Tenth Avenue (Manhattan)
The Tenth Avenue (also: 10th Avenue - north of 59th Street : Amsterdam Avenue ) is a thoroughfare on the New York West Side , where they the south of the Borough of Manhattan connects to the north.
Location and course
Tenth Avenue runs on the West Side of Manhattan from south to north through the Chelsea , Hell's Kitchen neighborhoods and then as Amsterdam Avenue through the Upper West Side , Harlem and Washington Heights .
It rises together with Eleventh Avenue on the corner of Gansevoort Street in the West Village and Meatpacking District . On the southernmost section (the four blocks south of 14th Street ), Tenth Avenue is a one-way southbound street . North of 14th Street, 10th Avenue runs as a one-way street 45 blocks north until it crosses West 59th Street and is then renamed Amsterdam Avenue - like the other avenues on the Upper West Side .
Amsterdam Avenue continues north as a one-way street to 110th Street , after which traffic is in both directions. Between 110th and 113th Street , the street is temporarily called "Cathedral Parkway" because the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is located on Amsterdam Avenue in this corner . The street narrows to one lane in either direction between 184th Street and 186th Street as it traverses Yeshiva University 's Wilf campus.
In total, Tenth Avenue extends north under the name Amsterdam Avenue for 129 blocks until it reaches Highbridge Park on West 190th Street . Here it is briefly renamed again - Fort George Avenue . Highbridge Park breaks the avenue. North of the park, it continues under the name 10th Avenue from Dyckman Street and the end of the Harlem River Drive for almost a mile north. Almost at the north end of Manhattan, 10th Avenue ends at the intersection of West 218th Street and Broadway , which is already called US Route 9 here - near the Broadway Bridge that crosses the Harlem River .
The section south of the interruption through Highbridge Park extends for a total of 177 blocks, making it the longest uninterrupted section of the Avenues in Manhattan. Before 2007, Broadway was even longer, but was then divided into different sections in Midtown Manhattan .
history
The West Side neighborhoods that 10th Avenue crosses were working class and poor neighborhoods for much of the 20th century.
The road has long been known for heavy traffic . Railway tracks also ran here in the early 20th century. In the 19th century, when the West Side Line ran down Tenth Avenue, a "Tenth Avenue cowboy" was paid to ride a horse ahead of the tram to warn people of the approaching tram. This line was later converted into an elevated railway over Tenth Avenue.
According to Sarah Feirstein's book “ Naming New York ”, the renaming of 10th Avenue to “Amsterdam Avenue” north of 59th Street was a tribute to the Dutch roots of Manhattan's first colony in the 17th century. Originally, today's Amsterdam Avenue was named 10th Avenue in the Commissioners' plan of 1811 , which laid out the street grid for much of Manhattan. It opened in 1816 from 59th Street to Fort George Avenue to the north. In 1890 the name was changed. The new name of the avenue underscored investors' claims that this section would become the “New City” and a new Nieuw Amsterdam .
During the property boom of the late 20th century, Amsterdam Avenue between 59th Street and 100th Street became one of the most expensive residential areas in New York City.
Tenth Avenue in Theater, Film & Literature
The musical " On Your Toes " by Rodgers and Hart in 1936 includes the funny dance number Slaughter on Tenth Avenue , at the time by Ray Bolger and Tamara Geva was dancing. It was also adapted for film and television and danced in the film "On Your Toes" by Eddie Albert and Vera Zorina . This dance number was also performed by the New York City Ballet . In the biographical musical Words and Music (1948) the “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” ballet sequence was danced by Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen .
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is also the name of a crime novel from 1957 and the debut album by Mick Ronson (1974).
In the sitcom How I Met Your Mother , the main character Ted Mosby lives near the corner of 75th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
In the crime novels of Donald E. Westlake's “Dortmunder” series , the fictional “OJ Bar and Grill”, the gang's favorite hangout, is on Amsterdam Avenue.
Attractions
- Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
- City College of New York
- Columbia University
- John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- LaGuardia High School
- New York Presbyterian Medical Center
- St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center
- Yeshiva University
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Sanna Feirstein: Naming New York: Manhattan Places & How They Got Their Names. NYU Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8147-2712-3 , p. 169. [1]