Day 786

The Old Croton Aqueduct, out of service for several decades now, still cuts a slanted swath across the street grid of Upper Manhattan on its subterranean path from the southern end of Highbridge Park down toward 151st Street, where it turns south and runs directly beneath Amsterdam Avenue for a couple of miles. Standing on 153rd Street, above, you can see some oddly shaped buildings whose oblique walls skirt the course of the aqueduct as it slices diagonally through the middle of the block on its way toward 152nd Street. The aqueduct's route through this area is clearly visible as a treed corridor in aerial photos, and as a chain of elongated lots arcing across the city's tax map with total disregard for any sense of rectilinear real estate order.