Broadway (Manhattan)

Broadway is a famous street in the U.S. state of New York. It runs from Battery Place at Bowling Green in the south of Manhattan all the way up to the Bronx and even into Westchester County. This long road has many important places along it, such as the Broadway Bridge and several towns like Yonkers and Sleepy Hollow.

Broadway is very old, and much of it started as a trail called the Wickquasgeck long before Europeans arrived. It became a main road in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and later kept growing. Today, parts of Broadway in Times Square, Herald Square, and Union Square are special areas just for people to walk.

In Midtown Manhattan, Broadway is the center of the American commercial theatrical industry. Many plays and shows happen here, and people often use the name “Broadway” to talk about all kinds of theater, like off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. In Lower Manhattan, a part of Broadway is called the Canyon of Heroes because it’s where ticker-tape parades are held to celebrate great achievements and welcome important people.

History

Colonial history

Broadway started as a path called the Wickquasgeck trail, made by the Native American people who lived in Manhattan. The Dutch who arrived later made it wider and it became an important road through the island from the southern tip called Nieuw Amsterdam. The Dutch called it Heeren Wegh or Heeren Straat, meaning "Gentlemen's Way" or "Gentlemen's Street". After the British took control, they renamed it "Broadway" because of its wide path.

18th century

In the 1700s, Broadway ended at a town area north of Wall Street. The part in what is now Lower Manhattan was known as Great George Street. Traffic went up the East Side of the island through Eastern Post Road and the West Side through Bloomingdale Road, which helped develop the modern Upper West Side into a fancy area with big houses.

In 1832, a writer named Fanny Trollope described Broadway in her book, saying it was a lovely long and wide street with nice shops, good walkways, and well-dressed people. She compared it to other famous streets but noted its own special beauty.

19th century

In 1868, Bloomingdale Road between 59th Street and 155th Streets was paved and widened, becoming an avenue with landscaped areas in the middle. It was called "Western Boulevard" or "The Boulevard". By 1899, the name "Broadway" was extended to cover the whole area including Bloomingdale Road and Western Boulevard.

20th century

In the early 1900s, a part of Broadway between Times Square and Sherman Square became known as "Automobile Row" because of many car showrooms, stores, and garages. Before this, the area had mostly horse-related businesses.

Broadway used to have traffic going in both directions for its whole length. But in the 1950s and 1960s, parts of it were changed to only allow traffic going south. This happened in steps, with changes made in 1954, 1957, 1962, 1963, and 1966.

21st century

In 2001, a small part of Broadway between 72nd and 73rd Streets was changed to make space for a new subway entrance, turning some lanes into a public park.

In 2008, two traffic lanes between 42nd and 35th Streets were turned into public plazas, and bike lanes were added.

Since 2009, parts of Broadway through Duffy Square, Times Square, and Herald Square have been closed to cars, except for crossing traffic. This was done to make space for walking and cycling, and it has been popular with people and businesses.

In 2010, there was an attempt to set off a bomb on Broadway in Times Square, but it did not succeed.

In the years that followed, more changes were made to Broadway to make it friendlier for people walking and biking, including closing some streets to cars and creating shared spaces where people and vehicles share the road carefully.

Route description

Broadway runs the length of Manhattan Island, roughly parallel to the North River (the portion of the Hudson River bordering Manhattan), 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 discontiguous portion of the borough of Manhattan) and the Bronx into Westchester County. U.S. 9 continues to be known as Broadway until its junction with NY 117.

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 c. 1825; landfill has more than tripled the area, and the Hudson River 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.

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.

At Union Square, Broadway crosses 14th Street, merges with Fourth 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 pedestrian-only plazas). At Madison Square, the location of the Flatiron Building, Broadway crosses Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street, thereby moving from the east side of Manhattan to the west, and is discontinuous to vehicles for a one-block stretch between 24th and 25th Streets. At Greeley Square (West 32nd Street), Broadway crosses Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), and is discontinuous to vehicles until West 35th Street. Macy's Herald Square department store, one block north of the vehicular discontinuity, is located on the northwest corner of Broadway and West 34th Street 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.

At the southwest corner of Central Park, Broadway crosses Eighth Avenue (called Central Park West north of 59th Street) at West 59th Street and Columbus Circle; 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.

Between West 70th and 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. 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. Named Verdi Square in 1921 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, one of nine city parks that have received the designation.

The original brick and stone shelter leading to the entrance of the 72nd Street subway station, 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 Street station and the addition of a second subway control house and passenger shelter on an adjacent center median just north of 72nd Street, 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 Ansonia first opened as a hotel, live seals were kept in indoor fountains inside its lobby. Later, it was home to the infamous Plato's Retreat nightclub. Immediately north of Verdi Square is the Apple Bank Building, formerly the Central Savings Bank, which was built in 1926 and designed to resemble the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Broadway is also home to the Beacon Theatre 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.

At its intersection with West 78th Street, Broadway shifts direction and continues 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, its current building on Broadway erected in 1891. The road heads north and passes historically important apartment houses such as the Belnord, the Astor Court Building, and the Art Nouveau Cornwall.

At Broadway and 95th Street is 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". At 99th Street, Broadway passes between the controversial skyscrapers of the Ariel East and West.

At 107th Street, Broadway merges with West End Avenue, with the intersection forming Straus Park with its Titanic Memorial by Augustus Lukeman.

Broadway then passes the campus of Columbia University at 116th Street in Morningside Heights, in part on the tract that housed the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum from 1808 until it moved to Westchester County in 1894. Still in Morningside Heights, Broadway passes the park-like campus of Barnard College. Next, the Gothic quadrangle of Union Theological Seminary, and the brick buildings of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America with their landscaped interior courtyards, face one another across Broadway. On the next block is the Manhattan School of Music.

Broadway then runs past the Manhattan

Transportation

Broadway in Manhattan has many subway lines running under or over it. Some of these lines include the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, BMT Broadway Line, IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, and IND Eighth Avenue Line.

In the past, there were streetcars on Broadway, but they were replaced by buses in the 1930s and 1940s. Today, many bus routes travel along Broadway, including the M4, M7, M55, M100, and M104, among others. There are also express buses and buses from Bee-Line that serve parts of Broadway.

Notable buildings

Main article: List of buildings and structures on Broadway in Manhattan

Broadway has many famous and historic buildings along its path, such as:

• 2 Broadway
• 280 Broadway (also known as the Marble Palace)
• Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
• American Surety Building
• Ansonia Hotel
• Bowling Green Fence and Park
• Bowling Green Offices Building
• Brill Building
• Corbin Building
• Cunard Building
• Dyckman House
• Equitable Building
• Flatiron Building
• Gilsey House
• Gorham Manufacturing Company Building
• Home Life Building
• International Mercantile Marine Company Building
• Morgan Stanley Building
• One Times Square
• Paramount Building
• Standard Oil Building
• Trinity Church
• Union Theological Seminary
• United Palace
• [United States Lines]-[Panama Pacific Lines] Building
• Winter Garden Theatre
• Woolworth Building

Some historic buildings on Broadway are no longer standing, including:

• Appleton Building
• Alexander Macomb House
• Barnum's American Museum
• Equitable Life Building
• Grand Central Hotel
• Mechanics' Hall
• Metropolitan Opera House
• Singer Tower
• St. Nicholas Hotel