if you look at the island of Manhattan, its its sort of long and thin.... the Western side is almost straigth, (it has a bit of a 'dog leg's' bend (about 14th street, near NYC Chelsea)
the eastern side flares out (like the side of a funnel, getting wider and wider, the becomes dramatically narrower on the east side, and curves inward to about 14th St. (its as if the long thin wedge of the island had its tip bent) the "bend" means the out ward tidal flow of the "east River" (not a river at all but a tidal straight) rushes down to the point, where the current than has to move around the land...
as it does, it 'drops off' flotsom and jetsom.
this is a link to mapquest, (level 6) and you can see the bumbed out part of the island (since all of Manhattan's has land fill, and the contorts have changed (radically in places, in my lifetime!) the 'bump' is softer than is was 50 years ago.
It is conveniently labeled point #6-
if you zoom into level 7 or 8, you will see street names, showing "the Bowery", 4th Avenue, and the Lexington Avenue (all really the same street!)
the Bowery starts just about where the radio button on the map label's
New York--zoom out to 5 to see the whole island.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P2BB52D83
