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Washington Street is a north-south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Running from 14th Street in the Meatpacking District at its northernmost end to (with several interruptions) its southern end at Battery Place, Washington Street is, for most of its length, the westernmost street in lower Manhattan other than West Street (except for a one-block segment in the West Village where Weehawken Street lies between West and Washington Streets).
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Map of Washington St, New York, NY, USA
Main east-west streets crossed include (from north to south) Christopher Street, Houston Street and Canal Street; neighborhoods traversed include the Meatpacking District, the West Village, Hudson Square and TriBeCa. At points north of Canal Street, traffic on Washington Street travels south; at points south of Canal Street, it travels north.
History
Washington Street was named for George Washington, first President of the United States. The land under the street was owned by Trinity Church, and was ceded to the city in 1808.
Until the 1940s, a stretch of Washington Street, especially from Battery Place to Rector Street, was the home of the city's Little Syria neighborhood, which consisted primarily of Christian Arab immigrants from present day Lebanon and Syria. The neighborhood and its homes, then described by The New York Times as the "heart of New York's Arab world", were condemned and razed to make way for the approaches to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which opened in 1950.
Notable structures
Transportation
Because Washington Street is so far west, public transportation in the immediate area is scarce. The crosstown M8 bus crosses Washington Street in both directions, westbound on Christopher Street and eastbound on West 10th Street; the crosstown M21 bus runs south on Washington Street between Houston Street and Spring Street before turning back east.
Subway stations nearest to Washington Street include (from north to south) the 14th Street – Eighth Avenue station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line and the BMT Canarsie Line (A C E L trains) and the Christopher Street – Sheridan Square, Houston Street, Canal Street and Franklin Street stations on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line (1 2 trains).