| Diamond Jewelry Way | |
 Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, located at the east end of 47th Street | |
 | |
| Maintained by | NYCDOT |
|---|---|
| Length | 1.8 mi (2.9 km)[1] |
| Location | Manhattan |
| Postal code | 10036, 10167, 10017 |
| Nearest metro station | 47th–50th Streets     |
| Coordinates | 40°45′31″N73°59′00″W / 40.7586°N 73.9832°W /40.7586; -73.9832 |
| West end |  NY 9A (12th Avenue) inHell's Kitchen |
| East end | First Avenue inMidtown East |
| North | 48th Street |
| South | 46th Street |
| Construction | |
| Commissioned | March 1811 |
47th Street is an east–west street inMidtown Manhattan, running betweenFirst Avenue and theWest Side Highway (bisectingTimes Square). Traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west, starting at theheadquarters of the United Nations. The street includes Manhattan'sDiamond District, which lies betweenFifth andSixth Avenues; this section of the street is also known asDiamond Jewelry Way.
TheDiamond District is a commercial stretch containing a series of jewellers' shops. The new Diamond District was formed when dealers moved north from an earlier district nearCanal Street and theBowery, created in the 1920s, and from a second district located in theFinancial District, near the intersection ofFulton andNassau streets, which started in 1931, and also from the one-time jewelry district ofMaiden Lane, which had existed since the 18th century.
A notable, long-time anomaly of the district was the famousGotham Book Mart, a bookstore, which was located at 41 West 47th Street from 1946 to 2004.
The move uptown started in the 1920s when rents in Maiden Lane began increasing drastically as finance and insurance companies moved into the Financial District.[4][5] The district grew in importance whenNazi Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, forcing thousands ofOrthodox Jews in the diamond business to flee Amsterdam and Antwerp and settle in New York City. Most of them remained after World War II, and remain a dominant influence in the Diamond District.[6] By 1941, the Diamond Dealers Club—an exclusive club that acts as ade facto diamond exchange and has its ownsynagogue—officially made the move up to midtown as well.[7]
.jpg)
The area is one of the global hubs of the diamond business,[citation needed] as well as the premier center for jewelry shopping in the city. It is one of the largest diamond and jewelry districts in the United States, along withJewelers' Row, Philadelphia andLos Angeles's Jewelry District, and it is the second oldest surviving jewelry district in the United States after Jewelers' Row in Philadelphia. Total receipts for the value of a single day's trade on the block average $400 million.[8]
An estimated 90% of diamonds in the United States enter through New York. There were some 3,500 independent businesses (cutting, polishing and sales) in the district in 2019. According to other sources, the district was home to more than 2,600 businesses in 2020, a majority of them were on the same block, many shop owners and managers of the district were Orthodox Jews.[9] The wholesale business made up most of the $24.6 billion in annual sales in 2019. The industry employed 33,000 people, still predominantly Jews.[10] Most businesses are located in booths at one of the 25 "exchanges" in the district. Commission based hawkers are a common sight and they usually solicit business for stores located on the street level.[11]
According toThe New York Times, the Diamond District has maintained a thriving, bazaarlike marketplace since the 1920s.[9]Many deals are finalized by a simple, traditional blessing (mazel und brucha, which mean "luck and blessing" in Yiddish) and handshake.[6][12] Retailers with shops line the streets outside. At 50 West 47th Street is theGemological Institute of America which trains gem dealers.[13] One distinguishing figure of the district is the diamond-motif street lights illuminating the corners.[14] The NYC Diamond District holds three prominent trade interconnected buildings: the 580 Fifth Avenue Exchange, the DDC, Diamond Dealers Club, andthe International Gem Tower. It is close to other landmarks such asRockefeller Center andRadio City Music Hall.[15]
A January 2020 article inSmithsonian magazine described the Diamond District as follows:[5]
"Visit 47th Street today, and the stylish pedestrians of Fifth and Sixth Avenues vanish. In their place are elderly, ultra-Orthodox Jews wearing black overcoats and fedoras; south and central Asians with traditional karakul hats; and gaggles of merchants shouting in languages from across the world ... Forty-seventh Street is, in fact, a thick network of middlemen, with diamantaires buying and selling large caches of diamonds much like stock brokers..."[5]
TheNew York City Subway's47th–50th Streets – Rockefeller Center station on theIND Sixth Avenue Line offers service on theB, D, F, <F>, and M services. An underground concourse connects the station with the buildings ofRockefeller Center. The49th Street station on theBMT Broadway Line offers service on theN, Q, R, and W trains, and is accessible via a part-time booth at Seventh Avenue and 47th Street at the south end of the station.[16][15]
SeveralNew York City Bus routes running along north-south avenues stop near the street.[17]
Media related to47th Street (Manhattan) at Wikimedia Commons
