Maintained by NYCDOT Commissioned March 1811 | Length 2.0 mi (3.2 km) | |
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Other name(s) Lincoln Highway (west of Broadway)
New 42nd Street (8th to 7th Avenues) Location Manhattan, New York City Postal code 10036, 10018, 10017, 10168 West end NY 9A (12th Avenue) in Hell's Kitchen Similar Grand Central Terminal, Times Square, Times Square–42nd Street/Por, Bryant Park, Madame Tussauds New York | ||
42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district (and, at times, the red-light district) near that intersection. The street has held a special place in New Yorkers' imaginations since at least the turn of the 20th century, and is the site of some of New York's best known buildings, including (east to west) the United Nations, Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Contents
- Map of W 42nd St New York NY 10036 USA
- Early history
- 20th century
- Revitalization
- Notable places
- Transportation
- In popular culture
- References
Map of W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036, USA
Early history
During the American Revolutionary War, a cornfield near the present location of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street was where General George Washington angrily attempted to rally his troops after the British landing at Kip's Bay, which scattered many of the American militiamen. Washington's attempt put him in danger of being captured, and his officers had to persuade him to leave. The rout eventually subsided into an orderly retreat.
John Jacob Astor purchased a 70 acres (28 ha) farm in 1803 that ran from 42nd Street to 46th Street west of Broadway to the Hudson River.
The street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan street grid as one of 15 east-west streets that would be 100 feet (30 m) in width (while other streets were designated as 60 feet (18 m) in width).
In 1835, the city's Street Committee, after receiving numerous complaints about lack of access for development above 14th Street, decided to open up all lots which has already been plotted on the city grid up to 42nd Street, which thus became - for a time - the northern boundary of the city.
Cornelius Vanderbilt began the construction of Grand Central Depot in 1869 on 42nd Street at Fourth Avenue as the terminal for his Central, Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines, because city regulations required that trains be pulled by horse below 42nd Street. The Depot, which opened in 1871, was replaced by Grand Central Terminal in 1913.
Between the 1870s and 1890s, 42nd Street became the uptown boundary of the legitimate theatre district, which started around 23rd Street, as the entertainment district of the Tenderloin gradually moved northward.
20th century
The corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, at the southeast corner of Times Square, was the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States, which was conceived and mapped in 1913.
Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley's 1933 film musical 42nd Street, starring 30s heartthrobs Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, displays the bawdy and colorful mixture of Broadway denizens and lowlifes in Manhattan during the Depression. In 1980, it was turned into a successful Broadway musical which ran until 1989, and which was revived for a four-year run in 2001. In the words of the Al Dubin and Harry Warren title song, on 42nd Street you can find:
Little nifties from the Fifties, innocent and sweet, Sexy ladies from the Eighties who are indiscreet, They're side by side, they're glorified, Where the underworld can meet the elite Naughty, gawdy, bawdy, sporty, Forty-second Street!From the late 1950s until the late 1980s, 42nd Street, nicknamed "The Deuce", was the cultural center of American grindhouse theaters, which spawned an entire subculture. The book Sleazoid Express, a travelogue of the 42nd Street grindhouses and the films they showed, describes in detail the unique blend of people who made up the theater-goers,
depressives hiding from jobs, sexual obsessives, inner-city people seeking cheap diversions, teenagers skipping school, adventurous couples on dates, couples-chasers peeking on them, people getting high, homeless people sleeping, pickpockets...
while the street outside the theatres was populated with:
phony drug salesman ... low-level drug dealers, chain snatchers ... [j]unkies alone in their heroin/cocaine dreamworld ... predatory chickenhawks spying on underage trade looking for pickups ... male prostitutes of all ages ... [t]ranssexuals, hustlers, and closety gays with a fetishistic homo- or heterosexual itch to scratch ... It was common to see porn stars whose films were playing at the adult houses promenade down the block. ... Were you a freak? Not when you stepped onto the Deuce. Being a freak there would get you money, attention, entertainment, a starring part in a movie. Or maybe a robbery and a beating.
For much of the mid and late 20th century, the area of 42nd Street near Times Square was home to activities often considered unsavory, including peep shows. A comedian once said, "They call it 42nd Street because you're not safe if you spend more than forty seconds on it."
Revitalization
In the early 1990s, city government encouraged a clean-up of the Times Square area. In 1990, the city government took over six of the historic theatres on the block of 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, and New 42nd Street, a not-for-profit organization, was formed to oversee their renovation and reuse, as well as to construct new theatres and a rehearsal space.
In 1993, the Walt Disney Corporation bought the New Amsterdam Theatre, which it renovated a few years later. It is now the flagship for Disney's theatrical productions in New York.
Since the mid-1990s, the block has again become home to legitimate theatres and several multi-screen mainstream movie theatres, along with shops, restaurants, hotels, and attractions such as Madame Tussauds wax museum and Ripley's Believe It Or Not that draw millions to the city every year. This area is now co-signed as "New 42nd Street" to signify this change.
Notable places
(from East to West):
Transportation
Every New York City Subway line that crosses 42nd Street has a stop on 42nd Street:
There are two subway lines under 42nd Street. The IRT 42nd Street Shuttle runs under 42nd Street between Broadway/Seventh Avenue (Times Square) and Park Avenue (Grand Central). The IRT Flushing Line curves from Eleventh Avenue to 41st Street, under which it runs until Fifth Avenue; shifts to 42nd Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues; and continues under the East River to Queens. Each line stops at Times Square and Grand Central; the Flushing Line also stops at Fifth Avenue.
Additionally, MTA Regional Bus Operations's M42 bus runs the length of 42nd Street between the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises ferry terminal on the Hudson River and the headquarters of the United Nations on the East River. Its predecessor, the 42nd Street Crosstown Line streetcar, had used 42nd Street.