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The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was the original design plan for the streets of Manhattan, which put in place the grid plan that has defined Manhattan to this day. It has been called "the single most important document in New York City's development,"〔 pp.100-106〕 and the plan has been described as encompassing the "republican predilection for control and balance ... () distrust of nature."〔 It was described by the commission that created it as combining "beauty, order and convenience."〔 The plan originated as a proposal by the New York State Legislature, adopted in 1811 for the orderly development and sale of the land of Manhattan between 14th Street and Washington Heights. The plan is arguably the most famous use of the grid plan and is considered by most historians to have been far-reaching and visionary. Since its earliest days, the plan has been criticized for its monotony and rigidity, in comparison with irregular street patterns of older cities, but in recent years has been viewed more favorably by urban planning critics. Central Park, the massive urban greenspace in Manhattan running from Fifth Avenue to Eighth Avenue and from 59th Street to 110th Street, is not a part of this plan, as Central Park was not envisioned until 1853. There were a few smaller interruptions in the grid, such as the Grand Parade between 23rd Street and 33rd Street, which was the precursor to Madison Square Park as well as four squares named Harlem, Hamilton, Bloomingdale and Manhattan.〔 ==Origins== Earlier street layouts for Manhattan had been drawn up prior to the Commissioners' Plan. In 1797, for example, the city asked Joseph Mangin and Casimir Goerck to survey Manhattan's streets; the two eventually produced a map which included a web of future streets, most of which appeared to correspond with future developers' speculative plans for street grids on their properties north of the city. Nevertheless, the scheme was pointedly rejected by the City Council.〔(URBANPHOTO: Cities / People / Place » An Alternate Map of Manhattan )〕 In 1807, however, the City Council showed a new willingness to consider planning for the city's future, and, faced with opposition and conflict from property owners and various political factions,〔 asked the state legislature for help. The council said its goal was "laying out Streets... in such a manner as to unite regularity and order with the public convenience and benefit and in particular to promote the health of the City ... (allowing ) a free and abundant circulation of air" to stave off disease.〔, pp. 419-22〕 (At the time, foul air was thought to be the cause of many diseases.) In March 1807, the state legislature appointed a three-member commission made up of Gouverneur Morris, the lawyer John Rutherfurd, and the state surveyor Simeon De Witt, to establish a comprehensive street plan for Manhattan.〔 A month later, the state legislature gave the commissioners "exclusive power to lay out streets, roads, and public squares, of such width, extent, and direction, as to them shall seem most conducive to public good, and to shut up, or direct to be shut up, any streets or parts thereof which have been heretofore laid out... () not accepted by the Common Council." The jurisdiction of the commission was all of Manhattan north of Houston Street, and into the Hudson and East Rivers 600 feet beyond the low water mark.〔〔 Morris was named the president of the commission. The commissioners were paid $4 a day for their work ($80.08 a day in 2015 US dollars〔http://www.in2013dollars.com/1807-dollars-in-2015?amount=4〕), and were empowered to enter onto private property to undertake their duties; this was greeted with widespread hostility from property owners. The commissioners' chief engineer and surveyor, John Randel, Jr., said afterwards that he "was arrested by the Sheriff, on numerous suits instituted...for trespass and damage by...workmen, in passing over grounds, cutting off branches of trees. &c., to make surveys under instructions from the Commissioners."〔 At the meetings of the commission, the primary concern was what kind of layout the new area of the city should have, a rectilinear grid such as was used in Philadelphia, Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans, or a more complex systems utilizing circles, arcs or other patterns, such as L'Enfant had used in laying out Washington, D.C.〔 In the end, the commission decided on the gridiron as being the most practical and cost-effective, as "straight-sided and right-angled houses are the most cheap to build and the most convenient to live in."〔〔〔 Randel's survey of the entire island – 〔 – was completed in 1810, and he prepared the drafts of the new grid without regard to the topography of the land.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Commissioners' Plan of 1811」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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