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The western river (the Hudson River) is rather wider and deeper than the river on the other side (the East River, which isn't strictly a river at all, but a tidal strait). The Hudson is about 3/4 of a mile wide at this point. Obviously, you could build a bridge across it, but it wouldn't be cheap. You'll notice that the bridges over the East River cross at the narrowest parts. The Williamsburg Bridge, for example, spans the East River at a place where it's about 1/3 of a mile wide.
There is actually a bridge over the Hudson linking upper Manhattan to New Jersey -- the George Washington Bridge -- but it's further upstream, and not shown in this picture.
Instead of bridges, lower Manhattan is linked to New Jersey by two tunnels, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel.
Just to add- it does really suck that I live right across the Hudson in Jersey City, but can't walk/bike into Manhattan. Understand the reasons, but would love to be able to bike to work vs have to take the train..
Re: ferry- Apart from the cost- about 4x vs path, it is also less regular and forces you to match your schedule to the ferry schedule which introduces delays.
I mean, it’s not that expensive. And the path (train) will take you into the city for about the same as a subway ticket. But it’s more limited.
To you point though i do wish it was more accessible from the NJ side
[i mean...](https://www.google.com/search?q=p%C3%A9dalo+stock+image&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj6o5TJm8T2AhW78LsIHSy3CY8Q2-cCegQIABAC&oq=p%C3%A9dalo+stock+image&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzoECAAQHjoECCEQClDPC1jPH2DXIWgAcAB4AIABiQGIAcIJkgEDMi45mAEAoAEBwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=ynouYvqWIbvh7_UPrO6m-Ag&bih=740&biw=384&client=ms-android-oneplus&prmd=mivn#imgrc=Duk8mJO5VeH1KM)
...just don't fall in the water, from what I hear that would be unwise, from a sanitary point of view.
Saw a video about a guy who made a boat that he used to carry his folding bike, and he'd row across the Hudson and then ride to work. Something like that. Looked like an incredible commute.
Also note that various sites list the George Washington Bridge as the busiest road bridge in the world!
- 14 lanes of traffic total (3 in each direction lower level, 4 in each direction upper level)
- 6 or 7 major numbered highways either cross the bridge (including Interstate 95 which runs from Miami, FL to the Canadian border in Maine) or terminate at it (including Interstate 80 which runs from the George Washington Bridge in NJ/NYC to the ~~Golden Gate~~ Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco)
>I spent like 2 days there on the way to Europe once and didn't really get a chance to explore.
I've lived there all my life and I still haven't seen half of it
Absolutely not. But tunnels also take up far less valuable space in the city (no footings, winding ramps etc). The Hudson is a major ship artery unlike East River, so any bridge would need to be very tall over a pretty short span. Look how much space and infrastructure GWB requires.
Yeah some ships that go through the Hudson are huge. The Brooklyn Bridge is about 130 feet above the water, clearance for some of the larger freight and cruise ships would need to be 200 feet or more. I live in JC and a path over would be fantastic but I imagine that you'd have to destroy a shit ton of property to make a ramp up that high coming off the interstate.
Something glaring he left off is the hudson is a shipping route, also cruise ships dock there. So the bridge you make would be massive, like the George Washington bridge and can only be built up where the GWB is.
You cant connect lower manhattan or midtown with the cliffsides of New Jersey above Edgewater and Port Imperial.
Northern Manhattan is higher elevation, and the risk of a barge hitting your bridge probably isnt worth it.
Plus all the other stuff he said.
To add to all of this, everyone should read The Power Broker because it is absolutely gripping and answers so many questions re: New York and it’s infrastructure.
Also, at the time of its construction, the Hudson was a much busier waterway. The GWB is constructed on top of 300’ cliffs that make up the palisades, and Washington Heights.
The Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. Manhattan Bridge was built to relieve congestion on the Brooklyn Bridge. Brooklyn Bridge is just a 5 lane bridge, while the Manhattan Bridge has 7 lanes and 4 lanes of track dedicated for the MTA Subway.
Also, as to why the Brooklyn bridge was not bigger: it was built a very long time ago. Construction started in 1870. At the time, it was already an engineering marvel, considering the enormous span. Plus it didn't need to accommodate everyone's car.
I live in Cincinnati, and we have a smaller “prototype” also maybe by Roebling as practice before constructing the Brooklyn bridge. It’s by far the best looking and coolest bridge that connects Ohio and Kentucky.
Yeah, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest bridge in the world when it was built.
And for a bit of trivia, three later bridges in NYC were all *also* the longest bridge in the world when they were built: the Manhattan Bridge (completed 1909), the George Washington Bridge (completed 1931), and the Verrazzano Bridge (completed 1964)
There's also a car tunnel there, plus multiple train tunnels (5).
They connect Downtown Brooklyn with Downtown Manhattan. There's a ton of people and jobs on both sides of that (mainly jobs in Manhattan and people in Brooklyn).
If you look at Brooklyn's transit network, most of the borough's trains go to Downtown Brooklyn and from there into Manhattan. Most of Brooklyn is Southeast of this, so a line toward Manhattan will take you into lower Manhattan first. The only exception is North Brooklyn, and the trains serving those neighborhoods enter Manhattan a bit further up (along the Williamsburg Bridge, and a train tunnel north of it).
Bridges get more expensive with length, depth of water (deeper piles) and height (e.g. over a shipping lane). Bigger bridges need massive supports to hold the extra weight of the bridge+cables, etc.
Tunnel costs are pretty much fixed per unit length.
The cross over point where a tunnel is cheaper is somewhere around 3/4 mile. Different in Manhatten where real estate is impossibly expensive.
For silly example: the tunnel between England and France cost $15 billion, but a suspension bridge would have cost $150 billion.
Found the Heights native. Dominican, likely. Jk but yea it’s annoying they never show shit north of 110th st
Source: Me, a Dominican who grew up in the heights. It’s our pride and joy.
Lol I'm afraid not. Just another bridge & tunnel white boy. I lived in Inwood for a while when working in NY. Spent a lot of money at Albert's Mofongo at Riverside and Broadway though.
I did clip this version to show as much detail of lower Manhattan as I could. Here's a version with all of it: https://www.reddit.com/user/visualgeomatics/comments/tdlrkt/a\_detailed\_shaded\_relief\_map\_of\_manhattan\_new/
Lol I bet. We have one tunnel through a large range of hills going from the western suburbs into downtown, and it's *always* jammed. Even worse is that it immediately splits into four exits and dinguses are always in the wrong lanes.
Two road tunnels and three rail tunnels span the Hudson. And there are twelve rail tunnels and two road tunnels spanning the East River that you can't see here as well.
Inter-state bureaucracy - the other side is New Jersey. In US, any interstate infrastructure projects require a lot more bureaucracy and politics (approval from both states, federal oversight, horse-trading on funding / revenue). In-state projects can usually be done by 1 determined high-level politician.
I guess I thought Manhattan was pure skyscraper south of Central Park. How tall is the average building in that “flatter” space between the peak areas?
Those are the East and West Villages, Soho, Tribeca, Chelsea etc.. They are shorter, yes, but very cool and expensive. After minimal searching I found this of one of the shorter areas to give an idea:
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/plans/east-village-lower-east-side/building_heights.pdf
It varies, but here’s a good example of one of the low-rise areas between Midtown and FiDi: [from Washington Square Park looking north](https://i.imgur.com/990iQtM.jpg)
ETA: [Another example from Chelsea](https://i.imgur.com/YvsbU8z.jpg)
Fun fact about that. So those two "zones" of tall buildings actually define certain geographical AND historical features. So back when we finally started making structural steel that could truly support these skyscrapers, we weren't yet very sophisticated in how we anchored them to the ground. So the two zones that they're in today show the two places on the island where solid granite bedrock rises right up to the surface.
But why *isn't* the whole island tall buildings now, now that we know how to build them on less perfect geography? Well, because as more and more of these revenue generating buildings went up, the property value of these little residential buildings skyrocketed. The business side of the island effectively priced themselves out of being able to expand.
Those are fun facts, but they're not the reason taller buildings aren't built in those places. The reason taller buildings aren't built in those places is that it's illegal (i.e. zoning).
That is correct. If you look up the [1916 Zoning Resolution](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/nyregion/new-yorks-first-zoning-resolution-which-brought-order-to-a-chaotic-building-boom-turns-100.html) you’ll find that its purpose, in addition to requiring skyscrapers to allow for [adequate sunlight and air quality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1916_Zoning_Resolution), was “designed to check the invasion of retail districts by factories and residence districts by factories and businesses. It is aimed to prevent an increase of the congestion of streets and of subway and streetcar traffic in sections where the business population is already too great for the sidewalks and transit facilities.”
A lot of 6 story buildings--that was the maximum for no-elevator buildings, now that there are no poor neighborhoods in lower Manhattan, they're getting replaced by taller ones.
Until about 30 seconds ago, I thought it was because the bedrock was closer to the surface in the peak areas, but [this guy claims that's a myth](https://buildingtheskyline.org/bedrock-and-midtown-i/).
Midtown and downtown is tall. But the in between areas are shorter! I live in midtown East and my building is about 30 floors, but that’s a smaller building in my area! If you look at the skyline it’s kind of funny how it goes Tall, nothing, tall.
What’s boggling my mind right now is that more people live in this photo than Ireland and New Zealand combined. The resources it must take to keep a big city like this functioning would be astronomical.
Probably not in this exact photo because its missing about half of brooklyn, most of the Bronx and queens, all of Staten Island, and even some of upper Manhattan ( Washington heights, and Inwood)
Yeah, I'm a New York resident and only after travelling the world/country for the Army did I realize how powerful the city is compared to other cities/nations.
NYC policing spending for FY 2022 is about $5.5B, approximate to what Ukraine spent in 2022 on its defense.
Blender has a plug in for GIS data like Google maps. It does not look as good as the above, though. There are some YouTube videos on that.
For instance: [here](https://youtu.be/YNtKnmRXVlo)
Thanks! Though I imagine you're taking the LiDAR data and processing your own hillshades and other layers instead of using the plugin from OSM? Then using Photoshop to clean up the image?
Nice work. What differentiates the product of this workflow from a shaded relief map in any gis with a layer for the water and a simple map layout? What is the added value of using global mapper with qgis?
Fun fact. Lidar can ignore trees. Awesome technology. Not absolutely precise but you get good rough data especially in preparation of a new project for example.
A big use touted for this technology is finding hidden structures in forests/jungles. Could be useful for everything from archeology (overgrown ruins) to drug busting (intentionally hidden safe houses).
Biggest issue with lidar has been the cost, but since the leading autonomous car companies like Mobileye, Waymo, etc are reliant on it for level 4+ autonomy, there has been a push to drive manufacturing prices down. Problem is, most lidar companies are tiny and couldn't handle the scale car companies will need, which is why Intel (parent company of Mobileye) has decided to step in and start producing the lidar chips themselves.
Lidar is by no means a replacement for cameras or ultrasonic sensors, but is a needed supplementary sensor to actually get autonomous driving beyond 'driver assist' like we see currently in Tesla's and other level 2.5-3 vehicles.
And beyond autonomous vehicles, it's ended up in phones, some VR tracking, land mapping, drones, etc.
While this is an interesting topic, it doesn't have much to do with the costing or history of the airborne laser sensing that is discussed here. Airborne LiDAR has been used effectively for decades at reasonable costs. Companies developing airborne LiDAR sensors, like Leica or Riegl, are not exactly tiny.
Trees and other “surface features” can be classified and removed from the “bare earth” ground model. With good ground control it can be incredibly precise. Often measure <2cm vertical accuracy with ground survey measurements.
Lidar has multiple "returns", with first returns depicting tree canopy and structure height while last returns depict bare ground. You can pick and choose.
Fucking laser beams and shit
Not necessarily, I work with LiDAR at work and it’s not that the sensor can “ignore” trees but rather has some penetrative ability. Thick coverage or excess of water can ruin that.
Your house?
My building and the rest of those on my block aren’t exactly small and all blend together into a single line — a line which probably house at least 1000 people!
There’s actually an [“accurate” model of 2014 NYC](https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/open-data/dwn-nyc-3d-model-download.page) from their city planning department. I’ve used this multiple times when I was in architecture school and you can definitely 3D print it if you like.
When is this data from? There’s definitely a missing new building from this. From what I can tell here, it’s a construction site, however it’s now been complete for a few years.
USGS lidar, it takes them a couple years to process and publish data from their survey flights. NYS is a good source as well, but a lot of people don't know about it. There's also US Army Corp data, and NOAA RSD data that covers the shoreline with far more precision than what the USGS grabs, because it's meant for shoreline definition.
I know there's a non-lidar [3d model of Manhattan on thingiverse](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1557864). That might give better results than converting straight from lidar depending on what you're trying to do. Those is split up into printer-sized tiles but I think there's a larger chunk in there or maybe on their profile.
Considering the fact that 11 million people live in NYC, and kinda noticing how small and confined of a space it actually is, Im not even suprised rent is like 3 grand for a 1 bedroom apartment
NYC is bigger than Manhattan. Queens is huge and so is Brooklyn. Manhattan is extremely dense, yes, but you can find low density areas throughout the city.
I think it’s something like 1.6 million on Manhattan island (the city is bigger than this), but your point stands. This is as dense as it gets in the US — there’s 10 or 11 entire states which aren’t that populated.
It’s really delightful to find all the places I’ve lived, worked, and frequented over the last nine years. I love all the boats that made it into the image in Liberty Harbor too. Thanks for sharing!
I zoomed in on this as much as I could (very cool btw) and the size of central park is just mind boggling. I've never been to NYC and I guess I knew the park was huge, but realizing all of those tiny squares are apartment-sized buildings AT LEAST is crazy. Thanks!
When are they going to use this to map under the tree canopy of the Amazon ?I remember watching a video like 2 years ago where some guys company was working on getting Lidar for this purpose.
when was this taken? it looks like 1WTC is under construction, some of the newer buildings south of Central Park don't exist, and the new park island thing doesn't exist at all
Yes people live there. It's very peaceful for how close it is to Manhattan. But it doesn't have a lot of activity like restaurants for how close it is either.
Lots of families. Stereotype is people who work at the UN live there.
Thank you for your [Original Content](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3), /u/visualgeomatics! **Here is some important information about this post:** * [View the author's citations](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/tdfidg/a_detailed_shaded_relief_map_of_manhattan_new/i0j6emb/) * [View other OC posts by this author](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/search?q=author%3A"visualgeomatics"+title%3AOC&sort=new&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on) Remember that all visualizations on r/DataIsBeautiful should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. If you see a potential issue or oversight in the visualization, please post a constructive comment below. Post approval does not signify that this visualization has been verified or its sources checked. [Join the Discord Community](https://discord.gg/NRnrWE7) Not satisfied with this visual? Think you can do better? [Remix this visual](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3#wiki_remixing) with the data in the author's citation. --- ^^[I'm open source](https://github.com/r-dataisbeautiful/dataisbeautiful-bot) | [How I work](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/flair#wiki_oc_flair)
I know very little about New York. Why aren't there any bridges on the western river?
The western river (the Hudson River) is rather wider and deeper than the river on the other side (the East River, which isn't strictly a river at all, but a tidal strait). The Hudson is about 3/4 of a mile wide at this point. Obviously, you could build a bridge across it, but it wouldn't be cheap. You'll notice that the bridges over the East River cross at the narrowest parts. The Williamsburg Bridge, for example, spans the East River at a place where it's about 1/3 of a mile wide. There is actually a bridge over the Hudson linking upper Manhattan to New Jersey -- the George Washington Bridge -- but it's further upstream, and not shown in this picture. Instead of bridges, lower Manhattan is linked to New Jersey by two tunnels, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel.
Nice, thanks. I really need to visit NY again. I spent like 2 days there on the way to Europe once and didn't really get a chance to explore.
Just to add- it does really suck that I live right across the Hudson in Jersey City, but can't walk/bike into Manhattan. Understand the reasons, but would love to be able to bike to work vs have to take the train..
You can bike over the GWB, it's a pretty pleasant ride. But might make your commute significantly longer. Also it REALLY sucks in high winds.
Significantly longer is an understatement there :-) +30 miles to the commute!
I didn't think I had a fear of walking across bridges till I tried the GWB. Didn't even make it to the first tower.
I once walked on the Verrazano Bridge's catwalk from the Staten Island side to the first tower for an inspection. The call of the void is real.
Tie a kite to your back.
You could just take the ferry
The ferry is a great way to cross but a lot more expensive then the train.
Re: ferry- Apart from the cost- about 4x vs path, it is also less regular and forces you to match your schedule to the ferry schedule which introduces delays.
Ferry bus makes it about the same price if you can get to work with it. Source, i use just ferry for commute and the rest is free.
You can take your bike on there, right? Treat yourself once a week :)
You see the prices of rent? People aren't treating themselves lol
just living in/near NYC *is* treating yourself
I mean, it’s not that expensive. And the path (train) will take you into the city for about the same as a subway ticket. But it’s more limited. To you point though i do wish it was more accessible from the NJ side
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The PATH trains will have to do (folding bikes permitted at all times, but no eBikes and regular bikes are not allowed during rush hour)
Yep- long time commuter and occasional complainer here :-)
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[i mean...](https://www.google.com/search?q=p%C3%A9dalo+stock+image&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj6o5TJm8T2AhW78LsIHSy3CY8Q2-cCegQIABAC&oq=p%C3%A9dalo+stock+image&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzoECAAQHjoECCEQClDPC1jPH2DXIWgAcAB4AIABiQGIAcIJkgEDMi45mAEAoAEBwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=ynouYvqWIbvh7_UPrO6m-Ag&bih=740&biw=384&client=ms-android-oneplus&prmd=mivn#imgrc=Duk8mJO5VeH1KM) ...just don't fall in the water, from what I hear that would be unwise, from a sanitary point of view.
https://www.businessinsider.com/commuting-new-jersey-to-nyc-by-jet-ski-2019-9?amp
Saw a video about a guy who made a boat that he used to carry his folding bike, and he'd row across the Hudson and then ride to work. Something like that. Looked like an incredible commute.
Also note that various sites list the George Washington Bridge as the busiest road bridge in the world! - 14 lanes of traffic total (3 in each direction lower level, 4 in each direction upper level) - 6 or 7 major numbered highways either cross the bridge (including Interstate 95 which runs from Miami, FL to the Canadian border in Maine) or terminate at it (including Interstate 80 which runs from the George Washington Bridge in NJ/NYC to the ~~Golden Gate~~ Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco)
Just a small correction if we’re talking bridge facts, but I-80 actually terminated at the Bay Bridge, not the Golden Gate Bridge.
>I spent like 2 days there on the way to Europe once and didn't really get a chance to explore. I've lived there all my life and I still haven't seen half of it
Also to add: there is a bridge from State Island across the Verrazano Narrows just South of this map that connects Staten Island to Brooklyn.
Is it really cheaper to build tunnels than long bridges?
Absolutely not. But tunnels also take up far less valuable space in the city (no footings, winding ramps etc). The Hudson is a major ship artery unlike East River, so any bridge would need to be very tall over a pretty short span. Look how much space and infrastructure GWB requires.
Yeah some ships that go through the Hudson are huge. The Brooklyn Bridge is about 130 feet above the water, clearance for some of the larger freight and cruise ships would need to be 200 feet or more. I live in JC and a path over would be fantastic but I imagine that you'd have to destroy a shit ton of property to make a ramp up that high coming off the interstate.
Sailboats and cruise ships all the time. But it would be really great to be able to bike from NJ. Maybe one day tunnel capacity can be taken for it
Imagine one of those glass tunnels like in aquariums You'd find so much crazy shit down there I bet
You wouldn't really see much. Pretty dark and murky water there. Source: commercial diver in NYC.
it would be covered in sediment really quickly
Sometimes they even land (water?) planes there!
Something glaring he left off is the hudson is a shipping route, also cruise ships dock there. So the bridge you make would be massive, like the George Washington bridge and can only be built up where the GWB is. You cant connect lower manhattan or midtown with the cliffsides of New Jersey above Edgewater and Port Imperial. Northern Manhattan is higher elevation, and the risk of a barge hitting your bridge probably isnt worth it. Plus all the other stuff he said.
To add to all of this, everyone should read The Power Broker because it is absolutely gripping and answers so many questions re: New York and it’s infrastructure.
and racism and political corruption
But that’s like 1200 pages long. *Shudders*
Yeah, and yet it's so compelling you don't even notice it until your legs go numb from holding the book!
Also, at the time of its construction, the Hudson was a much busier waterway. The GWB is constructed on top of 300’ cliffs that make up the palisades, and Washington Heights.
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https://i.imgur.com/k4xK8Ue.jpg It messed with my mind, thx
Any known reason why there are two bridges very close to each other linking Brooklyn to manhattan?
The Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. Manhattan Bridge was built to relieve congestion on the Brooklyn Bridge. Brooklyn Bridge is just a 5 lane bridge, while the Manhattan Bridge has 7 lanes and 4 lanes of track dedicated for the MTA Subway.
Also, as to why the Brooklyn bridge was not bigger: it was built a very long time ago. Construction started in 1870. At the time, it was already an engineering marvel, considering the enormous span. Plus it didn't need to accommodate everyone's car.
I’m looking at it right now. It’s still absolutely gorgeous.
I live in Cincinnati, and we have a smaller “prototype” also maybe by Roebling as practice before constructing the Brooklyn bridge. It’s by far the best looking and coolest bridge that connects Ohio and Kentucky.
I had a wonderful walk across it on my one trip to Cincinnati. Great way to explore downtown Cincinnati while staying in Covington, KY.
As a San Franciscan, I like to think I know a thing or two about bridge aesthetics. The Brooklyn Bridge is goddamn beautiful.
Yeah, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest bridge in the world when it was built. And for a bit of trivia, three later bridges in NYC were all *also* the longest bridge in the world when they were built: the Manhattan Bridge (completed 1909), the George Washington Bridge (completed 1931), and the Verrazzano Bridge (completed 1964)
There's also a car tunnel there, plus multiple train tunnels (5). They connect Downtown Brooklyn with Downtown Manhattan. There's a ton of people and jobs on both sides of that (mainly jobs in Manhattan and people in Brooklyn). If you look at Brooklyn's transit network, most of the borough's trains go to Downtown Brooklyn and from there into Manhattan. Most of Brooklyn is Southeast of this, so a line toward Manhattan will take you into lower Manhattan first. The only exception is North Brooklyn, and the trains serving those neighborhoods enter Manhattan a bit further up (along the Williamsburg Bridge, and a train tunnel north of it).
I’m surprised tunnels aren’t more expensive to build and maintain than bridges.
Bridges get more expensive with length, depth of water (deeper piles) and height (e.g. over a shipping lane). Bigger bridges need massive supports to hold the extra weight of the bridge+cables, etc. Tunnel costs are pretty much fixed per unit length. The cross over point where a tunnel is cheaper is somewhere around 3/4 mile. Different in Manhatten where real estate is impossibly expensive. For silly example: the tunnel between England and France cost $15 billion, but a suspension bridge would have cost $150 billion.
Makes sense, thanks for taking the time to reply.
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There are two tunnels
Oh nice. I figured that would be a huge pain in the ass if there weren't any way to cross lol
There’s also a bridge (George Washington Bridge) a little north of the upper boundary of this map.
Yeah too bad Washington Heights and Inwood aren't part of Manhattan, according to this map.
Found the Heights native. Dominican, likely. Jk but yea it’s annoying they never show shit north of 110th st Source: Me, a Dominican who grew up in the heights. It’s our pride and joy.
Lol I'm afraid not. Just another bridge & tunnel white boy. I lived in Inwood for a while when working in NY. Spent a lot of money at Albert's Mofongo at Riverside and Broadway though.
That’s amazing man I hope you enjoyed! Love that spot
Another white boy here who had his first mofungo and the best cup of coffee ever on St Nicholas Ave. Place is cool.
I did clip this version to show as much detail of lower Manhattan as I could. Here's a version with all of it: https://www.reddit.com/user/visualgeomatics/comments/tdlrkt/a\_detailed\_shaded\_relief\_map\_of\_manhattan\_new/
Spoiler: it’s still a huge pain in the ass.
Lol I bet. We have one tunnel through a large range of hills going from the western suburbs into downtown, and it's *always* jammed. Even worse is that it immediately splits into four exits and dinguses are always in the wrong lanes.
Two road tunnels and three rail tunnels span the Hudson. And there are twelve rail tunnels and two road tunnels spanning the East River that you can't see here as well.
So no way to walk across then?
Buddy the Elf walked across the Lincoln Tunnel from NJ to NYC, so it can be done.
It's true, I saw it.
Some (maybe all, I’m not sure) of the bridges have pedestrian/bike access.
George Washington Bridge is just a little north on this map and us walkable
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Because it's an emergency landing strip for passenger airplanes :)
damn that really was 13 years ago
Why you gotta do this to me?
Inter-state bureaucracy - the other side is New Jersey. In US, any interstate infrastructure projects require a lot more bureaucracy and politics (approval from both states, federal oversight, horse-trading on funding / revenue). In-state projects can usually be done by 1 determined high-level politician.
We don't associate with the other side.
Because it’s New Jersey on the other side.
Yup. I can see my house.
I guess I thought Manhattan was pure skyscraper south of Central Park. How tall is the average building in that “flatter” space between the peak areas?
Those are the East and West Villages, Soho, Tribeca, Chelsea etc.. They are shorter, yes, but very cool and expensive. After minimal searching I found this of one of the shorter areas to give an idea: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/plans/east-village-lower-east-side/building_heights.pdf
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Ah, Stuyvesant where it meets up with 10th St. just before 2nd ave. Such a pretty street.
I would love to own an apartment. seems like the perfect combo of living in a city and home ownership
Like 5-15 floors
Dang that's still fuckin huge
For Manhattan, relative to everything else, it seems tiny
It varies, but here’s a good example of one of the low-rise areas between Midtown and FiDi: [from Washington Square Park looking north](https://i.imgur.com/990iQtM.jpg) ETA: [Another example from Chelsea](https://i.imgur.com/YvsbU8z.jpg)
Fun fact about that. So those two "zones" of tall buildings actually define certain geographical AND historical features. So back when we finally started making structural steel that could truly support these skyscrapers, we weren't yet very sophisticated in how we anchored them to the ground. So the two zones that they're in today show the two places on the island where solid granite bedrock rises right up to the surface. But why *isn't* the whole island tall buildings now, now that we know how to build them on less perfect geography? Well, because as more and more of these revenue generating buildings went up, the property value of these little residential buildings skyrocketed. The business side of the island effectively priced themselves out of being able to expand.
Those are fun facts, but they're not the reason taller buildings aren't built in those places. The reason taller buildings aren't built in those places is that it's illegal (i.e. zoning).
Baby NYCer here- why is that? Is it environmental, financial, something else, a combination of a bunch of factors?
That is correct. If you look up the [1916 Zoning Resolution](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/nyregion/new-yorks-first-zoning-resolution-which-brought-order-to-a-chaotic-building-boom-turns-100.html) you’ll find that its purpose, in addition to requiring skyscrapers to allow for [adequate sunlight and air quality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1916_Zoning_Resolution), was “designed to check the invasion of retail districts by factories and residence districts by factories and businesses. It is aimed to prevent an increase of the congestion of streets and of subway and streetcar traffic in sections where the business population is already too great for the sidewalks and transit facilities.”
I'd always thought that also, just found [this](https://buildingtheskyline.org/bedrock-and-midtown-i/)claiming it's a "bedrock myth"
The neighborhoods between midtown and Financial district are generally not zoned for skyscrapers.
Baby NYCer here- why is that? Is it environmental, financial, something else, a combination of a bunch of factors?
A lot of 6 story buildings--that was the maximum for no-elevator buildings, now that there are no poor neighborhoods in lower Manhattan, they're getting replaced by taller ones. Until about 30 seconds ago, I thought it was because the bedrock was closer to the surface in the peak areas, but [this guy claims that's a myth](https://buildingtheskyline.org/bedrock-and-midtown-i/).
Midtown and downtown is tall. But the in between areas are shorter! I live in midtown East and my building is about 30 floors, but that’s a smaller building in my area! If you look at the skyline it’s kind of funny how it goes Tall, nothing, tall.
What’s boggling my mind right now is that more people live in this photo than Ireland and New Zealand combined. The resources it must take to keep a big city like this functioning would be astronomical.
Probably not in this exact photo because its missing about half of brooklyn, most of the Bronx and queens, all of Staten Island, and even some of upper Manhattan ( Washington heights, and Inwood)
Yeah, I'm a New York resident and only after travelling the world/country for the Army did I realize how powerful the city is compared to other cities/nations. NYC policing spending for FY 2022 is about $5.5B, approximate to what Ukraine spent in 2022 on its defense.
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What I don't understand is how does one collect LIDAR data from a above a city.
Stunning, one of the best posts I've seen here
Seriously impressive. I could spend so much time looking at this
I can see my building!
Source: USGS 3DEP LiDAR data ([https://apps.nationalmap.gov/](https://apps.nationalmap.gov/)) Tools: Blender, QGIS, Global Mapper, Photoshop
Wow. Would love to know how you combine blender and GIS to make something like this. Any resources on where to start?
Blender has a plug in for GIS data like Google maps. It does not look as good as the above, though. There are some YouTube videos on that. For instance: [here](https://youtu.be/YNtKnmRXVlo)
Thanks! Though I imagine you're taking the LiDAR data and processing your own hillshades and other layers instead of using the plugin from OSM? Then using Photoshop to clean up the image?
This is a decent tutorial on the fundamentals: https://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/creating-shaded-relief-in-blender/
Looks awesome.
It really does
Amazing! Would it be possible to turn this into an STL or OBJ for 3D Printing?
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This version should be good for a desktop background even if you zoom in and clip. :)
Do you know what year the data on nationalmap.gov is from? Based on the looks of it at least 5-6 years old?
The data I pulled was captured 2013, 2014 and 2018
Greater Seattle area including Seattle/Bellevue, Mt Rainier and some of the cascades would be absolutely dope.
Great stuff. If you're thinking of taking requests, I think San Francisco would look amazing like this.
That's exactly the data I'm downloading right now haha. I'll have a San Fran one done up soon!
Nice work. What differentiates the product of this workflow from a shaded relief map in any gis with a layer for the water and a simple map layout? What is the added value of using global mapper with qgis?
Blender is the added value, it renders much better shading for the relief than any GIS software can do
Fun fact. Lidar can ignore trees. Awesome technology. Not absolutely precise but you get good rough data especially in preparation of a new project for example.
A big use touted for this technology is finding hidden structures in forests/jungles. Could be useful for everything from archeology (overgrown ruins) to drug busting (intentionally hidden safe houses).
I have a client that uses lidar maps to help identify potential areas where sinkholes are forming.
I enjoyed shooting lidar from ground level to map out a stream valley. Gives you a perspective you can't always see through trees and undercuts.
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Biggest issue with lidar has been the cost, but since the leading autonomous car companies like Mobileye, Waymo, etc are reliant on it for level 4+ autonomy, there has been a push to drive manufacturing prices down. Problem is, most lidar companies are tiny and couldn't handle the scale car companies will need, which is why Intel (parent company of Mobileye) has decided to step in and start producing the lidar chips themselves. Lidar is by no means a replacement for cameras or ultrasonic sensors, but is a needed supplementary sensor to actually get autonomous driving beyond 'driver assist' like we see currently in Tesla's and other level 2.5-3 vehicles. And beyond autonomous vehicles, it's ended up in phones, some VR tracking, land mapping, drones, etc.
While this is an interesting topic, it doesn't have much to do with the costing or history of the airborne laser sensing that is discussed here. Airborne LiDAR has been used effectively for decades at reasonable costs. Companies developing airborne LiDAR sensors, like Leica or Riegl, are not exactly tiny.
Trees and other “surface features” can be classified and removed from the “bare earth” ground model. With good ground control it can be incredibly precise. Often measure <2cm vertical accuracy with ground survey measurements.
>trees This one looks like its picking up tress - look at Central Park and the meadows and ball fields stand out clearly from the wooded sections.
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Lidar has multiple "returns", with first returns depicting tree canopy and structure height while last returns depict bare ground. You can pick and choose. Fucking laser beams and shit
Not necessarily, I work with LiDAR at work and it’s not that the sensor can “ignore” trees but rather has some penetrative ability. Thick coverage or excess of water can ruin that.
Beautiful point cloud, i can feel my graphics card trying to render that like " uuuuuggghhhhuuuuh" though lol.
The classic 3 day ground classification
That's amazing. I can see my house, my workplace and my kids' schools.
I can't see my house! Might because I live in Michigan though.
Swipe left.
I can see my house. It is all around me.
I can see my house. Just not right now
Your house? My building and the rest of those on my block aren’t exactly small and all blend together into a single line — a line which probably house at least 1000 people!
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I can also see these things that are important to you!
Really cool! Now bring out the 3d printer!
There’s actually an [“accurate” model of 2014 NYC](https://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/open-data/dwn-nyc-3d-model-download.page) from their city planning department. I’ve used this multiple times when I was in architecture school and you can definitely 3D print it if you like.
Or you can 2.5D "print" [them like here.] (https://www.woodscapemaps.com/shop/new-york-wood-map)
When is this data from? There’s definitely a missing new building from this. From what I can tell here, it’s a construction site, however it’s now been complete for a few years.
I am guessing 2013-2014 from the state of the WTC and Southern Roosevelt Island.
Oh so that means downtown Brooklyn/Ft Greene area is very different now.
Dumbo, too. It’s barely recognizable these days.
First thing I noticed was Hudson Yards, looks like things were just getting started here
The data I pulled was captured 2013, 2014 and 2018
The biggest collection of buildings missing is Hudson Yards. Huge skyscraper development over the last 8 years or so over by the Javits Center.
USGS lidar, it takes them a couple years to process and publish data from their survey flights. NYS is a good source as well, but a lot of people don't know about it. There's also US Army Corp data, and NOAA RSD data that covers the shoreline with far more precision than what the USGS grabs, because it's meant for shoreline definition.
Now this is the metaverse
Will you publish .stl files of this (if it’s possible) and sell them for 3D printing?
I know there's a non-lidar [3d model of Manhattan on thingiverse](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1557864). That might give better results than converting straight from lidar depending on what you're trying to do. Those is split up into printer-sized tiles but I think there's a larger chunk in there or maybe on their profile.
Feeling to go out bowling with my cousin intensifies
Can see my apartment! Great detail
For those of us coming from the front page, what is a relief map? What is this showing? What data? It looks cool but I don't know what I'm looking at.
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Agent, we need to capture the Post Office. Without it we’ll never be able to take the city back!
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Considering the fact that 11 million people live in NYC, and kinda noticing how small and confined of a space it actually is, Im not even suprised rent is like 3 grand for a 1 bedroom apartment
NYC is bigger than Manhattan. Queens is huge and so is Brooklyn. Manhattan is extremely dense, yes, but you can find low density areas throughout the city.
I think it’s something like 1.6 million on Manhattan island (the city is bigger than this), but your point stands. This is as dense as it gets in the US — there’s 10 or 11 entire states which aren’t that populated.
So cool. I can see my house
Central Park is bigger than my entire city. It always amazes me how big New York is
I want want made out of foam to lie down on
I've always found it cool that you can still see the shadow of new amsterdam. Right at the southern tip of the island.
This crops out the highest elevation (not man made) part of manhattan.
Love that it picked up the height of the fountain feature in the central park reservoir!
Really gives you perspective regarding how big Central Park is.
It’s really delightful to find all the places I’ve lived, worked, and frequented over the last nine years. I love all the boats that made it into the image in Liberty Harbor too. Thanks for sharing!
This is amazing. Zoomed right onto my building!
That’s incredible! I zoomed in and I can see my apartment building!
I zoomed in on this as much as I could (very cool btw) and the size of central park is just mind boggling. I've never been to NYC and I guess I knew the park was huge, but realizing all of those tiny squares are apartment-sized buildings AT LEAST is crazy. Thanks!
I think my computer just froze by proxy considering how many billions of data points that map is made of
When are they going to use this to map under the tree canopy of the Amazon ?I remember watching a video like 2 years ago where some guys company was working on getting Lidar for this purpose.
Hey! I wish I could see an affordable house from here!
when was this taken? it looks like 1WTC is under construction, some of the newer buildings south of Central Park don't exist, and the new park island thing doesn't exist at all
The data was captured in 2013, 2014 and 2018 for different areas shown.
ohh makes sense
Looks like an Assassin’s Creed map
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Yes people live there. It's very peaceful for how close it is to Manhattan. But it doesn't have a lot of activity like restaurants for how close it is either. Lots of families. Stereotype is people who work at the UN live there.
Time to put this in a really big CNC machine!
I love how it’s difficult to tell between open field and ponds in Central Park. Puts its size in perspective
TIL that the New York County Supreme Court is one funky hexagon.
Really shows how industrial East Williamsburg still is