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2006-08-20 04:42:31 · 4 answers · asked by Pseudo Obscure 6 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Downtown was first coined in the nineteenth century in New York to describe the central business district, or oldest part of the city, which is now the Central Business District. Up and Down are determined based upon the direction of travel of the Hudson and East rivers. The river flows down to New York harbor - so the end of the island down the river became downtown.
It can also be used in Manhattan do describe direction of travel - downtown being south towards the tip of Manhattan, and uptown being the north end of the island.
2006-08-20 04:58:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most towns were built near a watersource, whichever way the water flowed determined town direction. ...i.e. down-river = down-town
another interesting fact... What made up-town so "up" wasn't just the direction, but back in the day all the raw sewage dumped directly into the streams, the further down-stream/down-town you were, the more "crap" there was in your part of the river. The up-towners had cleaner water, usually because they were the upper-crusters of society.
2006-08-20 04:52:43 · answer #2 · answered by gypsie_soul06 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
dowtown is south and sometimes just used as an expression for where there are a lot of shops and restaurants and stuff like that. and up town is probably like a city plain kind of enviroment.
2006-08-20 04:49:33 · answer #3 · answered by Harshil 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
uhh, the north side of town is up and the south is down. no link is required for that dear.
2006-08-20 04:47:54 · answer #4 · answered by I'm_Bored 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋