Broadway (Manhattan)

This article is about the street in Manhattan, New York City, USA. For other streets and topics with the name Broadway, see Broadway (disambiguation).

Broadway, as the name implies, is a large, wide avenue in New York City, New York, and is one of the oldest main north-south thoroughfares in the city, dating back to the first Dutch New Amsterdam settlement. The name Broadway is a translation of the original Dutch name, Breede weg. It runs the length of Manhattan, the central borough, being the only street running from almost the southern tip of the island, where it starts at Bowling Green, to the northern tip. It then crosses the Harlem River as the Broadway Bridge and continues through the Bronx and into Westchester County. (There are also separate streets called "Broadway" in the city, one each in the other three New York City Boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island; and smaller streets using its name such as East Broadway, West Broadway, Old Broadway, and others in Manhattan itself.)

Broadway continues running through several Hudson River towns of Westchester County, before becoming the "New York-Albany Post Road", and running as far north as the state capital, Albany. Diagonally crossing the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 of Manhattan streets, it has been marked by "squares" (some merely triangular slivers of open space) and induced some interesting architecture, such as the famous 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 in reference to such events.

Broadway passes through Greenwich Village at Astor Place near St. Mark's Place, or 8th Street. St. Mark's Pizza is a meeting place at Astor Place. It is a short walk from here to New York University near Greenwich Square at the foot of 5th Avenue. If one walks east from Astor Place one walks to the East Village. Greenwich Village, East and West, is an interesting place well suited for tourism.

Union Square on 14th Street is on Broadway. It is 6 blocks north of Astor Place. 14th Street is recognized as a boundary between Downtown Manhattan and 'Uptown' or 'Midtown' Manhattan.

One famous stretch near Times Square in midtown Manhattan, through which Broadway passes, is the home of many Broadway theatres, housing an ever-changing array of commercial, large-scale plays, particularly musicals. This part of Broadway, also known as the Great White Way, draws millions of tourists from around the world. Starring in a successful Broadway musical is considered by most singers, dancers and actors as the ultimate success in their chosen profession, and many songs, stories, and musicals have themselves been based around the idea of such success. The annual Tony Awards recognize some of the most successful new shows and revivals each year. Since the late 1980s Times Square has emerged as a family tourist center for the New York area. Times Square is the location of The New York Times newspaper, published at offices on West 43rd Street off Broadway.

At the south and west corner of Central Park, Broadway and West 59th Street form Columbus Circle, onetime home of a convention center and now home of a new shopping center.

Further north, Broadway follows the old Bloomingdale Road as the main spine of the Upper West Side, passing the campus of Columbia University on Morningside Heights as it continues northwards. The university has a large open space between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue with entrances on 116th Street. The Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center lies on Broadway near 166th, 167th and 168th Streets in north Manhattan.

Public transit

From south to north, the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, BMT Broadway Line, IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line and IND Eighth Avenue Line all carry subway trains underneath Broadway. On the surface, MTA New York City Transit's M1, M4, M5, M6, M7, M10, M20, M100, M104, Bx7 and Bx20 bus services all use Broadway. The Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad and Broadway Surface Railroad streetcar lines used to use Broadway.

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See also

• Grand Central Hotel
• Singer Building
• Trinity Church, New York
• Winter Garden Theatre
• Woolworth Building

External link

• History of Broadway (http://www.nnp.org/newvtour/regions/Manhattan/broadway.html) (and Manhattan)da:Broadway

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