1.
Broadway (Manhattan)
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Broadway /ˈbrɔːdweɪ/ is a road in the U. S. state of New York. 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 language literal translation of the Dutch name, Brede weg. Broadway is known widely as the heart of the American theatre industry, Broadway was originally the Wickquasgeck Trail, carved into the brush of Manhattan by its Native American inhabitants. Wickquasgeck means birch-bark country in the Algonquian language and this trail originally snaked through swamps and rocks along the length of Manhattan Island. Upon the arrival of the Dutch, the trail became the main road through the island from Nieuw Amsterdam at the southern tip. The Dutch explorer and entrepreneur David Pietersz. de Vries gives the first mention of it in his journal for the year 1642, the Dutch named the road Heerestraat. Although current street signs are simply labeled as Broadway, in a 1776 map of New York City, in the mid-eighteenth century, part of Broadway in what is now lower Manhattan was known as Great George Street. An 1897 City Map shows a segment of Broadway as Kingsbridge Road in the vicinity of what is now the George Washington Bridge. In the 18th century, Broadway ended at the town north of Wall Street, where traffic continued up the East Side of the island via Eastern Post Road. The western Bloomingdale Road would be widened and paved during the 19th century, on February 14,1899, the name Broadway was extended to the entire Broadway/Bloomingdale/Boulevard road. Broadway once was a street for its entire length. The present status, in which it runs one-way southbound south of Columbus Circle, on 6 June 1954, Seventh Avenue became southbound and Eighth Avenue became northbound south of Broadway. On 3 June 1962, Broadway became one-way south of Canal Street, with Trinity Place, northbound traffic on Broadway now needs to take Amsterdam Avenue to 73rd Street, make a sharp turn on the very narrow 73rd and then right turn on Broadway. Otherwise, and effectively, the traffic on Broadway has been diverted into Amsterdam Avenue. In August 2008, two 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, the city decided that the experiment was successful and decided to make the change permanent in February 2010. Additionally, portions of Broadway in the Madison Square and Union Square have been dramatically narrowed, Broadway runs the length of Manhattan Island, roughly parallel to the North River, from Bowling Green at the south to Inwood at the northern tip of the island. South of Columbus Circle, it is a southbound street
2.
Hudson River
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The Hudson River is a 315-mile river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York in the United States. The river originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York, flows through the Hudson Valley, the river serves as a political boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York, and further north between New York counties. The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary occupying the Hudson Fjord, tidal waters influence the Hudsons flow from as far north as Troy. The river is named after Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch East India Company, who explored it in 1609, and after whom Canadas Hudson Bay is also named. The Dutch called the river the North River – with the Delaware River called the South River –, during the eighteenth century, the river valley and its inhabitants were the subject and inspiration of Washington Irving, the first internationally acclaimed American author. In the nineteenth century, the area inspired the Hudson River School of landscape painting, the Hudson was also the eastern outlet for the Erie Canal, which, when completed in 1825, became an important transportation artery for the early-19th-century United States. The source of the Hudson River is Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Park at an altitude of 4,322 feet, the river is not cartographically called the Hudson River until miles downstream. From that point on, the stream is known as the Hudson River. Popular culture and convention, however, more often cite the photogenic Lake Tear of the Clouds as the source, South of the confluence of Indian Pass Brook and Calamity Brook, the Hudson River flows south into Sanford Lake. South of the outlet of the lake, the Opalescent River flows into the Hudson, the Hudson then flows south, taking in Beaver Brook and the outlet of Lake Harris. After its confluence with the Indian River, the Hudson forms the boundary between Essex and Hamilton counties, in the hamlet of North River, the Hudson flows entirely in Warren County and takes in the Schroon River. Further south, the forms the boundary between Warren and Saratoga Counties. The river then takes in the Sacandaga River from the Great Sacandaga Lake, shortly thereafter, the river leaves the Adirondack Park, flows under Interstate 87, and through Glens Falls, just south of Lake George although receiving no streamflow from the lake. It next goes through Hudson Falls, at this point the river forms the boundary between Washington and Saratoga Counties. At this point the river has an altitude of 200 feet, further south the Hudson takes in water from the Batten Kill River and Fish Creek near Schuylerville. The river then forms the boundary between Saratoga and Rensselaer counties, the river then enters the heart of the Capital District. It takes in water from the Hoosic River, which extends into Massachusetts, shortly thereafter the river has its confluence with the Mohawk River, the largest tributary of the Hudson River, in Waterford. Shortly thereafter, the river reaches the Federal Dam in Troy, at an elevation of 2 feet, the bottom of the dam marks the beginning of the tidal influence in the Hudson as well as the beginning of the lower Hudson River
3.
Boroughs of New York City
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New York City, in the U. S. state of New York, is composed of five county-level administrative entities called boroughs. They are Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, each borough is coextensive with a county of New York State. The county governments were dissolved when New York City consolidated in 1898, along all city, town. The term borough was adopted to describe a form of administration for each of the five fundamental constituent parts of the newly consolidated city in 1898. Under the 1898 City Charter adopted by the New York State Legislature, the term is also used by politicians to counter a frequent focus on Manhattan and thereby to place all five boroughs on equal footing. In the same vein, the outer boroughs refers to all of the boroughs excluding Manhattan. All of the boroughs were created in 1898 during consolidation, when the current boundaries were established. Ultimately in 1914, the present-day separate Bronx County became the last county to be created in the State of New York, the borough of Queens consists of what formerly was only the western part of a then-larger Queens County. The borough of Staten Island was officially the borough of Richmond until the name was changed in 1975 to reflect its common appellation, there are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs of New York City, many with a definable history and character to call their own. Manhattan is the geographically smallest and most densely populated borough and is home to Central Park and most of the citys skyscrapers. Manhattans population density of 72,033 people per mile in 2015 makes it the highest of any county in the United States. Manhattan is often described as the financial and cultural center of the world, most of the borough is situated on Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River. Manhattan Island is loosely divided into Lower, Midtown, and Uptown regions, Uptown Manhattan is divided by Central Park into the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, and above the park is Harlem. The borough also includes a neighborhood on the United States mainland. New York Citys remaining four boroughs are collectively referred to as the outer boroughs, Brooklyn, on the western tip of Long Island, is the citys most populous borough. Brooklyn is known for its cultural, social, and ethnic diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods, downtown Brooklyn is the only central core neighborhood in the outer boroughs. The borough has a long beachfront shoreline including Coney Island, established in the 1870s as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country, marine Park and Prospect Park are the two largest parks in Brooklyn. Historically a collection of towns and villages founded by the Dutch
4.
First Avenue (Manhattan)
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South of Houston Street, the roadway continues as Allen Street south to Division Street. Traffic on First Avenue runs northbound only, the southern portions of the Avenue were cut and laid out shortly after the plan was adopted. The northern sections of the Avenue would be graded and cut through at various intervals throughout the 19th century as the development of the island demanded. The IRT Second Avenue Line ran above First Avenue from Houston Street to 23rd Street before turning left at 23rd and this elevated line was torn down in 1942. First Avenue has carried traffic since June 4,1951. A protected bike lane was established along the side of the avenue south of 50th Street in 2011. First Avenue passes through a variety of residential neighborhoods. Between 42nd Street and 45th Street, it borders the United Nations headquarters complex and these fill the east side of the avenue from 14th to 23rd Streets. The avenue is very wide in this segment, and is separated by a median, the New York Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, and NYU Medical Center fill the blocks from there to 34th Street. Between 42nd and 47th streets, the avenue runs past United Nations Headquarters, here a local bypass, United Nations Plaza, splits from the main road, which runs through the First Avenue Tunnel, rejoining the local street at 49th Street. Crossing under the Queensboro Bridge and entering the Upper East Side, First Avenue runs through a number of areas of varying character. It serves as one of the shopping streets of the Yorkville neighborhood, historically a German and Hungarian neighborhood. In this district, First Avenue is also known as Bedpan Alley because of the number of hospitals located nearby. Crossing 96th Street, First Avenue runs through Spanish Harlem, a historically Puerto Rican neighborhood, before Puerto Rican migration in the 1950s, much of this district was populated by Italians and known as Italian Harlem. First Avenue in Italian Harlem was the site of a major open-air pushcart market in the late 19th, there is still a small Italian enclave in the Pleasant Valley district of East Harlem, between 114th and 120th Streets. The northern reaches of First Avenue, north of roughly 110th Street have also seen a significant increase in Mexican residents, First Avenue then connects to the Willis Avenue Bridge, which crosses the Harlem River at 125th Street and connects to Willis Avenue in the Bronx. The opening scene of Ghostbusters II was filmed at the intersection of First Avenue, in the Seinfeld TV series, Kramer describes the intersection of First Avenue and 1st Street as the nexus of the universe. This provided the name for a called the Nexus Lounge at that location
5.
Henry Hudson Parkway
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The Henry Hudson Parkway is an 11. 05-mile parkway in New York City. The southern terminus is at West 72nd Street in Manhattan, where the parkway continues south as the West Side Highway and it is often erroneously referred to as the West Side Highway throughout its entire course in Manhattan. The northern terminus is at the Bronx–Westchester county boundary, where it continues north as the Saw Mill River Parkway, all but the northernmost mile of the road is co-signed as New York State Route 9A. In addition, the entirety of the parkway is designated New York State Route 907V, the Henry Hudson Parkway was created by the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, which was run by master builder Robert Moses. The highway itself was constructed from 1934–1937, the junction is numbered as exit 9, continuing the numbering scheme used on the West Side Highway. It heads northward along the west side of Manhattan, connecting to West 79th Street with a large interchange, the parkway continues in a northerly direction, running almost parallel to Riverside Drive north of West 158th Street. It passes under Interstate 95 and the George Washington Bridge as it continues its progression through Fort Washington Park, Fort Tryon Park and it then runs northward across the Henry Hudson Bridge into the Bronx. Upon entering the Bronx, the passes through Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale as it continues northward. At exit 23, NY 9A leaves the parkway for U. S. Route 9 while the parkway enters Van Cortlandt Park, soon after it enters the park, the parkway has an interchange with the Mosholu Parkway, which connects it to I-87. Less than a mile farther on, the parkway becomes the Saw Mill River Parkway as it enters Westchester County, the Parkway was completed on October 12,1937, under New York master builder Robert Moses. It cost $109 million, twice as expensive as the $49 million Hoover Dam that was built in the same period, the Parkway was part of Mosess West Side Improvement and included covering the New York Central Railroads West Side Line, creating the Freedom Tunnel. The covered portion is used for the highway and also expands the Riverside Park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. On May 12,2005, part of a wall at Castle Village collapsed onto the northbound lanes of the parkway, just north of the George Washington Bridge. The clean-up began quickly, and the road re-opened on May 15, the Henry Hudson Parkway is a candidate for designation as a New York State Scenic Byway, the first in New York City. New York Roads portal Henry Hudson Parkway at Alps Roads • New York State Highway Termini Background on the parkways history and the scenic byway initiative Historic American Engineering Record No. NY-334, Henry Hudson Parkway, Extending 11.2 miles from West 72nd Street to Bronx-Westchester border, New York, New York County, NY,94 photos,220 data pages,9 photo caption pages
6.
Main Street
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Main Street is a generic phrase used to denote a primary retail street of a village, town or small city in many parts of the world. It is usually a point for shops and retailers in the central business district. The term is used in Ireland, Scotland, the United States, Canada. In most of the United Kingdom the common description is High Street though Fore Street or Front Street is commonplace in some regions, in Jamaica the term is Front Street. The Main Street of America branding was used to promote U. S. Route 66 in its heyday, in the general sense, the term Main Street refers to a place of traditional values. Social realists from 1870 to 1930 used the name as a symbol of stifling conformity, sherwood Anderson, for example, wrote Winesburg, Ohio, A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life in 1919. The best-selling 1920 novel Main Street was a critique of small town life, the locale was Gopher Prairie, presented as an ideal type of the Midwestern town, and the heroine, Carol Kennicott, was a more urbane, ideal-typical Progressive. Thus, in the 1949 movie adaptation of On The Town, Main Street Republicans, for example, see themselves as supporting those values as against urbane or Wall Street tendencies. Main Street is part of the iconography of American life, for example, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the outfit that operates the PX and BX stores on military bases, chose the name Main Street USA for its food courts. Main Street was a popular term during the crises in 2008 and 2009, the proposed bailout of U. S. financial system, the 2008 US presidential campaign. One widely reviewed book was Bailout, An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street by Neil Barofsky, a slang term popularized in the early 20th century, main drag, is also used to refer to a towns main street. These areas, which are designed to look like the street of a small town, house gift shops, restaurants and various services. While the architecture of these appears to be turn-of-the-20th-century, in fact these are decorative false-fronts on industrial-style buildings. Main Street, U. S. A. is also present at Disneyland Paris, at Tokyo Disneyland the area is named World Bazaar, but has the same look as Main Street, albeit housed under a decorative glass roof for protection from Japans unpredictable weather. Disneys design copied visual elements of small-town America seen in films by Frank Capra and others, disney wanted to embed the values and memories associated with life in small towns into an entertainment experience for tourists. Main Street Inc. is the name of a community revitalization program begun by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the late 1970s, the core of the Main Street philosophy is the preservation of the historic built environment by engaging in historic preservation. Main Street focuses on an approach to revitalization based on the 4-point approach of design, promotion, economic restructuring. Originally targeted at small, traditional downtowns, the program has expanded to include towns of various sizes, in many communities, a merchants association or business improvement district serves a promotional role on behalf of the merchants of a downtown Main Street
7.
Harlem
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Harlem is a large neighborhood in the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Since the 1920s, Harlem has been known as a major African-American residential, cultural, originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlems history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, African-American residents began to arrive by a lot in 1905, with numbers fed by the Great Migration. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the focus of the Harlem Renaissance, however, with job losses in the time of the Great Depression and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly. Harlems African-American population peaked in the 1950s, in the second half of the 20th century, Harlem became a major hub of African-American businesses. In 2008, the United States Census found that for the first time since the 1930s, less than half of residents were black, since New York Citys revival in the late 20th century, long-time residents of Harlem have been experiencing the effects of gentrification and new wealth. Harlem is located in Upper Manhattan, often referred to as Uptown by locals. Central Harlem is bounded by Fifth Avenue on the east, Central Park on the south, Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Avenue and Edgecombe Avenue on the west, and the Harlem River on the north. A chain of three large linear parks—Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park and Jackie Robinson Park—are situated on steeply rising banks, on the east, Fifth Avenue and Marcus Garvey Park, also known as Mount Morris Park, separate this area from East Harlem. The bulk of the falls under Manhattan Community Board No.10. In the late 2000s, South Harlem, emerged from area redevelopment, the West Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights comprise part of Manhattan Community Board No.9. The two neighborhoods area is bounded by Cathedral Parkway on the South, 155th Street on the North, nicholas/Bradhurst/Edgecome Avenues on the East, and Riverside Park/the Hudson River on the west. Morningside Heights is located in the southern most section of West Harlem, Manhattanville begins at roughly 123rd Street and extends northward to 135th Street. The northern most section of West Harlem is Hamilton Heights, the New York City Police Department patrols six precincts located within Harlem. The New York City Fire Department operates 9 firehouses in Harlem, as many as several hundred farmed the Harlem flatlands. Between 1637 and 1639, a few settlements were established, during the American Revolution, the British burned Harlem to the ground. It took a time to rebuild, as Harlem grew more slowly than the rest of Manhattan during the late 18th century. After the American Civil War, Harlem experienced an economic boom starting in 1868, the neighborhood continued to serve as a refuge for New Yorkers, but increasingly those coming north were poor and Jewish or Italian
8.
Mount Morris Bank Building
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Although an architectural standout when new in 1883, by the late 1970s it was vacant, and remained so for three decades, vandalized and deteriorating. In 2009 the city demolished, for safety, most of what remained after a 1997 fire, but in 2012 a developer undertook to rebuild it for commercial occupancy, and the building reöpened in May 2015. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, the bank initially rented space at 133 East 125th Street, just west of Lexington Avenue. Like its plainer neighbors, the building was designed for a mix of commercial and residential use, the basement, partially above ground, was initially occupied by the Mount Morris Safe Deposit Company at #83, which built and owned the building. There were six apartments on four floors above the commercial space, the apartments – called The Morris – were completely separated from the banking portion of the building. The Corn Exchange Bank merged with Chemical Bank in 1954 and became the Chemical Corn Exchange Bank, Chemical closed the branch in the mid 1960s and moved its operations to a new location nearby,3 following which various commercial tenants and a church occupied the building. In 2003 a community activist paid $10,000 for the building, planning a school, but she was unable to finance her project. The city repossessed the building in 2000 and in 2009 demolished all but the basement, developer Artimus Construction purchased the structure in 2012 and undertook to rebuild it for commercial and retail occupancy. The design, by Danois Architects, is not intended to be a copy of the original, but rather strongly suggestive of it. The Corn Exchange Building reöpened with an art fair in May 2015, list of New York City Landmarks National Register of Historic Places listings in New York County, New York Corn Exchange Bank Building Library of Congress website. Photos of the destroyed building East Harlem Preservation website. Corn Exchange Bank What About the Plastic Animals, photos of the partly destroyed building
9.
Grid plan
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The grid plan, grid street plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. In the context of the culture of ancient Rome, the grid method of land measurement was called centuriation. The grid plan dates from antiquity and originated in multiple cultures, by 2600 BC, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, were built with blocks divided by a grid of straight streets, running north-south and east-west. Each block was subdivided by small lanes, the cities and monasteries of Gandhara, dating from the 1st millennium BC to the 11th century AD, also had grid-based designs. Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan since 1959, was founded on the grid-plan of the nearby ruined city of Sirkap. A workers village at Giza, Egypt, housed a rotating labor force and was out in blocks of long galleries separated by streets in a formal grid. Many pyramid-cult cities used a common orientation, an axis from the royal palace. Hammurabi was a king of the Babylonian Empire who made Babylon one of the greatest cities in antiquity and he rebuilt Babylon, building and restoring temples, city walls and public buildings, and building canals for irrigation. The streets of Babylon were wide and straight, intersected approximately at right angles, the tradition of grid plans is continuous in China from the 15th century BC onward in the traditional urban planning of various ancient Chinese states. Guidelines put into form in the Kaogongji during the Spring and Autumn period stated. Three gates on each side of the lead into the nine main streets that crisscross the city. Teotihuacan, near modern-day Mexico City, is the largest ancient grid-plan site in the Americas, the citys grid covered eight square miles. Perhaps the most well-known grid system is spread through the colonies of the Roman Empire. The archetypal Roman Grid was introduced to Italy first by the Greeks, with such information transferred by way of trade, although the idea of the grid was present in Hellenic societal and city planning, it was not pervasive prior to the 5th century BC. However, it slowly gained primacy through the work of Hippodamus of Miletus, the concept of a grid as the ideal method of town planning had become widely accepted by the time of Alexander the Great. His conquests were a step in the propagation of the grid plan throughout colonies, some as far-flung as Taxila in Pakistan, that would later be mirrored by the expansion of the Roman Empire. The Greek grid had its streets aligned roughly in relation to the points and generally looked to take advantage of visual cues based on the hilly landscape typical of Greece. The Etruscan people, whose territories in Italy encompassed what would eventually become Rome and it was based on Greek Ionic ideas, and it was here that the main east-west and north-south axes of a town could first be seen in Italy
10.
Manhattanville, Manhattan
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Throughout the 19th century, Manhattanville bustled around a wharf active with ferry and daily river conveyances. It was the first station on the Hudson River Railroad running north from the city, with the construction of road and railway viaducts over the valley in which the town sat, Manhattanville, increasingly absorbed into the growing city, became a marginalized industrial area. In the early 2000s, the became the site of a major planned expansion of Columbia University. Manhattanville sits in a valley formerly called Moertje Davids Vly during the Dutch Colonial period, during the American Revolutionary War, the valley was also known as the Hollow Way, where the main action of the Battle of Harlem Heights began under the command of General George Washington. During the War of 1812 the valleys southern ridges figured as the site of the Manhattanville Pass, whose defense fortifications and breastworks included Fort Laight,4, which became the sites of Morningside Gardens Houses and PS36, respectively. In 1806, the village of Manhattanville was established in this valley around the crossroads of Bloomingdale Road and Manhattan Street, now roughly Broadway, the villages original streets were laid out by Jacob Schieffelin and other wealthy merchants, mostly Quakers, who had country seats in the area. Situated at approximately the latitude, Harlem and Manhattanville flourished together throughout the 19th century as the two most prominent villages in upper Manhattan. Manhattanvilles most prominent resident was industrialist Daniel F. Tiemann, owner of the D. F, Tiemann & Company Color Works, who was also Mayor of New York City from 1858 to 1859. Later noteworthy population changes occurred around the century following the opening of the Hudson River Railroad in 1850, with an influx of mostly Catholic Irish. After the American Civil War, the Jewish immigrant population that began to distinguish itself in Harlem gradually filtered into the blocks of Manhattanville. Other prominent 19th-century Manhattanville institutions included the Academy of Convent of the Sacred Heart, cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican immigrants moved into the area during the 20th century. By the 1970s, the part of Manhattanville was being filled by Columbia and Barnard College students, staff and faculty. West 125th Street has experienced an economic upturn since the end of the 1990s. Many of the buildings below 125th Street have converted to cooperative ownership as the area experiences continuing gentrification, in collaboration with the community, the city has developed a plan for the 125th Street corridor focusing on reinforcing and building upon its strengths as an arts and cultural corridor. Manhattanville is the site of a major expansion of Columbia University. According to the plan, the plant of those blocks will be partly demolished to construct a new campus, secondary school and park land. Local residents feared the impact of the further gentrification from this expansion in addition to the possible, in 2006, Columbia built a new School of Social Work on Amsterdam Avenue at 122nd Street. In June 2007, the New York City Department of City Planning certified that Columbias application for the rezoning is complete and this action launched the public review and comment period under the citys Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which lasted until the end of 2007
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