street work

[Joel S. Berson]

I grew up in New York City, so I first stumbled over "just north of
Spruce St."  Since 34th runs east-west, to locate something on it one
should be saying "just east|west of" something.  Then I stumbled over
"Spruce Street", which -- if it even exists in NY -- surely does not
intersect 34th.

When I realized. from the "north of" and "east lane", that 34th was
instead running north-south, I had no confusion.  A north-south
street does not have an eastbound lane, so "east traffic lane" must
mean the lane on the east (northbound, if the manhole is not located
in Britain, etc.) side of 34th.

Joel

At 7/17/2008 05:09 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
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>If you wouldn't mind, please read this paragraph and then answer the
>question below.
>
>----
>JPC construction will be doing work at a manhole location on 34th
>Street just north of Spruce Street. Therefore, the east traffic lane
>will be closed for approximately 4 weeks during the hours of 7:00am -
>3:30 pm M-F.
>----
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>Did you read that as referring to
>  1. the eastbound lane, or
>  2. the lane on the east side of the street?
>
>The intended reading is #2: 34th St. in Philadelphia runs N-S, so
>there is no eastbound lane. But I first read it as #1. Then I realized
>that that was impossible and it must refer to the eastbound lane of
>Spruce Street. But the text says 34th north of Spruce, not in the
>intersection, and I wound up writing for clarification. The reply was
>
>----
>You are correct. 34th runs North to South. Therefore there is an east
>side and a west side of the street. In the case of the construction
>location, the lane on the east side of the street will be blocked off.
>----
>
>I grew up in NYC, where the numbered streets run E-W, and after almost
>six years in Philadelphia I still stumble over the difference
>sometimes. Now I can't tell whether my misunderstanding was wholly due
>to that, or whether the sentence really is confusing.
>
>Mark, facing .....  East
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org