The current plan for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan proposes to knit much of the former World Trade Center superblock back into the surrounding street grid. Two of the closed streets will be reopened to traffic: the north–south axis of Greenwich Street and the east–west axis of Fulton Street. In addition, Dey and Cortland Streets will also be extended as pedestrian walkways across the eastern half of the site. This proposal reasserts the grid as the primary circulation network in lower Manhattan and indicates a turn away from the superblock strategy that dominated urban planning in the 1960s and 1970s. It demonstrates a renewed faith in the Manhattan vernacular street and in the norms of the 1811 grid. CY