New York is a city of vivid contrasts. It does impress with huge skyscrapers, yellow cabs, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and many others. That is why it is called “the capital of the world”. New York very quickly became a metropolis owing to urbanization and annexation of small towns, whose streets have a unique history and secrets of the past. Find out more about it at new-york-future.
Broadway
This street became known worldwide. It is the longest street in New York. Its length is more than 25 km. The street passes through Manhattan and then small towns in the state of Albany. Its name is an English equivalent of the Dutch phrase, Brede weg. At first, the street name of the street was invented by the governor of the Netherlands, Peter Minuit, and in a meantime, it was translated into English in 1667.
Broadway Street has many peculiarities. For example, it breaks the perpendicular layout of Manhattan, as it bends in waves along the island. It is also often called the business district, as there are a lot of office buildings and enterprises there. Among them is the theater quarter, which received the corresponding name – Broadway. For years it has been the most prestigious cultural institution in New York.
Fulton Street
Formerly It had a different name – Ferry Road. It is one of the few streets that combines 2 opposite directions for pedestrian and transport movement. Its striking feature is the division on Old Fulton Street and Cadman Plaza West. They are named after the inventor Robert Fulton. In 1807, he crossed New York’s East River, which connects Lower Manhattan with Fulton Landing in Brooklyn, by a steamboat.
St. Mark’s Place
This small street in the New York borough of Manhattan is named after St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery. The building was built in 1799 near the church of the governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant. Since the twentieth century, not only religious services have been held here, but also literary evenings.
Park Avenue
It is the widest of all the streets running through Manhattan. It was laid in the early nineteenth century on the site of the old Bowery Alley and, at that time, had a different name, Fourth Avenue. The most expensive real estate in the world is located here. These are mainly the headquarters of many corporations, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and MetLife. And if you walk to 42nd Street, you will see the Central Station. Interestingly, the history of railroads in New York began on this street.
Lafayette
In New York, there are 2 similar street names, Lafayette Avenue and Lafayette Street, which is why tourists often confuse them. The first one leads to the metro station and was opened on April 9, 1936. It has 4 tracks and 2 side platforms. And the second street passes through Chinatown and Little Italy.
It is also known that in 1804 the industrialist John Astor bought a large land plot. It is there, where Lafayette Street is now located. In 1825, a 100-foot-wide street was laid across the land. In 1833 Greek Revival-style houses were built on the west side of the street. They were included in the US National Register of Historic Places.
Dyer Ave
A short street in Manhattan that crosses Ninth and Tenth Avenues. It consists of 3 parts and connects to the south and central tubes of the Lincoln Tunnel. This street is named after General George Rathborne Dyer. In the 1990s, he was the head of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and died during Lincoln construction. Afterward, many buildings in the area were demolished to make way for the tunnel.
Rockaway
An unusual fact about New York is that there can be several very similar “Rockaway” street names. During a trip to Brooklyn and Queens, one can encounter such streets as Parkway, Rockaway Freeway, Rockaway Point Boulevard, Rockaway Beach Boulevard, Rockaway Boulevard, and Avenue. Consequently. Therefore, many tourists wonder which of these names was the first to appear in this city. The answer is Rockaway Beach Boulevard, the first major road to serve the Rockaway Peninsula, which was built in 1886.
Asser Levy Place
This small street is located near Stuyvesant Town. It was named after Asser Levy, a prominent historian and one of the first Jewish citizens to purchase real estate in the United States. Even though governor Peter Stuyvesant was against Jewish immigrants, Levy managed to gain respect as an entrepreneur and a public figure. He also spent a lot of money on charity.
In 1855, Levy and another Jew submitted a petition to be permitted to work in the city police and to cancel the payment of an additional tax for citizens. In 3 years, Jews were allowed to maintain law and order equally to other Americans. Since then, Asser Levy is known as a fighter for the rights of national and religious associations in New York.
Maiden Lane
The history of this street name is very unusual. Long before the United States Declaration of Independence there had been a Dutch settlement there. They called this area Maagde Paatje, which translates to Maiden Path. The reason was that there was a path here and a stream next to it. Girls would come there to wash their clothes. There were also some tragic events in the history of the street. For instance, a slave uprising took place here in 1712. Since the 20th century, Maiden Lane has been one of the most popular shopping locations in New York.
Mott Street
This street is known to many Americans and tourists due to its location in the heart of Chinatown. This area was a center of patriotism. It is known that the businessman Joseph Mott had a tavern here. In 1775, it was the headquarters of General George Washington. Mott provided financial and political support to rebel forces during the American Revolution. So in the late eighteenth century, the street known to many as Old Street was renamed Mott Street in honor of his family.
Pearl Street
Located in Lower Manhattan, this street runs through Battery Park to the Brooklyn Bridge. In the second half of the 18th century, even before New York was built up with skyscrapers, there were low-rise buildings here, as well as a whole shellfish dump near the pier. They were transported here by tons for hundreds of years. On this account, the street received the corresponding name.
Minetta Street
The winding street got its name because of the stream that was there at the beginning of the 18th century. There were slave settlements nearby. Later, the Dutch settled on these lands. They named the stream in their way – Mintje Kill, which in English is running water. Gradually, New York was built up with new skyscrapers, and the water went underground. However, groundwater rise is still the case here.
Macdougal Street
This street is famous for a large number of nightclubs. It was named after the Scot Alexander McMillan, who emigrated to New York in 1740. He gained great authority in the realm of trade and shipping and also contributed to American independence. During the war, he was commissioned as a colonel of the First New York Infantry and later worked for the Continental Congress and the Bank of New York.
Margaret Corbin Drive
The street is located in the northern part of New York and is named after a woman from Pennsylvania. In 1776, she fought for American independence in the American War, as did her husband, John Corbin. He was one of 600 Americans who fought the British defending Fort Washington. Not long after that, Corbin was killed. Margaret, who witnessed the death of her husband, continued to fight for him at the front. Then the British won the battle and captured her. The US government recognized the woman’s courage and provided her with disability benefits for the rest of her life. One of the New York streets was named after her as well.
