New York Landmarks in Gatsby

The novel takes place between Long Island, Queens, and Manhattan. The map above shows Long Island. The western end of the island is comprised of Brooklyn to the south and Queens to the north (see map below). It is Queens where Myrtle lives near the "valley of ashes." Manhattan is located across the East River, represented by the star and "New York" above. Long Island Sound is the body of water that separates Long Island, New York from Connecticut to the north. Here's a great trivia question: What are the five boroughs of New York City? Answer: Staten Island, Queens Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx (see map below). East Egg and West Egg were fictionalized versions of the real North Shore villages of Kings Point and Sands Point.

The five boroughs of New York (and Long Island)

Fifth Avenue, known as "America's most expensive street"

Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The section of Fifth Avenue between 34th Street and 59th Street is one of the premier shopping streets in the world. Fifth Avenue serves as a symbol of wealthy New York and is consistently ranked as one of the most expensive streets in the world.

Penn Station, circa 1920's

Pennsylvania Station—commonly known as Penn Station—is the major intercity rail station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. It is one of the busiest rail stations in the world, and a hub for inboard and outboard railroad traffic in New York City. The station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza, located between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue and between 31st Street and 33rd Street in Midtown Manhattan. Serving 600,000 passengers a day at a rate of up to a thousand every 90 seconds, it is the busiest passenger transportation facility in the United States and by far the busiest train station in North America.

157th Street subway station

Myrtle's New York City apartment is located on 158th Street in the neighborhood of Washington Heights in the northern reaches of Manhattan. When traveling by train from Penn Station to Washington Heights you woul pass through the heart of Harlem.

The Yale Club on E 44th St. in Manhattan

The Yale Club is a private club in Midtown Manhattan, where Nick Carraway ate lunch and studied during the workweek. Its membership is restricted almost entirely to alumni (like Nick Carraway) and faculty of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. With a clubhouse comprising 22 stories and a worldwide membership of over 11,000, it is the largest clubhouse in the world and continues to be the largest college clubhouse in the world.

Murray Hill Hotel (1884-1947)

The Murray Hill Hotel was built in 1884; as a 600 room hotel just blocks from Grand Central Terminal on a site which previously housed stables for the Madison Ave. stagecoach lines. The enormous red brick building was arranged around two courtyards. The main entrance was a colonnaded portico above which the building rose to a gable. It was demolished in 1947 to make way for an office building at 100 Park Avenue.