thumb|220px|In Theater Districtthumb|Police Area 6, 148th StreetEighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the West Side of
Manhattan in
New York City, carrying northbound traffic. Eighth Avenue begins in the
West Village neighborhood at
Abingdon Square (where
Hudson Street becomes 8th Avenue at an intersection with
Bleecker Street) and runs north for 44 blocks through
Chelsea, the
Garment District,
Hell's Kitchen's east end,
Midtown and the
Broadway Theatre District before if finally enters
Columbus Circle (at 59th Street).
North of Columbus Circle, the roadway becomes
Central Park West, a two-way street along
Central Park. North of the
traffic circle at
110th Street, it is
Frederick Douglass Boulevard, though sometimes still unofficially referred to as Eighth Avenue. Fredrick Douglass Boulevard eventually terminates near the
Harlem River at the
Harlem River Drive around West 159th Street. While the avenue has different names at different points in Manhattan, it is actually one continuous stretch of road.
The
IND Eighth Avenue Line runs under Eighth Avenue.
Since the 1990s, the stretch of Eighth Avenue that runs through Greenwich Village and its adjacent Chelsea neighborhood has been a center of the city's
gay community, with bars and restaurants catering to gay men. In fact, New York City's annual
gay pride parade takes place along the Greenwich Village section of Eighth Avenue. Also, along with
Times Square, the portion of Eighth Avenue from
42nd Street to
50th Street was an informal
red-light district in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, before it was controversially renovated into a more
family friendly environment under the first mayoral administration of
Rudolph Giuliani.
Points of interest on or within one block of Eighth Avenue include:
