Named after West 18th Street, one of the numbered streets of Manhattan’s grid.
18th Street belongs to the numbered grid created by the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811; like 17th and 19th Streets, it runs from First Avenue to Eleventh Avenue. To mark the plan out on the ground, John Randel and his staff set up almost 1,600 markers, mostly marble monuments inscribed with the number of the street, at the intersections.