Manhattan borough, the business and commercial center of New York City, is situated on an island in the Hudson River. Just south of it lies Staten Island, a largely residential borough. Across the East River branch of the Hudson lie the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens with the Bronx on the mainland to the north. The state of New Jersey lies across the Hudson to the west.

Manhattan Island is about two miles wide and over 12 miles long. Central Park, located at the very center of the island, is about a half-mile wide and three miles long. The southern tip of the island is called "Downtown." The section directly south of Central Park and extending partially up both sides is usually called "Midtown," and everything from the middle of the park to the northern tip of the island is called "Uptown." The part of the island adjacent to Long Island is called the "East Side" and the part adjacent to the Hudson River and New Jersey is the "West Side."

Manhattan has a simple grid of streets and avenues. The numbered streets of Manhattan all run east-west beginning with First Street just above Greenwich Village, and extending all the way up to 218th Street at the far northern tip of the island. Avenues run north-south beginning with First Avenue on the East Side and extending to Twelfth Avenue along the Hudson River on the West Side. These numbered avenues are interspersed with named avenues such as Park Avenue, Lexington, Madison and Broadway. Broadway is a bit unusual as it starts out as a typical north-south avenue in the middle of the island downtown, but angles sharply to the west just below Central Park and continues on up the West Side to the top of the island. In lower Manhattan, the streets have names instead of numbers.

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