A Manhattanhenge Reading List
Manhattanhenge 42nd st. Photo by Sevtibidou
Updated 5/18/2022
Manhattanhenge is coming, and we’ve made a reading list to celebrate!
On two days of every year, the sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan’s east-west street grid, as the sun aligns with the prehistoric stones of Stonehenge on the summer solstice. Astrophysicist (and head of the Hayden Planetarium) Neil deGrasse Tyson named this phenomenon Manhattanhenge: “For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, that special day comes twice a year, when the setting Sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, creating a radiant glow of light across Manhattan's brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough's grid.”
May 2022 Manhattanhenge dates:
- Half Sun on the Grid on Sunday, May 29 at 8:13 PM
- Full Sun on the Grid on Monday, May 30 at 8:12 PM
July 2022 Manhattanhenge dates:
- Full Sun on the Grid on Monday, July 11 at 8:20 PM
- Half Sun on the Grid on Tuesday, July 12 at 8:21 PM
Neil deGrasse Tyson recommends 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th, and several adjacent streets for the best views. Read more about Manhattanhenge on the Hayden Planetarium website.
It's Mid-Manhattanhenge! Photo by Billy Parrott and Arieh Ress.
To get in the Manhattanhenge mood, we suggest books below on a variety of topics.
Neil de Grasse Tyson
Astrophysicist and native New Yorker Neil deGrasse Tyson has published many popular works on astronomy of interested to fellow scientists and everyday readers.
Cosmic Queries: Startalk's Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We're Going
A legendary astrophysicist offers a unique spin on the mysteries and curiosities of the cosmos, building on rich material from his beloved StarTalk podcast, while a renowned physicist takes on a big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Offers witty, digestible explanations of topics in cosmology, from the Big Bang and black holes to quantum mechanics and the search for life in the universe.
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
A collection of essays on the cosmos, written by an American Museum of Natural History astrophysicist, includes "Holy Wars," "Ends of the World," and "Hollywood Nights."
The Grid
How did New York City come to have a grid street system? How has it affected the city's development
Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas. Explore Manhattan’s “culture of congestion” in this classic architectural, social, and cultural history of New York, first published in 1978.
The Greatest Grid, edited by Hilary Ballon, follows the grid from its initial design to its implementation, evolution, and enduring influence. This volume was published to coincide with an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York in 2012. The online exhibit of The Greatest Grid is available on the museum’s website.
In City on a Grid: How New York Became New York (2015), Gerard Koeppel traces the development of Manhattan’s street grid.
Jason Barr explores the history of the skyline, focusing on the economic forces that resulted in the Manhattan skyline we now know in Building the Skyline (2016).
The nonfiction comic Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City by Pierre Christin and Olivier Balez has some beautiful illustrations of real New York streetscapes and a rendering of Moses’s (thankfully!) unrealized Mid-Manhattan expressway.
Druids and Stonehenge
Who were the Druids? Why and how did they build Stonehenge?
How To Build Stonehenge
by Michael W. Pitts
There is nothing like Stonehenge: the simple, graphic genius of these great, arranged blocks.But who made it? When did they make it? And most importantly, how was it built? Pitts examines the latest research on the site, interrogating the key questions: the sources of the various stones, how they were transported, and how it was all put together.
The Druids
by Peter Berresford Ellis
In this compelling and highly reliable study of the Druids, respected Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis sifts through the historical evidence and, with reference to the latest archaeological and etymological findings, gives the first authentic account of who the mysterious Druids were and what role they played in Celtic society.
Druids: A Very Short Introduction
by Barry W. Cunliffe
The Druids have been known and discussed for over 2,000 years and few figures flit so elusively through history. Enigmatic and puzzling, the lack of knowledge about them as resulted in a wide spectrum of interpretations. Barry Cunliffe examines their origins, the evidence for their beliefs and practices, and how we interpret them today.
Street Art & Photography
Manhattanhenge brings many New Yorkers out to the streets. We have lots of great books of New York City street photography and street art. Here are just a few to start with:
Humans of New York and Humans of New York: Stories by Brandon Stanton. You can also visit the photographer's popular Humans of New York blog.
NY Through the Lens by Vivienne Gucwa
On the Street: 1980-1990 by Amy Arbus
(Un)sanctioned: The Art on New York Streets compiled by Katherine 'Luna Park' Lorimer
Finding Your Bearings
These books will give you a unique perspective on where you are in Manhattan.
Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas
edited by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro; cartographer, Molly Roy
If you've ever longed for a map of whaling and publishing in Melville's Manhattan or a map of our city of songs, this delightful atlas of human geography is for you.
Manhattan Unfurled
by Matteo Pericoli
This huge accordion-folded sheet shows the whole waterfront perimeter of Manhattan circa 2001, East on one side of the paper, West on the other.
Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York
by Justin Davidson
An architecture critic offers urban amblers a guide to the New York we see around us, the New York that is gone, and the New York that is yet to be.
New York is for Walkers
Explore fiction set in New York which highlights walking and wandering the city.
Walking New York: Reflections of American Writers from Walt Whitman to Teju Cole by Stephen Miller
A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin
Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan by Phillip Lopate
The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London by Lauren Elkin
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
City of Glass by Paul Auster
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Thanks to Billy Parrott, Nancy Aravecz, Erica Parker, Jay Vissers, Lauren Lampasone, and Arieh Ress for contributing to this list!