I just read from Nikolai Kukushkin that in New York, streets have been laid out in a grid since 1811 to allow air circulation and promote healthier conditions for people. I always thought it was simply for convenience, but yes, sources confirm it.
318 years ago, yellow fever raged in New York. Estimates suggest that 10% of the city died within a few months (“… in ten weeks time, sickness has swept away upwards of five hundred people of all ages and sexes. – Lord Cornbury, New York’s colonial governor; there were about 5000 inhabitants at that time). Back then, it was believed that the disease was caused by bad air – the so-called miasma theory. Even malaria was essentially named after “bad air” (mala aria). And thus, the grid pattern of the city planning allowed for better air circulation through the streets.
“…a commission was mapping Manhattan’s rectilinear street grid from Houston to 155th streets, charting a course for wealthier New Yorkers to escape the confines of lower Manhattan. One criticism of the new plan was its lack of open space, but the commissioners noted that unlike Paris or London, where “a great number of ample places” such as parks “might be needful,” in New York the “large arms of sea” embraced Manhattan, making it “in regard to health and pleasure…particularly felicitous.”
Interestingly, the treatment with leeches also came from there.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 