Manhattan solstice
n.— « I’ve heard about a “Manhattan solstice,” when the sun supposedly lines up along the streets. Is it for real? When does it happen?…On May 28 and on July 13, the sun will fully illuminate every Manhattan cross street (not the curved or angled ones) on the street grid during the last 15 minutes of daylight, and it will set on each street’s center line. The sight is breathtaking.» —“Stonehenge in the City” by Michael Pollak New York Times May 21, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child’s letter to the Tooth Fairy, tucked into a book decades ago. What stories are left untold by these forgotten...
There is also a “Winter Manhattan Solstice” where this happens at sunrise, also very beautiful.