Talk:Kingsbridge Armory

Latest comment: 3 years ago by Epicgenius in topic Street cardinal directions

Drill Hall in a closet

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The source I looked at did say 180, also form the New York Times. And I quote "A nine-story red-brick structure with a 180-square-foot drill hall and an 800-seat auditorium, the armory covers an entire block between Kingsbridge Road and 195th Street and Reservoir and Jerome Avenues." That’s why I reverted the edit. The other New York Times source says 180,000. It was a misunderstanding not "ridiculous". Here is the link [1] --CPacker (talk) 05:11, 9 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

At least one of our sources for Kingsbridge Armory drill hall has screwed up. Think about it. 180 square feet is not enough space for a platoon to stand-at-ease, much less rear march or other elementary drill move. That's a ridiculously small room; the commander's office is probably larger. One thousand times bigger is rather large, and may also be mistaken, but I was on the outside of the armory, not the inside so I haven't seen it. If somebody seriously belives the 180 sqf number, better maybe to remove the figure until some more authoritative source can be found for how many zeroes belong there. Jim.henderson (talk) 05:48, 9 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Technically you are both right. It is 180,000 SqFt, and if you ever see it is also ridiculous how big it is. You can fit slightly more than 2 Grand Central Terminal ticketing halls inside the main floor of the building. -Commander B/1-258 FA Kingsbridge annex Bronx,NY —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.39.163.118 (talk) 20:25, 5 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

Street cardinal directions

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@Jd2718: In this edit you say it is "customary" to use the full street names, including cardinal direction, for Bronx streets. As far as I know, this has never been the case; referring to "Kingsbridge Road", "Fordham Road", etc. is unambiguous regardless of whether one adds "West" or "East". This is true even if the street is divided into several parts, which occurs frequently. The only use of the cardinal direction is to distinguish addresses west or east of Jerome Avenue, a continuation of the Manhattan street grid.

In my opinion, adding the cardinal direction is unnecessary after the first usage for addresses in the Bronx, as it is in Manhattan. It's fine to use it the first time around, because of the way addresses are laid out; e.g. "300 West 14th Street" is a far different address than "300 East 14th Street". However, these two addresses are still physically on the same street. This even applies for addresses on streets which are separated into multiple sections, like "100 West 86th Street" and "100 East 86th Street". The use of "West" and "East" is used solely to distinguish pairs of addresses west or east of Fifth Avenue and Jerome Avenue, respectively. A street that is broken up into several sections, along the same alignment, is still largely considered to be the same street.

This is a different scenario from the street naming of Brooklyn, where a theoretical address on West 8th Street is eighteen blocks away from a corresponding address on East 8th Street, which runs parallel to West 9th. In Brooklyn, it would be mandatory to add the cardinal direction, since these are two different streets. Epicgenius (talk) 15:51, 11 April 2021 (UTC)Reply

There is a sharp distinction to be made between logic and actual usage. With few exceptions "East" and "West" are regularly used in the Bronx, even where there is no ambiguity whatsoever. Wikipedia follows usage (reliable sources). Jd2718 (talk) 00:03, 12 April 2021 (UTC)Reply
Further - minor - detail - there is not a regular grid as in much of Manhattan. Streets bend, break. Street numbers are skipped. Differing numbering patterns almost intersect. The presumption of regular alignment does not work. That may help explain usage. Jd2718 (talk) 00:12, 12 April 2021 (UTC)Reply
To avoid further dispute, I have rephrased the article to remove the awkward wording. However, there is only one street grid in the Bronx, so there is little ambiguity whether this armory is on Kingsbridge Road or West Kingsbridge Road. I've seen this issue even in reliable sources, where both actual usage and logic uses these terminologies interchangeably. It is different altogether for Brooklyn, like I said, and even for Queens, but that is a moot point now. Epicgenius (talk) 00:19, 12 April 2021 (UTC)Reply