Jaffa Road, also calledJaffa Street (Hebrew:רחוב יפו,romanized: Rehov Yaffo;Arabic:شارع يافا) is one of the longest and oldest major streets inJerusalem.[1] It crosses the city from east to west, from theOld City walls to downtown Jerusalem, the western portal of Jerusalem and theJerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. It is lined with shops, businesses, and restaurants. It joins withBen Yehuda Street andKing George Street to form theDowntown Triangle central business district. Major landmarks along Jaffa Road areTzahal Square (IDF square),Safra Square (city hall),Zion Square,Davidka Square, the triple intersection (Hameshulash) at King George V Street andStraus Street, theBen Yehuda Streetpedestrian mall, theMahane Yehuda market, and theJerusalem Central Bus Station. Most of Jaffa Road has been redeveloped as a car-freepedestrian mall served by theJerusalem Light Rail. TheJerusalem–Yitzhak Navon railway station is located directly adjacent to the Central Bus Station.
Originally paved in 1861 as part of the highway toJaffa, the road quickly became a focal point for the19th century expansion out of Jerusalem's Old City walls, and early neighbourhoods like theRussian Compound,Nahalat Shiva, andMahane Yehuda blossomed around it, as well asShaare Zedek hospital. Proximity to the artery quickly became a measure of real-estate value in the booming city. Traffic originally consisted of camels and mules, and the route was eventually improved enough to allow for horse-drawncarriages. The GermanTemplers, who established theGerman Colony, first began a regular carriage service along the road to Jaffa.
During the period of theBritish Mandate, the street was further developed with the establishment of many central institutions including the city hall, the city's central post office, theAnglo-Palestine Bank, and theGenerali office building. The buildings on its easternmost end constructed along the Old City walls were destroyed in July 1944 so as not to obscure the city's historic view. During this period the street took on its modern shape, and it became the heart of the city's developingcentral business district as most commerce left the Old City. During the city's 19-year division between Israel and Jordan after the1948 Arab-Israeli War, which separated the Old City from much of modern Jerusalem, Jaffa Road's primacy as the city-centre was unchallenged.
TheJerusalem Municipality, Jerusalem's main post office, theMahane Yehuda Market are located on Jaffa Road. As a bustling thoroughfare, it has been targeted by terrorist groups and some of the most devastating terrorist attacks from the late 1960s onward have been carried out on this street,[2] among them theZion Square refrigerator bombing (1975), the1984 Jaffa Road attack, theJaffa Road bus bombings (1996), theSbarro restaurant suicide bombing (2001), and theJaffa Street bombing (2002).
For much of its hundred-year existence, Jaffa Road has served as Jerusalem's central artery. The municipality responded to problems in the struggling city-centre through focused efforts to redevelop the street; Jaffa Road was limited to public transit (buses and taxis) in an attempt to diverttraffic congestion from the area, and became the centrepiece of a new development plan for revitalising the downtown. A tunnel was excavated under the street atTzahal Square in 2004 to allow the city'scentral north-south route to bypass it.[3] In order to accommodate the new system, new utility lines were laid under one side of the road, which was also widened. 180 properties were evacuated to allow for the road's improvement.
TheJerusalem Light Rail began operating in 2011. At the western end of Jaffa Road, opposite theCentral Bus Station, it passes over Jaffa Road viaSantiago Calatrava'sChords Bridge, which serves as an architectural beacon for the area.[4]
East to west on historical Jaffa Road:
According toYossi Atia, Jaffa Road in Jerusalem is the most terror stricken street in the world. That may well be the case. At least a dozen major attacks have taken place along the road since the 1960s.
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