CA! My hometown. The intersection of Brundage Lane and Union Ave (CA-204, former US 99). All of the street numbers within the city limits, and many outside the city limits but in the Bakoplex, radiate outwards from that intersection.

Numbered streets and some named streets east of Union use the 'E' directional (E 19 St, E Truxtun Ave); numbered streets west of Union use no directional (19 St) but a smattering of named streets use a 'W' directional west of Union (W Columbus St) and no directional east of Union.

Several streets south of Brundage (or its western successor, Stockdale Hwy) use an 'S' directional (S Real Rd, S Union Ave) while north of Brundage/Stockdale no directional is used (Real Rd, Union Ave). Many others, particularly in the western half of the city, simply change names when they cross Stockdale (Old River to Calloway, Gosford to Coffee, California to New Stine). Like the 'W' directional noted above, a precious few use an 'N' directional (N Stine Rd north of Stockdale, Stine Rd south of it, not to be confused with the aforementioned New Stine Rd). Chester Ave, the main N/S drag through downtown Bakersfield has the distinction of having both 'S' and 'N' directionals, though the 'N' comes when it crosses the Kern River (an actual river now, thanks to a very wet January) and leaves the city limits, entering the adjoining unincorporated town of Oildale.

If you have made it this far, congratulations! While nominally a grid, Bakersfield's street system is a clusterduck.

[roadfro]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I never responded and wanted to expand on Las Vegas.

can someone explain Las Vegas's?  I think its Las Vegas Blvd and Fremont St.  but that doesn't seem to fit the whole city.

Correct. West of I-15, it runs along US 95. When Fremont Street turns toward the south, it shifts to Charleston Blvd.

The addressing origin point for Las Vegas is actually the intersection of Main St & Fremont St. The specific north/south and east/west boundaries are somewhat complex (I found the specific boundaries in the Las Vegas Municipal Code a long time ago, but can't find them currently), and results in numbering oddities. The complication comes from the original downtown Las Vegas townsite streets being aligned parallel and perpendicular to the railroad tracks (skewed about 30° from true north), but the vast majority of the Las Vegas valley's major streets later being laid out along PLSS survey lines.

The east/west boundary, from the south: It follows Las Vegas Blvd (the Strip) from the southern reaches of the unincorporated Las Vegas Valley northward, then turns north along Main Street until it reaches the Las Vegas/North Las Vegas city limits at Owens Avenue. From points north of here, the east/west boundary shifts over to the Goldfield Street alignment (a minor collector road halfway between Commerce St & N 5th St that starts and stops). Due to the northeastward trajectories of Las Vegas Blvd & Main St, this results in the east/west dividing line shifting about 1.5 miles eastward from south to north.

The north/south boundary, from the west: It follows the westward extension of the Westcliff Drive alignment eastward until the road passes Rainbow Blvd and it's alignment intersects US 95, then follows US 95 eastward until about Valley View Blvd. The boundary then heads east along a westward extension of the Mesquite Ave alignment (a minor neighborhood street) eastward to the point where the alignments of Mesquite Ave and Fremont St would intersect. Then the north/south boundary follows Fremont St through downtown until it intersects Charleston Blvd. The boundary follows Charleston Blvd to the eastern edge of the valley. Due to the southeastward trajectory of Fremont St, this results in the north/south dividing line shifting about 1 mile southward from west to east.

As a result of the odd boundary divisions (as well as slight differences in numbers per block downtown and in other areas), street address numbering oddities have resulted. An arterial on the same alignment can be the divider between 3400/3500 blocks at one location and the divider between 3700/3800 just a couple miles south. The progression of western block numbers near Las Vegas Blvd seems incredibly compressed, in order to get the overall numbering in line due to the angled dividing lines. The most egregious numbering oddity is the north/south progression in certain areas: on the west side of the valley, driving north across Charleston Blvd takes you from the S 1100 block to S 1000; whereas the same trip on the east side of the valley will take you from S 1100 to N 00. (I recall there was a further complex part of the city street numbering code that elaborated on how the numbers N 00 to N 200 were assigned, but I can't recall what that was.)


The City of Las Vegas, the City of North Las Vegas, and the unincorporated areas of Clark County within the Las Valley Valley, all use the same address system–the City of Henderson uses a separate addressing system (although parts of Henderson that were annexed from unincorporated county townships may use the valley-wide system). Since major streets retain their name crossing from unincorporated Las Vegas into Henderson, it's especially important to have the direction prefix and city name with your address–an address like "800 Warm Springs Road" could put you in any of three or four different locations...

[cwf1701]

In Detroit, the zero point is Woodward and Jefferson Ave. The east-west line runs on Woodward to 6 Mile, then runs up John R in Oakland County.