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THE GRID SYSTEM Once you realize all roads lead to Temple Square, it’s easy BY JEREMY PUGH
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And as in Manhattan, hemmed by its rivers, comprehension of the grid system here along the Latter-day Saint pioneers’ entry into the Wasatch Front is aided by an understanding of the Salt Lake Valley—which, if you’re countlandscape. To the east are the Giant Mountains, ing, was August 2, 1947—the Saints had a street and to the west are the flat places on the way to system mapped out. The streets-to-be would meaWendover. It’s easy to talk in terms sure 132 feet in width (apocryphal of compass points because of these tales suggest Brigham Young wanted THE NEXUS OF omnipresent landmarks. Still, the room for a team of oxen to flip a U-turn). They ran north-south, eastUTAH’S STREET system was stubbornly applied across the state and persists in locales as west and intersected at right angles. UNIVERSE IS bereft of topography as Delta and as The eastern edge of the Future Home Martian as St. George. of Temple Square was given the role THE CORNER of longitude, and its southern border For newcomers, the confusion OF MAIN AND comes down to the numbers. In citywas to play latitude’s part. And thus, the nexus of Utah’s street universe is SOUTH TEMPLE. states like Las Vegas, where to know the corner of Main (East Temple in where you are is to know the prothose days) and South Temple. gression from Tropicana to Sahara, And if you don’t know that, you are really lost. folks are used to a more touchy-feely street system. Salt Lake is not alone in its grid system. Many of In Utah, the hard, cold grid is like grade-school your finer cities have one—Paris, Manhattan, Washmath. “I live at 241 S. 500 East” is the equivalent of, ington, D.C., But few do it with such stricture, such “Two trains, at equal distance from Temple Square, enthusiastic adherence. Paris muddles its grid with are traveling at 60 mph and 70 mph; which one will willy-nilly diagonals, and D.C. also has diagonals at arrive first?” But once you get it figured, it’s easy dicing a perfectly good grid into pie pieces. Courtesy to appreciate a good grid system, and we have one of, yes, a Frenchman. Then there’s Manhattan. Now of the best. there’s a grid system. You drop a born-and-bred It’s a low-tech precursor to the modern world, Utah boy in Battery Park, make sure he knows how where all ye need know is just a Google away. to pronounce “Houston,” and he’ll fight his way to A Promethean and prophetic GPS, courtesy of Central Park. It won’t be pretty, but he’ll make it. Brother Brigham.
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