.jpg) Looking south down 1st Avenue from theRoosevelt Island Tramway | |
 | |
| Owner | City of New York |
|---|---|
| Maintained by | NYCDOT |
| Length | 6.3 mi (10.1 km)[1] |
| Location | Manhattan,New York City |
| South end | Houston /Allen Streets inLower East Side |
| Major junctions |  FDR Drive /Willis Avenue Bridge inEast Harlem |
| North end | East 127th Street in East Harlem |
| East | Avenue A (Houston–14th Sts) Sutton Place (53rd–59th Sts) York Avenue (59th–92nd Sts) Pleasant Avenue (114th–120th Sts) |
| West | Second Avenue |
| Construction | |
| Commissioned | March 1811 |
First Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on theEast Side of theNew York Cityborough ofManhattan, running fromHouston Street northbound to127th Street. At125th Street, most traffic continues onto theWillis Avenue Bridge over theHarlem River, which continues intothe Bronx. South of Houston Street, the roadway continues asAllen Street south to Division Street. Traffic on First Avenue runs northbound (uptown) only.[2]
Like most of Manhattan's major north-south Avenues, First Avenue was proposed as part of theCommissioners' Plan of 1811 for Manhattan, which designated 12 broad north-south Avenues running the length of the island. The southern portions of the Avenue were cut and laid out shortly after the plan was adopted.[3] The northern sections of the avenue would be graded and cut through at various intervals throughout the 19th century as the northward development of the island demanded.[citation needed]
TheIRT Second Avenue Line ran above First Avenue fromHouston Street to23rd Street before turning west at 23rd and then north ontoSecond Avenue. This elevated line was torn down in 1942.[4]
When theStuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village private residential developments were constructed along the east side of First Avenue from14th to 23rd streets in the mid-1940s, First Avenue and other streets along the perimeter of the two sites were widened in exchange for the city swapping ownership of its street areas to be closed within the developments;[5][6] the segment along First Avenue was widened by 34 feet (10 m).[7][8][9]
First Avenue has carried one-way traffic since June 4, 1951.[10]
The tunnel on First Avenue adjacent to the west side of theHeadquarters of the United Nations opened to traffic on April 3, 1953.[11] This vehicular tunnel was constructed to provide a bypass for through traffic, reducing traffic volumes on the street level above the tunnel, which was intended to function as a local service road for the United Nations complex and the blocks on the west side of First Avenue.[12] The 1,377-foot-long (420 m) tunnel runs between portals at42nd and47th streets.[13] While the tunnel has always operated one-way in the northbound direction, it was originally designed to accommodate separate lanes for northbound and southbound traffic because First Avenue was a two-way street prior to the start of the tunnel's construction.[11] Work on the project commenced on August 1, 1949 with the relocation of the subsurface utilities that were located in the path of the tunnel.[14] The segment of First Avenue between 42nd and 48th streets was renamed "United Nations Plaza" in 1952.[15][16]
Widening of the street near the south portal of the First Avenue Tunnel resulted in the demolition oftenements and a garage on the west side of the avenue between 41st and 43rd streets and the creation of twovest-pocket parks, which were later namedRalph Bunche Park andTrygve Lie Plaza in 1979 and 1998, respectively.[17][18][19] To accommodate the sidewalk on the west side of First Avenue between 40th and 41st streets, the city constructed a pedestrianarcade in an easement below Windsor Tower inTudor City.[20][21][22][23] The base of Windsor Tower along First Avenue had been previously occupied by larger retail stores, including an auto showroom, when the sidewalk did not run through the building.[24][25][26] The street widening for the tunnel's south portal also resulted in the removal of a 28-foot-wide (8.5 m) strip of land from the existing park on the east side of First Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets (which was later namedRobert Moses Playground).[27]
Since 1976, when the course of theNew York City Marathon was modified to run through all five boroughs, First Avenue has been included as part of the marathon route. The course initially ran south on First Avenue from theWillis Avenue Bridge to 106th Street.[28][29] In 1977, the marathon route was changed to run north on First Avenue from theQueensboro Bridge to the Willis Avenue Bridge to allow for increased spectator viewing, which is the same route currently used by the marathon (as of 2024).[30][31]
As part of the launch ofSelect Bus Service (SBS) on theM15 bus route in October 2010, abus lane was designated for nearly the entire length of First Avenue (from Houston to 125th streets) for the morning and evening rush hours on weekdays and painted in a terra-cotta color.[32][33] The project included the installation of offset and curbside bus lanes,bus bulbs, and sidewalk kiosks at bus stops for off-board fare payment.[34] Prior to the implementation of SBS, the curbside lane on First Avenue between 34th and 96th streets had been designated as a bus lane from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.[35]
A protectedbike lane was established along the left side of the avenue south of50th Street in 2011.[36] From 2019 to 2023, a temporary bike lane was established in the tunnel on First Avenue adjacent to the United Nations headquarters to provide a detour for bicyclists when the street level bike lane was closed as a security measure during thegeneral debate of the United Nations General Assembly.[37] A permanent bike lane in the tunnel was planned for implementation prior to the start of theUnited Nations General Assembly's 79th session in September 2024.[38][39]
First Avenue passes through a variety of neighborhoods.
Starting in the south at Houston Street, First Avenue passes through theEast Village, once a predominantly German and Jewish neighborhood, now a gentrified area populated mostly byhipsters andyuppies. First Avenue then runs by two largeurban development projects,Stuyvesant Town andPeter Cooper Village, two middle-income housing developments that sit on what used to be theGashouse District, an industrial area. These fill the east side of the avenue from14th to23rd Streets. The avenue is very wide in this segment, and includes anaccess road along the east side of the street.[40]
The New YorkVeterans Affairs Medical Center, theBellevue Hospital, andNYU Langone Health fill the blocks from there to34th Street. In this section, First Avenue is also known as "Bedpan Alley" (a play on "Tin Pan Alley") because of the large number ofhospitals located nearby.[41] Between 42nd and 48th streets, the avenue runs past United Nations Headquarters. Here a local bypass, United Nations Plaza, splits from the main road, which runs through the First Avenue Tunnel, rejoining the local street at49th Street.
Crossing under theQueensboro Bridge through a 90-foot-wide (27 m)Guastavino tile arch, First Avenue enters theUpper East Side and runs through a number of residential areas.[42] It serves as one of the main shopping streets of theYorkville neighborhood, historically a working class German and Hungarian neighborhood, today a wealthy enclave of upper-class residents. Another concentration of hospitals is located in the area between First Avenue and theFDR Drive from 62nd to 72nd streets, which is also locally referred to as "Bedpan Alley."[43]
Crossing96th Street, First Avenue runs throughSpanish Harlem, a historically Puerto Rican neighborhood. Before Puerto Rican migration in the 1950s, much of this district was populated by Italians and known as "Italian Harlem". First Avenue in Italian Harlem was the site of a major open-air pushcart market in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There is still a small Italian enclave in the Pleasant Valley district of East Harlem, between 114th and 120th Streets. The northern reaches of First Avenue, north of roughly110th Street have also seen a significant increase in Mexican residents.[citation needed]
First Avenue then connects to theWillis Avenue Bridge, which crosses theHarlem River at125th Street and connects to Willis Avenue inthe Bronx. A separate segment of First Avenue runs southbound from 127th to 125th streets, and accommodates traffic from Exit 19 of the northboundHarlem River Drive destined to East Harlem.[44][45]
The primary First Avenue server is theM15/M15 Select Bus Service. It runs uptown fromHouston Street to East 126th Street, while downtown buses use the parallelSecond Avenue.[46]
Other bus routes include the following:[46]
TheNew York City Subway'sBMT Canarsie Line has astation at14th Street.[46]
[May 10, 1813:] The common council orders that First Ave. between 10th and 25th St. be opened and directs the proper officers to carry the same into effect—M. C. C. (1784-1831), VII: 458. On Nov. 1, the attorney was directed to open the avenue from 10th to North [Houston] St. as it would afford a short and direct route to Bellevue.—Ibid., VII: 596-97.
Media related to1st Avenue (Manhattan) at Wikimedia Commons