| Avenue of the Americas | |
 The "skyscraper alley" ofInternational Style buildings along the avenue looking north from40th Street toCentral Park | |
 | |
| Namesake | The Americas |
|---|---|
| Owner | City of New York |
| Maintained by | NYCDOT |
| Length | 3.7 mi (6.0 km)[1] |
| Location | Manhattan, New York City |
| South end | Church / Franklin Streets inTribeca |
| Major junctions | Herald Square inMidtown |
| North end | Central Park South (59th Street) /Center Drive inMidtown |
| East | Fifth Avenue (north of Waverly Pl) |
| West | Varick Street (south ofHouston Street) Seventh Avenue (Houston Street to 34th Street) Broadway (between 34th and 45th Streets) Seventh Avenue (between 45th and 59th Streets) |
| Construction | |
| Commissioned | March 1811 |
Sixth Avenue, also known asAvenue of the Americas, is a major thoroughfare in theNew York City borough ofManhattan. The avenue is commercial for much of its length, and traffic runs northbound, or uptown.
Sixth Avenue begins four blocks belowCanal Street, at Franklin Street inTribeca, where the northboundChurch Street divides into Sixth Avenue to the left and the local continuation of Church Street to the right, which then ends at Canal Street. From this beginning, Sixth Avenue traversesSoHo andGreenwich Village, roughly dividesChelsea from theFlatiron District andNoMad, passes through theGarment District and skirts the edge of theTheater District while passing throughMidtown Manhattan. Although it is officially named "Avenue of the Americas", this name is seldom used by New Yorkers.[2][3][4]
Sixth Avenue's northern end is atCentral Park South, adjacent to the Artists' Gate entrance toCentral Park viaCenter Drive. Historically, Sixth Avenue was also the name of the road that continued north of Central Park, but that segment was renamedLenox Avenue in 1887 and co-namedMalcolm X Boulevard in 1987.[5]
Sixth Avenue was laid out in theCommissioners' Plan of 1811. As originally designed, Sixth Avenue's southern terminus was at Carmine Street in Greenwich Village, and it continued northward to 147th Street in Harlem.Central Park was added to the street grid in 1857 and created an interruption in Sixth Avenue between 59th and 110th Streets. Proposals to extend the street south of Carmine Street were discussed by the city'sBoard of Aldermen as early as the mid-1860s.[6] TheIRT Sixth Avenue Lineelevated railway (the "El") was constructed on Sixth Avenue in 1878, darkening the street and reducing its real-estate value. In the early and mid-1800s Sixth Avenue passed by the popular roadhouse and tavern,Old Grapevine, at the corner of 11th Street, which at the time was the northern edge of the city.[7]
In late 1887, theHarlem portion of what was then considered Sixth Avenue was renamedLenox Avenue[8] for philanthropistJames Lenox; a century later it was co-named Malcolm X Boulevard, in honor of the slain civil rights leaderMalcolm X.[9][10]
Starting in 1926, as part of the construction of theHolland Tunnel, Sixth Avenue was widened and extended from Minetta Lane toCanal Street.[11] Smaller side streets in the extension's path were also demolished or incorporated into the extended avenue.[11] The Sixth Avenue extension also allowed for the construction of theIndependent Subway System (IND)'sEighth Avenue Line, which was to run below Sixth Avenue south of Eighth Street.[12] To accommodate the new subway, buildings were condemned and demolished to extend Sixth Avenue southward.[12] Construction of the extension resulted in considerable dislocation to existing residents, as ten thousand people were evicted to make way for the Sixth Avenue extension.[13] One historian stated that most of the displaced residents were "Italian immigrants who knew no other home in America".[14] According to theWPA Guide to New York City, the extension resulted in blank side walls facing the "uninspiring thoroughfare" and small leftover spaces. Dozens of buildings, including the originalChurch of Our Lady of Pompeii, were demolished.[15] After the renumbering of the street's properties in 1929,[16] the Sixth Avenue extension was opened to traffic in 1930,[17] and the subway line was completed two years later.[18] Sixth Avenue, the only numbered avenue to extend south ofHouston Street, thus became the southernmost numbered avenue in Manhattan.House numbering of existing buildings was adjusted.[12]
By the 1930s, a coalition of commercial establishments and building owners along Sixth Avenue campaigned to have the El removed. The El was closed on December 4, 1938, and came down in stages, beginning in Greenwich Village in 1938–39.[15] The replacementSixth Avenue subway, which ran between Houston and 53rd Streets with a transfer to the Eighth Avenue line atWest Fourth Street, opened in 1940.[19]
The demolition of the Sixth Avenue elevated railway also resulted in accelerated commercial development of the avenue inMidtown. Beginning in the 1960s, the avenue was entirely rebuilt above 42nd Street as an all-but-uninterrupted avenue of corporate headquarters housed in glass slab towers ofInternational Modernist style.[20]: 394 Among the buildings constructed was theCBS Building at52nd Street, byEero Saarinen (1965), dubbed "Black Rock" for its full-height black-granitepiers;[21][20]: 406–410 thisdesignated landmark is Saarinen's onlyskyscraper.[22] Another group of modernist structures along Sixth Avenue in midtown was the "XYZ Buildings" (1971–1974) at1211,1221, and1251 Sixth Avenue.[20]: 410–416
On March 10, 1957, Sixth Avenue was reconfigured to carry one-way traffic north of its intersection withBroadway inHerald Square.[23] The rest of the avenue followed on November 10, 1963.[24]
The avenue's official name was changed toAvenue of the Americas in 1945 by the City Council, at the behest of MayorFiorello La Guardia,[25] who signed the bill into law on October 2, 1945.[26] The intent was to honor "Pan-American ideals and principles"[27] and the nations of Central and South America, and to encourage those countries to build consulates along the avenue.[28] It was felt at the time that the name would provide greater grandeur to a shabby street[29] and promote trade with the Western Hemisphere.[30]
After the name change, round signs were attached to streetlights on the avenue, showing the national seals and coats of arms of the nations honored. However, New Yorkers rarely used the avenue's newer name,[4] and in 1955, an informal study found that locals used "Sixth Avenue" more than eight times as often as "Avenue of the Americas".[31] The move was criticized as "propaganda" by those who wanted to return to the original name.[32] Most of the old round signs with country emblems were gone by the late 1990s, and the ones remaining, which were only present between Canal Street and Washington Place in Greenwich Village and in Midtown around 57th Street began showing signs of age.[30] However, starting in March 2023, the city began to install new signs along most of the length of the avenue, in addition to replacing the remaining original signs.[33][34]
In the mid-1970s, the city "spruced up" the street, including the addition of patterned brick crosswalks, repainting of streetlamps, and new pedestrian plazas. Special lighting, rare throughout the rest of the city, was also installed.[35] The administration of MayorEd Koch added aprotected bike lane to Sixth Avenue between Eighth Street/Greenwich Avenue and Central Park South;[36] the lane carried 200 cyclists an hour at peak times.[37] The barriers between the bike lane and the vehicular lanes were removed in November 1980.[38]
Manhattan Community Board 2 voted in 2014 to request a feasibility study for a protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue.[39] The protected bike lane between 35th Street and Central Park South was reinstated in October 2020,[40][41] following advocacy from cyclists.[42] At the time, Sixth Avenue had two discontinuous segments of bike lanes, separated by a 20-block stretch with no bike lane. The southern segment ran from Franklin Street to Canal Street, while the northern segment ran from Eighth Street to Central Park South.[39] Community Board 2 was reviewing plans for a protected bike lane from Lispenard Street (just south of Canal Street) to Eighth Street by mid-2024,[43] and plans for a bike lane between these two intersections were announced in October 2024.[44][45] The same month, as part of a reconstruction of the parallelFifth Avenue in Midtown, MayorEric Adams proposed widening Sixth Avenue's bike lane for two-way bike traffic.[46][47]
Sights along Sixth Avenue includeJuan Pablo Duarte Square;[48] the polychrome HighVictorian Gothic Jefferson Market Courthouse, currently occupied by theJefferson Market Library;[49] the surviving stretch of granddepartment stores of 1880 to 1900 in theLadies' Mile Historic District that runs from18th Street to23rd Street;[50] the former wholesale flower district;Herald Square at 34th Street,[51] site ofMacy's department store;[52] andBryant Park from40th to42nd Streets.[53] The corporate stretch above 42nd Street contains theBank of America Tower,W. R. Grace Building,International Center of Photography,Rockefeller Center (including theTime-Life Building,News Corp. Building,Exxon Building,McGraw-Hill Building, andRadio City Music Hall) and theCBS Building.
Sixth Avenue is the site of the annualVillage Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village[54] and theDominican Day Parade in Midtown.
Sixth Avenue is served by theNew York City Subway with theIND Sixth Avenue Line (B, D, F, <F>, and M trains) north ofHouston Street, and theIND Eighth Avenue Line (A, C, and E trains) south ofGreenwich Avenue. The Harlem portion of Sixth Avenue (Lenox Avenue) is served by theIRT Lenox Avenue Line (2 and 3 trains) north ofCentral Park North (110th Street).[55] ThePATH'sUptown Hudson Tubes toNew Jersey also run under Sixth Avenue (JSQ–33,HOB-33, andJSQ-33 (via HOB) trains) from9th to33rd Streets.[56]
TheM55 runs south of West 44th Street, where it terminates, while theM5 andM7 run north of West 31st and West 14th Streets, respectively. The latter begins Harlem service at West 16th Street and uses 7th Avenue downtown; the rest use 5th Avenue. Additional service is provided by the eastboundM21 from Spring to West Houston Streets.[57]
The avenue is referenced both in the name and in the lyrics of "6th Avenue Heartache" byThe Wallflowers.[58]
Avenue of the Americas, a name rarely used by New Yorkers
New Yorkers stubbornly resist calling Sixth Avenue by the name it has officially borne since the La Guardia years
| International | |
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| National | |
