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. Astronomer 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 2020 Manhattanhenge dates:

• Half Sun on the Grid on  Friday, May 29 at 8:13 PM
• Full Sun on the Grid on Saturday, May 30 at 8:12 PM

July 2020 Manhattanhenge dates:

• Full Sun on the Grid on  Sunday, July 12 at 8:20 PM
• Half Sun on the Grid on Monday, July 13 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.

To get in the Manhattanhenge mood, we suggest astronomy books by Neil deGrasse Tyson, readings on the Manhattan grid, books about Stonehenge, druids and the summer solstice, an explanation of color and light in nature, New York City street photography and streetscapes, books to inspire walking around Manhattan, and of course, Spinal Tap!

The Founder

Astrophysicist and native New Yorker Neil deGrasse Tyson has published many popular works on astronomy including, Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet.

Color and Light in Nature by David K. Lynch could also help to understand the science behind Manhattanhenge.

The Grid

The Manhattan grid is a key component of Manhattanhenge. Here are a few titles and websites to check out:

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 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).

Gerard Koeppel and Jason Barr recently collaborated on an eight-part series on the Gotham blog, The Manhattan Street Grid Plan: Misconceptions and Corrections.

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.

If you're interested in New York City maps, check out some of the cool programs NYPL Labs has created using maps and photos in the Library's digital collections. Become a Building Inspector or help map photos of OldNYC.

The Druids

We have many books on druids and the ancient Celts and their customs in the library catalog, as well as books about Stonehenge, specifically. A good place to start reading could be Druids: A Very Short Introduction by Barry Cunliffe. With your NYPL card you can also read this online in the Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions database. If you log in to Very Short Introductions, you can also read a chapter on The Sky in Prehistory in The History of Astronomy.

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 - Brandon Stanton. You can also visit the photographer's popular Humans of New York blog.

NY Through the Lens - Vivienne Gucwa

On the Street : 1980-1990 - Amy Arbus

You might also be interested in Jessica Cline's post on New York School poets and the artists who inspired them.

Finding Your Bearings

These books will give you a unique perspective on where you are in Manhattan.

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. 

 

Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas; editors, 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 delightlful atlas of human geography is for you. 

 

In Magnetic City: A Walking Companion to New York, architecture critic Justin Davidson 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.

Walking the Streets of Manhattan

If Manhattanhenge inspires you to walk the streets of the city,  you'll be in good company with these writers and literary characters.

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

Movies

And to round off our list, a couple of favorite films:

This is Spinal Tap.  

"No one knows who they were or what they were doing. But their legacy remains. Hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge." - Spinal Tap

Woody Allen’s Manhattan. Gershwin soundtrack over Manhattan streetscape.  Enough said.

What would you add to this Manhattanhenge list? Please tell us in the comments form below.

Thanks to Billy Parrott, Nancy Aravecz, Erica Parker, Jay Vissers, Lauren  Lampasone, and Arieh Ress for contributing to this list!

​This is a revised and  expanded version of a post originally published in June 2016.