Ask anyone "how long is New York" and you’ll get a look that says, Which one? Are we talking about the skinny island where the skyscrapers live? The massive state that touches Canada? Or the grueling five-borough sprawl that eats your weekend plans for breakfast?
It’s a trick question.
Honestly, the distance from one end of New York to the other depends entirely on whether you’re looking at a subway map or a topographical survey of the Appalachian Trail. Most people just want to know how far they have to walk from Battery Park to Inwood. But if you’re planning a road trip from Montauk to the Pennsylvania border, you’re looking at a completely different beast.
Measuring the State: It's Bigger Than You Think
New York State is a monster. If you look at the raw geography, the state stretches roughly 330 miles from north to south. That sounds manageable until you realize the east-to-west distance is even crazier, clocking in at about 285 miles.
But wait.
The "length" of the state changes if you include the maritime borders. If you start at the tip of Montauk Point on Long Island and drive all the way to the western edge near Lake Erie, you’re covering over 470 miles. That is a long day in the car. You’ll pass through the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, and the Finger Lakes before you even smell the mist of Niagara Falls.
The New York State Department of Transportation manages over 114,000 miles of highway. That’s enough to wrap around the Earth four times. Perspective is everything.
Manhattan: The 13-Mile Stretch
When people ask how long is New York, they usually mean Manhattan. It’s the center of the universe for a reason.
Manhattan Island is approximately 13.4 miles long.
It’s narrow, too. At its widest point—near 14th Street—it’s only about 2.3 miles wide. If you’re at 155th Street, it tapers down to roughly 0.8 miles. You could basically throw a rock across it if you had a really good arm and ignored a few laws of physics.
The Great Saunter
Every year, thousands of people participate in "The Great Saunter." It’s a 32-mile walk that circles the entire perimeter of Manhattan. Why 32 miles if the island is only 13 miles long? Because the jagged edges of the Hudson and East Rivers add a massive amount of shoreline.
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Walking the length of Manhattan—from the Battery up to the Harlem River—takes the average person about five or six hours. That’s assuming you don’t stop for a $6 latte or get distracted by the buskers in Union Square. Broadway itself, which runs diagonally across the grid, is actually longer than the island’s straight-line distance, stretching about 13 miles within Manhattan before continuing into the Bronx and beyond.
The Five Boroughs: A Different Metric
New York City isn’t just a line; it’s a cluster.
The total length of the city from the northernmost point of the Bronx to the southernmost tip of Staten Island is roughly 35 miles.
Think about that.
If you hopped in a car at the top of Van Cortlandt Park and drove down to Conference House Park on Staten Island, you’d be traveling the same distance as a trip from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware.
- The Bronx: About 7 miles long.
- Brooklyn: Roughly 12 miles from the East River to the Atlantic.
- Queens: The heavyweight. It’s the largest borough by land area, stretching about 14 miles east-to-west.
- Staten Island: Around 13.9 miles long.
How Long Is the Subway System?
You can’t talk about the length of New York without mentioning the veins that keep it alive. The NYC subway system is a labyrinth.
If you laid all the subway tracks end-to-end, they would stretch for 665 miles.
That is longer than the distance from New York City to Raleigh, North Carolina. If you only count the "route miles"—the actual paths the trains take regardless of how many tracks are side-by-side—it’s still 248 miles.
The A train is the longest single line in the system. It runs over 31 miles from 207th Street in Manhattan all the way to Far Rockaway in Queens. It’s a legendary commute. People have written songs about it. People have definitely slept through their stops and ended up in a different ecosystem on it.
The Misconception of Walking City Blocks
Tourists always underestimate the "long" New York blocks.
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In Manhattan, the grid system created by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 makes it look easy. There are about 20 blocks to a mile when you’re walking north-south (the avenues).
But the east-west blocks? Those are "long blocks."
Walking from 5th Avenue to 6th Avenue is much shorter than walking from 1st Avenue to 2nd Avenue. Some of those crosstown stretches are nearly 800 feet long. If you try to walk "across" Manhattan, you’re covering much more ground than you think.
The Longest Street Nobody Knows
While Broadway gets all the fame, it isn't the longest street in New York State. That honor belongs to Route 17, which stretches for 397 miles.
Even within the city, things get weird. Victory Boulevard on Staten Island runs for 8 miles. That’s a lot of road for an island people often forget is part of the city.
And then there's the Shore Parkway, part of the Belt Parkway system. It wraps around Brooklyn and Queens for over 25 miles. If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic there on a Friday afternoon, it feels like it’s 5,000 miles long. Honestly.
Water, Water Everywhere
New York is an archipelago. Most people forget that.
Except for the Bronx, every borough is either an island or part of one. This means the "length" of New York is defined by its bridges.
The George Washington Bridge is 4,760 feet long. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island, spans 13,700 feet. When it opened in 1964, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It’s so long that the engineers had to account for the curvature of the Earth when designing the towers. They are 1 5/8 inches further apart at the top than at the base.
That is the kind of scale we’re dealing with.
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The Time Dimension: How "Long" Is the Wait?
In New York, distance is rarely measured in miles. It’s measured in minutes.
"How long is New York?" is often answered with "About 45 minutes on the 4-train" or "Two hours if the BQE is backed up."
The geographic length of the city is static, but the functional length is fluid. A three-mile trip in Manhattan can take longer than a thirty-mile trip in Upstate New York. This is the reality of the city. You aren't traveling through space; you're traveling through congestion.
Why the Size Matters for Residents
Understanding the scale of New York changes how you live. If you live in Inwood, a trip to the Financial District is a commitment. It’s 10 miles. In a smaller city, 10 miles is nothing. In New York, it’s a journey across distinct cultural landscapes, zip codes, and micro-climates.
The sheer length of the state also means New York is one of the most diverse places in America. You have the Atlantic coastline, the skyscrapers of Midtown, the rolling hills of the Hudson, and the rugged wilderness of the Adirondacks. The Adirondack Park itself is 6 million acres. That’s larger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Parks combined.
New York is huge. It’s tiny. It’s whatever you’re looking at in the moment.
Real-World Comparisons
To put the 13.4-mile length of Manhattan into perspective:
- It’s about half the length of a marathon.
- It’s roughly the same distance as crossing the English Channel at its narrowest point.
- You could fit about 2,200 yellow taxis bumper-to-bumper from top to bottom.
When you look at the whole state, the 470-mile span from Montauk to the western border is roughly the distance from London to Scotland. It’s a massive amount of territory that most NYC-centric residents never truly see.
Navigating the Length: Actionable Tips
If you're trying to conquer the length of New York, you need a strategy. You can't just wing it.
- For Manhattan Trekkers: Start at 218th Street and walk south. It’s mostly downhill. You’ll see the transition from the quiet, hilly parks of Upper Manhattan to the frantic energy of Times Square and the historic cobblestones of Wall Street.
- For Road Trippers: If you’re driving the length of the state, avoid I-87 and I-90 if you have time. Take the scenic routes like Route 9W or the Taconic State Parkway. They follow the geography rather than cutting through it.
- For Commuters: Use apps like Citymapper or Transit. Google Maps is fine, but it often struggles with the "real-time" length of New York subway delays.
- The "L" Factor: Remember that the city changes. Construction, parades, and presidential motorcades can turn a 20-minute mile into a two-hour ordeal.
The Takeaway
New York isn't just a point on a map. It's a 13-mile island, a 35-mile city, and a 470-mile state. Whether you’re measuring it in city blocks, subway stops, or highway exits, its length is a testament to how much can be crammed into one corner of the world.
Next time someone asks "how long is New York," tell them it depends on how much time they have to spend. Because in this city, the distance is the easy part—it's the journey that takes forever.
Plan your route based on time, not mileage. If you’re walking Manhattan, wear broken-in sneakers and carry water. If you're driving the state, get an E-ZPass; the bridges and Thruway will eat your wallet otherwise. Most importantly, look up. Whether you're in the Adirondacks or the East Village, the "length" of the view is the best part of the trip.