In 1811, the planners of Manhattan’s street grid accidentally built one of the largest sun-aligned monuments in the world — and four times a year, the setting sun lines up perfectly with the city’s east-west streets, in an event Neil deGrasse Tyson named Manhattanhenge

For a few minutes on four evenings each year, the setting sun falls into perfect alignment with the east-west cross streets of Manhattan, throwing a low golden corridor of light from river to river through the canyons of midtown. The grid was not designed for this. Nobody in 1811 was thinking about astronomy. The commissioners [...] The post In 1811, the planners of Manhattan’s street grid accidentally built one of the largest sun-aligned monuments in the world — and four times a year, the setti