An interesting fact of New York City’s architectural history concerns the building of City Hall (at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan). Built in the early years of the 19th century—as a cost savings measure—the north-facing facade was clad in a less expensive red limestone rather than the white limestone on the south, east and west facades. At the time, it was common wisdom that the city had expanded as far north as it ever would so the logic was, “Why waste money on the one side of the building that the public would rarely, if ever, see?”
At that point in time, most of New York was south of the new City Hall. Needless to say, this logic was flawed and the city did indeed expand well north of City Hall in the years that followed its construction and completion. When it came time for the city government and its planners to devise a scheme for the northward expansion of the city, it was not by chance that a grid pattern of numerically sequential avenues and streets was decided upon.