Would be 3 blocks? Or is a block only delineated by a road, but not a pavement? Or something else?
Can you have "blocks" with a lot of detached houses, I would guess that yes you can? So that makes me think its blocks of possibly many buildings between roads?
A block (which, as you've pointed out is an ephemeral phrase), in NYC at least, is the space along a road from intersection to intersection. It thus usually doesn't count gaps between buildings or alleys or the like. Many of the long (east/west) blocks in Manhattan, for example, have pedestrian pass-throughs in the middle, but that doesn't count as a split in the block.
Etymology note: The word 'blockbuster' was coined by the press to describe the largest conventional bombs used by the RAF in WWII, because they could destroy a city block.
Comments
Stupid question, probably. But I'm not American.
Is a "block" just a continuous building with no gaps for a road or pavement?
i.e.
Would be 3 blocks? Or is a block only delineated by a road, but not a pavement? Or something else?Can you have "blocks" with a lot of detached houses, I would guess that yes you can? So that makes me think its blocks of possibly many buildings between roads?
A block (which, as you've pointed out is an ephemeral phrase), in NYC at least, is the space along a road from intersection to intersection. It thus usually doesn't count gaps between buildings or alleys or the like. Many of the long (east/west) blocks in Manhattan, for example, have pedestrian pass-throughs in the middle, but that doesn't count as a split in the block.
In American English, blocks are deliminated by roads and mostly used in dense urban environments, often where the blocks are rectangular.
Etymology note: The word 'blockbuster' was coined by the press to describe the largest conventional bombs used by the RAF in WWII, because they could destroy a city block.
Wikipedia has a great explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_block