Cortlandt Alley

Location scout Nick Carr says "it's a self-perpetuating fictional version of New York, the alley has become iconic.

The plan created 155 streets and 12 Avenues intersecting at right angles leaving out alleys by design.

The plan gave the commission eminent domain: the power to force existing land owners to sell any land the commission needed in order to build their design.

Today, most of the only remaining alleys left in New York City are located in lower Manhattan south of Canal Street.

To make the alley seem even more dangerous and dingy and shady, film crews have sometimes pasted papers on the walls, staged bags of garbage on the sides, and purposely dirtied the environment.