Overview

John Randel Jr. (1787?1865) was an eccentric and flamboyant surveyor. Renowned for his inventiveness as well as for his bombast and irascibility, Randel was central to Manhattan's development but died in financial ruin. Telling Randel's engrossing and dramatic life story for the first time, this eye-opening biography introduces an unheralded pioneer of American engineering and mapmaking. Charged with ""gridding"" what was then an undeveloped, hilly island, Randel recorded the contours of Manhattan down to the rocks on its shores. He was obsessed with accuracy and steeped in the values of the Enlightenment, in which math and science promised dominion over nature. The result was a series of maps, astonishing in their detail and precision, which undergird our knowledge about the island today. During his varied career Randel created surveying devices, designed an early elevated subway, and proposed a controversial alternative route for the Erie Canal—winning him admirers and enemies. The Measure of Manhattan is more than just the life of an unrecognized engineer. It is about the ways in which surveying and cartography changed the ground beneath our feet. Bringing Randel's story into the present, Holloway travels with contemporary surveyors and scientists trying to envision Manhattan as a wild island once again. Illustrated with dozens of historical images and antique maps, The Measure of Manhattan is an absorbing story of a fascinating man that captures the era when Manhattan—indeed, the entire country—still seemed new, the moment before canals and railroads helped draw a grid across the American landscape.

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9780393347906

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This outstanding history of the Manhattan grid offers us a strange archaeology: part spatial adventure, part technical expedition into the heart of measurement itself. . . . . Marguerite Holloway's engaging survey takes us step by step through the challenges of obsolete land laws and outdated maps of an earlier metropolis, looking for--and finding--the future shape of this immeasurable city. --Geoff Manaugh

This intelligent and entirely riveting account of the brave young man who squared and sculpted Manhattan, and made famous its present street geometry, is every bit as groundbreaking a success as was his own work, two centuries before. Marguerite Holloway has uncovered in the life of John Randel Jr., a quite marvelous tale, and has told it just magnificently. -- Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic and The Map That Changed the World [Holloway] deftly weaves surviving fragments of Randel's life ... with a 21st century scavenger hunt by modern geographers to find the physical markers of his work. -- New York Times In gracefully efficient prose, Marguerite Holloway, who heads Columbia University's Science and Environmental Journalism program, gives the reader a vivid sense of the challenges facing Randel, the social context that informed his epic undertaking, and the will and ingenuity that he brought to the task...an enlightening ode to a man who made sense of a budding metropolis. -- Kevin Canfield - The Daily Beast A far more intimate experience than going to the museum. -- Village Voice The Measure of Manhattan offers a fascinating look at a forgotten episode in American history. Marguerite Holloway brings to life the man who in a very real way made New York what it is today. -- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes From a Catastrophe With the grid he laid down, John Randel Jr. transformed an island of 18th Century villages into the modern linear city-a mind-boggling achievement in ferociously meticulous surveying that reads, in The Measure of Manhattan, like a wilderness adventure, angry farmers standing in for the wild animals already hunted away. Marguerite Holloway's portrait of the surveyor's surveyor in his cartography-obsessed time shows us how much the physical city has changed and, most importantly, how much it hasn't. -- Robert Sullivan, author of My American Revolution and Rats This outstanding history of the Manhattan grid offers us a strange archaeology: part spatial adventure, part technical expedition into the heart of measurement itself... Marguerite Holloway's engaging survey takes us step by step through the challenges of obsolete land laws and outdated maps of an earlier metropolis, looking for-and finding-the future shape of this immeasurable city. -- Geoff Manaugh - BLDGBLOG

"""This intelligent and entirely riveting account of the brave young man who squared and sculpted Manhattan, and made famous its present street geometry, is every bit as groundbreaking a success as was his own work, two centuries before. Marguerite Holloway has uncovered in the life of John Randel Jr., a quite marvelous tale, and has told it just magnificently."" -- Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic and The Map That Changed the World ""[Holloway] deftly weaves surviving fragments of Randel's life ... with a 21st century scavenger hunt by modern geographers to find the physical markers of his work."" -- New York Times ""In gracefully efficient prose, Marguerite Holloway, who heads Columbia University's Science and Environmental Journalism program, gives the reader a vivid sense of the challenges facing Randel, the social context that informed his epic undertaking, and the will and ingenuity that he brought to the task...an enlightening ode to a man who made sense of a budding metropolis."" -- Kevin Canfield - The Daily Beast ""A far more intimate experience than going to the museum."" -- Village Voice ""The Measure of Manhattan offers a fascinating look at a forgotten episode in American history. Marguerite Holloway brings to life the man who in a very real way made New York what it is today."" -- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes From a Catastrophe ""With the grid he laid down, John Randel Jr. transformed an island of 18th Century villages into the modern linear city-a mind-boggling achievement in ferociously meticulous surveying that reads, in The Measure of Manhattan, like a wilderness adventure, angry farmers standing in for the wild animals already hunted away. Marguerite Holloway's portrait of the surveyor's surveyor in his cartography-obsessed time shows us how much the physical city has changed and, most importantly, how much it hasn't."" -- Robert Sullivan, author of My American Revolution and Rats ""This outstanding history of the Manhattan grid offers us a strange archaeology: part spatial adventure, part technical expedition into the heart of measurement itself... Marguerite Holloway's engaging survey takes us step by step through the challenges of obsolete land laws and outdated maps of an earlier metropolis, looking for-and finding-the future shape of this immeasurable city."" -- Geoff Manaugh - BLDGBLOG"

[Holloway] deftly weaves surviving fragments of Randel's life... with a 21st century scavenger hunt by modern geographers to find the physical markers of his work. The New York Times ...in her fascinating new book...Holloway provides a detailed but intimate portrait of a man inspired by Enlightenment ideals of scientific rationalism and the quest to tame the natural world. Geographical Magazine This book is a thoroughly enjoyable read, a story well-researched and well told. Sheetlines

Author Information

Marguerite Holloway has written for the New York Times and the New Yorker, among other publications, and is the author of The Measure of Manhattan. She is a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in New York City.

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