The longest avenue in New York is also the one with the strangest layout. Broadway follows a unique diagonal in New York! Here’s why.
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Broadway follows a curious path
- Outside of Lower Manhattan, you will find that all streets and avenues in New York City intersect at right angles. This is also one of the great characteristics that makes the charm of New York! ???? There is, however, one major exception: Broadway. This 21 km avenue, the longest in New York, follows a completely convoluted route.
- Instead of going down Manhattan along its entire length, as 5th Avenue does, Broadway crosses all of Manhattan diagonally. The avenue thus begins its run on the Upper West Side before cutting 10th Avenue to spin towards Times Square and Madison Square Park, where it intersects Fifth Avenue. Broadway finishes its run, or begins depending on the point of view, in Battery Park, skirting Bowling Green Park and the Wall Street Bull.
Why this unusual route in New York?
- Broadway actually follows the route of an ancient Indian track that linked North to South. When the Dutch settlers arrived in what was to become New York in 1609, so the trail was already there and they began to settle around this thoroughfare and use it. The road remained and it survived the centuries until the adoption of the checkerboard plan in 1811.
- One last info: the name “Broadway” is an English translation of the Dutch name “Brede weg”, which means “route wide” in French. This is something to shine with your family or friends when you take Broadway! ????
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