Quote:
Originally Posted by denizen467
IIRC the shallow bedrock in Manhattan is most pronounced (most shallow) around Midtown, hence the clustering of highrises there.
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The highrise concentration in Midtown has nothing to do with bedrock. It's because the main transit hubs were built here (Penn, GCT, PABT, PATH, Subway), and because of early 20th century zoning changes, which restricted commercial to basically south of 60th Street.
As Manhattan developed, the commercial center gradually moved northward, with the desirability and value increasing as you moved further north. With a very early version of NIMBYism, commercial growth was eventually restricted to the area south of Central Park, so the largest growth was in this space.