Broadway (Manhattan): Difference between revisions

Broadway

A typical daytime scene on Broadway The entire length of the street is highlighted red
Location	Manhattan, The Bronx, and Westchester County, New York
South end	Battery Place, Lower Manhattan, in New York City
Major junctions	NY 495 in Manhattan I-95 / US 1 / US 9 in Manhattan NY 9A / Henry Hudson Parkway in The Bronx NY 9A in Yonkers I-87 / I-287 / New York Thruway / NY 119 in Tarrytown NY 448 in Sleepy Hollow
North end	US 9 / NY 117 in Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County, New York

Broadway /ˈbrɔːdweɪ/ is a road in the U.S. state of New York. Perhaps best known for the boulevard portion that runs through the borough of Manhattan in New York City, it actually runs 13 mi (21 km) through Manhattan and 2 mi (3.2 km) through the Bronx, exiting north from the city to run an additional 18 mi (29 km) through the municipalities of Yonkers, Hastings-On-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown and terminating north of Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.^[1]

It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in New York City, dating to the first New Amsterdam settlement. The name Broadway is the English literal translation of the Dutch name, Breede weg. Broadway is known worldwide as the heart of the American theatre industry.^[2]

Broadway was originally the Wickquasgeck Trail, carved into the brush of Manhattan by its Native American inhabitants.^[3] This trail originally snaked through swamps and rocks along the length of Manhattan Island.

Upon the arrival of the Dutch, the trail soon became the main road through the island from Nieuw Amsterdam at the southern tip. The Dutch explorer and entrepreneur David de Vries gives the first mention of it in his journal for the year 1642 ("the Wickquasgeck Road over which the Indians passed daily"). The Dutch named the road "Heerestraat".^[4] Although current street signs are simply labeled as "Broadway", in a 1776 map of New York City, Broadway is explicitly labeled "Broadway Street".^[2] In the mid-eighteenth century, part of Broadway in what is now lower Manhattan was known as Great George Street.^[5]

In the 18th century, Broadway ended at the town commons north of Wall Street, where traffic continued up the East Side of the island via Eastern Post Road and the West Side via Bloomingdale Road. The western Bloomingdale Road would be widened and paved during the 19th century, and called "The Boulevard" north of Columbus Circle. On February 14, 1899. the name "Broadway" was extended to the entire Broadway/Bloomingdale/Boulevard road.^[6]

Broadway runs the length of Manhattan Island, roughly parallelling the Hudson River, from Bowling Green at the south, to Inwood at the northern tip of the island. South of Columbus Circle, it is a one-way southbound street. Since 2009, vehicular traffic has been banned at Times Square between 47th and 42nd Streets, and at Herald Square between 35th and 33rd Streets as part of a pilot program; the right-of-way is intact and reserved for cyclists and pedestrians. From the northern shore of Manhattan, Broadway crosses Spuyten Duyvil Creek via the Broadway Bridge and continues through Marble Hill (a discontinuous portion of the borough of Manhattan) and the Bronx into Westchester County. U.S. 9 continues to be known as Broadway through its junction with NY 117.

Because Broadway preceded the grid that the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 imposed on the island, Broadway crosses midtown Manhattan diagonally, intersecting with both the east-west streets and north-south avenues. Broadway's intersections with avenues, marked by "squares" (some merely triangular slivers of open space), have induced some interesting architecture, such as the Flatiron Building.

The section of lower Broadway from its origin at Bowling Green to City Hall Park is the historical location for the city's ticker-tape parades, and is sometimes called the "Canyon of Heroes" during such events. West of Broadway as far as Canal Street was the city's fashionable residential area until circa 1825; landfill has more than tripled the area, and the Hudson shore now lies far to the west, beyond TriBeCa and Battery Park City.

Broadway marks the boundary between Greenwich Village to the west and the East Village to the east, passing Astor Place. It is a short walk from there to New York University near Washington Square Park, which is at the foot of Fifth Avenue. A bend in front of Grace Church allegedly avoids an earlier tavern; from 10th Street it begins its long diagonal course across Manhattan, headed almost due north.

At Union Square, Broadway crosses 14th Street, merges with 4th Avenue, and continues its diagonal uptown course from the Square's northwest corner. Union Square is the only location wherein the physical section of Broadway is discontinuous in Manhattan (other portions of Broadway in Manhattan are pedestrians-only plazas).

At Madison Square, location of the Flatiron Building, Broadway crosses Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street.

At Greeley Square (West 33rd Street), Broadway crosses Sixth Avenue aka the Avenue of the Americas.

Macy's Herald Square department store is located on the northwest corner of Broadway and West 34th St. and southwest corner of Broadway and West 35th Street; it is one of the largest department stores in the world.

One famous stretch near Times Square, where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan, is the home of many Broadway theatres, housing an ever-changing array of commercial, large-scale plays, particularly musicals. This area of Manhattan is often called the Theater District or the Great White Way, a nickname originating in the headline "Found on the Great White Way" in the February 3, 1902 edition of the New York Evening Telegram. The journalistic nickname was inspired by the millions of lights on theater marquees and billboard advertisements that illuminate the area.

After becoming the city's de facto Red Light District in the 1960s and 1970s (as can be seen in the films Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy), since the late 1980s Times Square has emerged as a family tourist center, in effect being Disneyfied following the company's purchase and renovation of the New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street in 1993. Until June 2007, The New York Times, from which the Square gets its name, was published at offices at 239 West 43rd Street; the paper stopped printing papers there on June 15, 2007.^[7]

At the southwest corner of Central Park, Broadway crosses Eighth Avenue (called Central Park West north of 59th Street) at West 59th Street; on the site of the former New York Coliseum convention center is the new shopping center at the foot of the Time Warner Center, headquarters of Time Warner.

From Columbus Circle northward, Broadway becomes a wide boulevard to 169th Street; it retains landscaped center islands that separate northbound from southbound traffic. The medians are a vestige of the central mall of "The Boulevard" that had become the spine of the Upper West Side, and many of these contain public seating.

Broadway intersects with Columbus Avenue (known as Ninth Avenue south of West 59th Street) at West 65th and 66th Streets where the Juilliard School and Lincoln Center, both well-known performing arts landmarks, as well as the Manhattan New York Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are located.

From West 70th to West 73rd Streets, Broadway intersects with Amsterdam Avenue (known as 10th Avenue south of West 59th Street). The wide intersection of the two thoroughfares has historically been the site of numerous traffic accidents and pedestrian casualties, partly due to the long crosswalks.^[8] Two small triangular plots of land were created at points where Broadway slices through Amsterdam Avenue. One is a tiny fenced-in patch of shrubbery and plants at West 70th Street called Sherman Square (although it and the surrounding intersection have also been known collectively as Sherman Square), and the other triangle is a lush tree-filled garden bordering Amsterdam Avenue from just above West 72nd Street to West 73rd Street. Called Verdi Square for its monument to Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, which was erected in 1909, this triangular sliver of public space was designated a Scenic Landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1974. In the 1960s and 1970s, the area surrounding both Verdi Square and Sherman Square was known by local drug users and dealers as "Needle Park," ^[9] and was featured prominently in the gritty 1971 dramatic film The Panic in Needle Park, directed by Jerry Schatzberg and starring Al Pacino in his second onscreen role.

The original brick and stone shelter leading to the entrance of the 72nd Street subway station (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line), one of the first 28 subway stations in Manhattan, remains located on one of the wide islands in the center of Broadway, on the south side of West 72nd Street. For many years, all traffic on Broadway flowed on either side of this median and its subway entrance, and its uptown lanes went past it along the western edge of triangular Verdi Square. In 2001 and 2002, renovation of the historic 72nd St. station and the addition of a second subway control house and passenger shelter on an adjacent center median just north of 72nd Street, across from the original building, resulted in the creation of a public plaza with stone pavers and extensive seating, connecting the newer building with Verdi Square, and making it necessary to divert northbound traffic to Amsterdam Avenue for one block. While Broadway's southbound lanes at this intersection were unaffected by the new construction, its northbound lanes are no longer contiguous at this intersection. Drivers can either continue along Amsterdam Avenue to head uptown or turn left on West 73rd Street to resume traveling on Broadway.

Several notable apartment buildings are in close proximity to this intersection, including The Ansonia, its ornate architecture dominating the cityscape here. After the Anonia first opened as a hotel, live seals cavorted in indoor fountains inside its lobby. Later, it was home to the infamous Plato's Retreat nightclub.^[10] Immediately north of Verdi Square is the formidable Apple Bank for Savings building, formerly the Central Savings Bank, which was built in 1926 and designed to resemble the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.^[11] Broadway is also home to the Beacon Theater at West 74th Street, designated a national landmark in 1979 and still in operation as a concert venue after its establishment in 1929 as a vaudeville and music hall - and "sister" venue to Radio City Music Hall.^[12]

At its intersection with West 78th Street, Broadway shifts direction, to continue directly uptown and aligned approximately with the Commissioners' grid. Past the bend are the historic Apthorp apartment building, built in 1908, and the First Baptist Church in the City of New York, incorporated in New York in 1762, with its current building on Broadway erected in 1891. The road heads north passing such important apartment houses as the Belnord, the Astor Court Building, and the Art nouveau Cornwall.^[13][14]

At Broadway and 95th Street, one finds Symphony Space, established in 1978 as home to avant-garde and classical music and dance performances in the former Symphony Theatre, which was originally built in 1918 as a premier "music and motion-picture house."^[15][16] At 99th Street, Broadway passes between the controversial skyscrapers of the Ariel East and West.

At 107th Street, Broadway intersects with West End Avenue (called 11th Avenue south of West 59th Street) to form Straus Park with its Titanic Memorial by Augustus Lukeman.

Further north, Broadway follows the old Bloomingdale Road as the main spine of the Upper West Side, passing the campus of Columbia University at 116th Street in Morningside Heights, in part on the tract that housed the Bloomingdale (Lunatic) Asylum from 1808 until it moved to Westchester County in 1894. Still in Morningside Heights, Broadway passes the handsome, park-like campus of Barnard College. Next, the beautiful Gothic quadrangle of Union Theological Seminary and the brick buildings of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America with their beautifully landscaped interior courtyards face one another across Broadway. On the next block is the Manhattan School of Music.

Broadway then runs past the proposed uptown campus of Columbia University, and the main campus of CUNY—City College; the beautiful Gothic buildings of the original City College campus are out of sight, a block to the east. Also to the east are the handsome brownstones of Hamilton Heights. Hamilton Place is a surviving section of Bloomingdale Road, and originally the address of Alexander Hamilton's house The Grange, now moved.^[17]

Broadway achieves a verdant, park-like effect, particularly in the spring, when it runs between the uptown Trinity Church Cemetery and the former Trinity Chapel, now the Church of the Intercession near 155th Street. The springtime plantings in the median, maintained by Trinity Church, are spectacular.^{[citation needed]}

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital lies on Broadway near 166th, 167th, and 168th Streets in Washington Heights. The intersection with Saint Nicholas Avenue at 167th Street forms Mitchell Square Park. At 178th Street, US 9 becomes concurrent with Broadway.

Broadway crosses the Harlem River on the Broadway Bridge to Marble Hill and then enters the Bronx, where it is the eastern border of Riverdale and the western border of Van Cortlandt Park. At 253rd Street, NY 9A joins with U.S. 9 and Broadway. (NY 9A splits off Broadway at Ashburton Avenue in Yonkers.) After leaving New York City, it is the main north–south street of western Yonkers through Sleepy Hollow (known as either North or South Broadway in most sections), before becoming Albany Post Road (and Highland Avenue) at the northern border of Sleepy Hollow, New York.

From south to north, Broadway at one point or another runs over or under the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the BMT Broadway Line, the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line, and the IND Eighth Avenue Line:

• The IRT Lexington Avenue Line runs under Broadway from Bowling Green to Fulton Street (4 and ​5 trains).
• The BMT Broadway Line runs under it from City Hall to Times Square – 42nd Street (N, ​Q, ​R, and ​W trains).
• The IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line runs under and over Broadway from Times Square to 168th Street (1, ​2, and ​3 trains), and from 218th Street to its terminal in the Bronx at Van Cortlandt Park – 242nd Street (1 train).
• The northern portion of the IND Eighth Avenue Line runs under Broadway from Dyckman Street to Inwood – 207th Street (A train).

Early street railways on Broadway included the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad's Broadway and University Place Line (1864?) between Union Square (14th Street) and Times Square (42nd Street), the Ninth Avenue Railroad's Ninth and Amsterdam Avenues Line (1884) between 65th Street and 71st Street, the Forty-second Street, Manhattanville and St. Nicholas Avenue Railway's Broadway Branch Line (1885?) between Times Square and 125th Street, and the Kingsbridge Railway's Kingsbridge Line north of 169th Street. The Broadway Surface Railroad's Broadway Line, a cable car line, opened on lower Broadway (below Times Square) in 1893, and soon became the core of the Metropolitan Street Railway, with two cable branches: the Broadway and Lexington Avenue Line and Broadway and Columbus Avenue Line.

These streetcar lines were replaced with bus routes in the 1930s and 1940s. Before Broadway became one-way, the main bus routes along it were the New York City Omnibus Company's (NYCO) 6 (Broadway below Times Square), 7 (Broadway and Columbus Avenue), and 11 (Ninth and Amsterdam Avenues), and the Surface Transportation Corporation's M100 (Kingsbridge) and M104 (Broadway Branch). Additionally, the Fifth Avenue Coach Company's (FACCo) 4 and 5 used Broadway from 135th Street north to Washington Heights, and their 5 and 6 used Broadway between 57th Street and 72nd Street. With the implementation of one-way traffic, the northbound 6 and 7 were moved to Sixth Avenue.

As of 2011, Broadway is now served by the M4 (ex-FACCo 4), M5 (ex-FACCo 5), M7 (ex-NYCO 7), M100, and M104. Other routes that use part of Broadway include the M10, M20, M60, Bx7, Bx9, and Bx20.

Bee-Line buses also serves Broadway within Riverdale, the Bronx and Westchester County. Routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 13 and several others run on a portion of Broadway.

Canyon of Heroes is occasionally used to refer to the section of lower Broadway in the Financial District that is the location of the city's ticker-tape parades.

The traditional route of the parade is northward from Bowling Green to City Hall Park. Most of the route is lined with tall office buildings along both sides, affording a view of the parade for thousands of office workers who create the snowstorm-like jettison of shredded paper products that characterize the parade.

While typical sports championship parades have been showered with some 50 tons of confetti and shredded paper, the V-J Day parade on August 14 and 15, 1945 – marking the end of World War II – was covered with 5,438 tons of paper, based on estimates provided by the New York City Department of Sanitation.^[18]

More than 200 black granite strips embedded in the sidewalks along the Canyon of Heroes list honorees of past ticker-tape parades.^[19]

The most recent parade up the Canyon of Heroes was on February 7, 2012 for the New York Giants in honor of their Super Bowl XLVI championship.

"Great White Way" is a nickname for a section of Broadway in the Midtown section of the New York City borough of Manhattan, specifically the portion that encompasses the Broadway Theater District, between 42nd and 53rd Streets, and encompassing Times Square.

In 1880, a stretch of Broadway between Union Square and Madison Square was illuminated by Brush arc lamps, making it among the first electrically lighted streets in the United States.^[20] By the 1890s, the portion from 23rd Street to 34th Street was so brightly illuminated by electrical advertising signs, that people began calling it "The Great White Way."^[21] When the theater district moved uptown, the name was transferred to the Times Square area.

The phrase Great White Way has been attributed to Shep Friedman, columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph in 1901, who lifted the term from the title of a book about the Arctic by Albert Paine.^[22] The headline "Found on the Great White Way" appeared in the February 3, 1902, edition of the New York Evening Telegram.^[22]

A portrait of Broadway in the early part of the 20th century and "The Great White Way" late at night appeared in "Artist In Manhattan"(1940)^[23] written by the painter-writer Jerome Myers:

Early morn on Broadway, the same light that tips the mountain tops of the Colorado canyons gradually discloses the quiet anatomy, the bare skeletons of the huge iron signs that trellis the sky, now denuded of the attractions of the volcanic night. Almost lifeless, the tired entertainers of the night clubs and their friends straggle to their rooms, taximen compare notes and earnings, the vast street scene has had its curtain call, the play is over.

Dear old Broadway, for many years have I dwelt on your borders. I have known the quiet note of your dawn. Even earlier I would take my coffee at Martin's, at 54th Street–now, alas, vanished–where I would see creatures of the night life before they disappeared with the dawn.

One night a celebrated female impersonator came to the restaurant in all his regalia, directly from a club across the street. Several taximen began to poke fun at him. Unable any longer to bear their taunts, he got up and knocked all the taximen out cold. Then he went back to the club, only to lament under his bitter tears, "See how they've ruined my dress!"

Gone are the old-time Broadway oyster bars and chop houses that were the survivors of a tradition of their sporting patrons, the bon vivants of Manhattan. Gone are the days when the Hoffman House flourished on Madison Square, with its famous nudes by Bouguereau; when barrooms were palaces, on nearly every corner throughout the city; when Steve Brodie, jumping from Brooklyn Bridge, splashed the entire country with publicity; when Bowery concert halls dispensed schooners of beer for a nickel, with a stage show thrown in; when Theis's Music Hall still resounded on 14th Street with its great mechanical organ, the wonder of its day, a place of beauty, with fine paintings and free company and the frankest of female life. Across the street was Tammany Hall, and next to it Tony Pastor's, where stars of the stage were born. Tony himself, in dress clothes and top hat, sang his ballads, a gallant trouper introducing Lillian Russell and others to fame through his audience.

Broadway was once a two-way street for its entire length. The present status, in which it runs one-way southbound south of Columbus Circle (59th Street), came about in several stages. On June 6, 1954, Seventh Avenue became southbound and Eighth Avenue became northbound south of Broadway. None of Broadway became one-way, but the increased southbound traffic between Columbus Circle (Eighth Avenue) and Times Square (Seventh Avenue) caused the city to re-stripe that section of Broadway for four southbound and two northbound lanes.^[24] Broadway became one-way from Columbus Circle south to Herald Square (34th Street) on March 10, 1957, in conjunction with Sixth Avenue becoming one-way from Herald Square north to 59th Street and Seventh Avenue becoming one-way from 59th Street south to Times Square (where it crosses Broadway).^[25] On June 3, 1962, Broadway became one-way south of Canal Street, with Trinity Place and Church Street carrying northbound traffic.^[26] Another change was made on November 10, 1963, when Broadway became one-way southbound from Herald Square to Madison Square (23rd Street) and Union Square (14th Street) to Canal Street, and two routes — Sixth Avenue south of Herald Square and Centre Street, Lafayette Street, and Fourth Avenue south of Union Square — became one-way northbound.^[27] Finally, at the same time as Madison Avenue became one-way northbound and Fifth Avenue became one-way southbound, Broadway was made one-way southbound between Madison Square (where Fifth Avenue crosses) and Union Square on January 14, 1966, completing its conversion south of Columbus Circle.^[28][29]

In August 2008, two traffic lanes from 42nd to 35th Streets were taken out of service and converted to public plazas. Additionally, bike lanes were added on Broadway from 42nd Street down to Union Square.^{[30] [31]}

Since May 2009, the portions of Broadway through Duffy Square, Times Square, and Herald Square have been closed entirely to automobile traffic, except for cross traffic on the Streets and Avenues, as part of a traffic and pedestrianization experiment, with the pavement reserved exclusively for walkers, cyclists, and those lounging in temporary seating placed by the city. The city decided that the experiment was successful and decided to make the change permanent in February 2010. Though the anticipated benefits to traffic flow were not as large as hoped, pedestrian injuries dropped dramatically and foot traffic increased in the designated areas; the project was popular with both residents and businesses.^[32] The current portions converted into pedestrian plazas are between West 47th Street and West 42nd Street within Times and Duffy Squares, and between West 35th Street and West 33rd Street in the Herald Square area. Additionally, portions of Broadway in the Madison Square and Union Square have been dramatically narrowed, allowing ample pedestrian plazas to exist along the side of the road.

In May 2013, the NYCDOT decided to redesign Broadway between 35th and 42nd Streets for the second time in five years, owing to poor connections between pedestrian plazas and decreased vehicular traffic. With the new redesign, the bike lane is now on the right side of the street; it was formerly on the left side adjacent to the pedestrian plazas, causing conflicts between pedestrian and bicycle traffic. ^[33]

Broadway is lined with many famous and otherwise noted and historic buildings, such as:

• 2 Broadway
• 280 Broadway (also known as the Marble Palace, the A.T. Stewart Company Store or The Sun Building)
• Alexander Hamilton US Custom House (at the southern foot of Broadway, facing Bowling Green Fence and Park)
• American Surety Building (100 Broadway)
• Bowling Green Fence and Park (at the southern foot of Broadway, between 25 and 26 Broadway)
• Bowling Green Building, later the White Star Line Building (11 Broadway)
• Corbin Building (196 Broadway)
• Cunard Building (25 Broadway)
• Equitable Building (120 Broadway)
• Grand Central Hotel (673 Broadway)
• The Morgan Stanley Building (1585 Broadway)
• Paramount Building (1501 Broadway)
• Singer Building (Liberty Street and Broadway)
• Standard Oil Company Building (26 Broadway, on the east side of Broadway, facing the Cunard building)
• Trinity Church (79 Broadway)
• United States Lines-Panama Pacific Line Building (1 Broadway)
• Winter Garden Theatre (1634 Broadway)
• Woolworth Building (233 Broadway)

Historic buildings on Broadway that are now demolished include:

• Appleton Building
• Alexander Macomb House
• Barnum's American Museum
• Equitable Life Building (New York City)
• Mechanics' Hall (New York City)

Notes

Bibliography

• Burrows, Edwin G. and Wallace, Mike (1999). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-11634-8.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Broadway.

• Great White Way Historical citations from word researcher Barry Popik.
• New York Songlines: Broadway; a virtual walking tour of the street.
• Green Light for Midtown New York City Department of Transportation pilot program for Broadway traffic
• Walking the length of Broadway

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