Everything you need to know about blocks in New York

What Is a Block in New York?

• Here’s a key term for your New York visit: the block. A block is a city block—a group of buildings bounded by streets in each of New York’s neighborhoods.
• But it’s more than just a name for a group of buildings. The block is also a unit of measurement in New York. When you ask a New Yorker where a landmark is, they’ll likely tell you the distance in blocks rather than meters or walking time. The Chrysler Building? “10 blocks south”—that’s 10 blocks to the south.
• This system makes it easy to judge distance and, more importantly, how long it will take you to get from one place to another.

What You Need to Know About Blocks

Since New Yorkers use blocks constantly, it helps to know what one actually is. Here are the key facts:

• New York has roughly 120,000 blocks in total. In Manhattan, blocks start at 14th Street and continue north to Harlem.
• In Manhattan, a block measures 80 m (262 ft) from street to street and 274 m (899 ft) from avenue to avenue.
• Walking one block from street to street takes about 1 minute. So 10 blocks takes roughly 10 minutes. This is useful to know when deciding whether to walk or take the bus or subway.

Map of New York With Blocks