 Interactive map of Greenwich Street | |
| Former name | Road to Greenwich |
|---|---|
| Part of | Meatpacking District,West Village,Hudson Square,Tribeca |
| Namesake | Greenwich Village |
| Type | Street |
| Length | 2.5 mi (4.0 km) |
| Coordinates | 40°43′18.96″N74°0′35.44″W / 40.7219333°N 74.0098444°W /40.7219333; -74.0098444 |
| north end | Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street |
| south end | The Battery |
| Construction | |
| Construction start | 1790s |
| Other | |
| Known for | World Trade Center, skyscrapers |
Greenwich Street is a north–south street in theNew York Cityborough ofManhattan. It extends from the intersection ofNinth Avenue andGansevoort Street in theMeatpacking District at its northernmost end to its southern end atBattery Park. Greenwich Street runs through theMeatpacking District, theWest Village,Hudson Square, andTribeca.
Main east–west streets crossed include, from north to south,Christopher Street,Houston Street,Canal Street, andChambers Street. North of Canal Street, traffic travels northbound on Greenwich Street; south of Canal Street, it travels southbound.
The earliest documentation of Greenwich Street came in the 1790s, when it ran parallel to theHudson River. At that time it was called 'Road to Greenwich', as it was the only continuous road from Lower Manhattan toGreenwich Village other thanBroadway.
By the late 18th century, lower Greenwich Street had become part of one of the most fashionable residential neighborhoods in the city, lined with four-story Federal-style mansions, although upper Greenwich street was home to artisans, shopkeepers and an enclave of free blacks.[1] Greenwich Street still maintained its status as a choice address in 1820,[2] but by the 1850s, the wealthy residents had fled uptown, and private residences on the street became unusual. Hotel ownerAmos Eno left once he was "surrounded by immigrant boarding houses," according to his daughter.[3] In 1873, the Butter and Cheese Exchange opened on the street, not far from where dairy products arrived daily at the freight railroad terminals.[4] By 1882, a steam generation plant of theNew York Steam Company was at Greenwich and Dey Streets.[5]
In the early 19th century, circus impresario John Bill Ricketts opened his New Amphitheatre on Greenwich streets, designed byJoseph-François Mangin, where sell-out crowds watched his "Equestrian Circus", which featured "clowns, tightrope walkers, tumblers, acrobatic riders, mounted Indians and fireworks."[6] This continued a tradition for the area, as 150 years earlier "Vauxhall Gardens", which boasted a wax museum and fireworks and served afternoon teas, was put up bySamuel Fraunces, ofFraunces Tavern, near the present corner of Greenwich and Warren Streets.[7]
In 1824, painterThomas Cole, who had arrived in the U.S. in 1818, maintained his residence in agarret on Greenwich Street, exhibiting his paintings in local shops.[8] Poet and writerEdgar Allan Poe lived in a boardinghouse on the street briefly between 1844 and 1845, but did not like the neighborhood, complaining of dirty streets and the noise made by clam-and-catfish vendors.[9]
Also on Greenwich Street in the mid-1800s was one of the many outlets of "Madame Restell" (Ann Lohman), who sold pills forabortion of unwanted pregnancies. The Greenwich Street location doubled as a lying-in facility for women who wanted to bear their child. In 1846, an angry mob, riled up by Restell's competitors and false claims of murder, descended on her Greenwich Street headquarters and attempted to evict her from the city; 40 policemen restored order. Restell, who was wealthy from her business, was arrested a number of times, but was able to buy her way out of trouble, and eventually built a mansion atFifth Avenue and52nd Street.[10]
In 1867, engineer Charles T. Harvey managed to get permission from theNew York State Legislature to build a short stretch of elevated track as an experiment on Greenwich Street north of Battery Place. The half-mile single-track set-up, which had two stationary engines at each end, attached by cables to a car which the motors shuttled back and forth, was ready for testing by June 1868. Harvey filed for personal bankruptcy onBlack Friday (1869), resulting from the speculations ofJay Gould andJames Fisk, but the company he set up went through several reorganizations and emerged in 1872 as theNew York Elevated Railway Company, which utilized steam locomotives to pull cars on a single elevated track that ran up Greenwich andNinth Avenue to30th Street, where a connection could be made at the terminal of theHudson River Railroad.[11] Eventually, this would become theIRT Ninth Avenue Line; the elevated tracks were demolished in 1940.
At theWorld Trade Center site, Greenwich Street once ran through a neighborhood calledRadio Row, which specialized in selling radio parts. The neighborhood was demolished in 1962, when the area was condemned to make way for theConstruction of the World Trade Center.[12] After theWorld Trade Center was destroyed in theSeptember 11 attacks, the public supported rebuilding a street grid through the World Trade Center site.[13][14][15] It was ultimately decided to rebuildCortlandt,Fulton, and Greenwich Streets, which had been destroyed during the original World Trade Center's construction.[14]
Both Greenwich Street, originally called Greenwich Road,[16] andGreenwich Avenue, with which it is sometimes confused, derive their names from the formerly independentGreenwich Village, a rural settlement that was subsumed by New York City as the city grew northward. "Greenwich" means "Green village", with the "wich" derived fromLatinvicus throughOld Saxonwick. Of the two roads, Greenwich Street was the shorter, more scenic and popular[16] route to the village, but often flooded[17] until the 19th century, when landfill moved the river's edge farther away.[16]
TheIRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line runs under Greenwich Street from Vesey Street south to its end. TheCortlandt Street andRector Street stations (1 train) serve it directly. OtherNew York City Subway stations serve Greenwich Street from nearby. These include (from north to south) the14th Street–Eighth Avenue station (A, C, E, and L trains); theChristopher Street–Sheridan Square (local),Houston Street (local),Canal Street (local),Franklin Street (local) andChambers Street (express) stations on theIRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line (1, 2, and 3 trains); and theChambers Street–World Trade Center station (A, C, and E trains).[18]
TheChristopher StreetPATH train station (HOB–33,JSQ–33, andJSQ–33 (via HOB) trains) is on Christopher Street just east of Greenwich Street.[19] TheWorld Trade Center PATH station (NWK–WTC andHOB–WTC trains) is at Vesey and Greenwich Streets.[20]
TheWorld Trade Center Transportation Hub, between Greenwich and Church Streets, connects the five stations at the World Trade Center site (2, 3, A, C, E, N, R, and W trains, as well as PATH trains).[20][21] The combined station connects via theDey Street Passageway with theFulton Center (2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, and Z trains).[22]
[23]
The uptownM11 andM55 operates on Greenwich Street north of Bethune Street and south of Morris Street, respectively.
The following buses intersect with, but do not stop on, the street:
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