Park Avenue (formerly
Fourth Avenue) is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in
New York City borough of
Manhattan. Throughout most of its length, it runs parallel to
Madison Avenue to the west and
Lexington Avenue to the east.
The flowers and greenery in the median of Park Avenue are maintained by the Fund for Park Avenue.
Begonias are a flower of choice for the Funds gardeners because there is no automatic watering system and they can cope with hot sun.
Each December,
Christmas trees are placed in the median. The first time they were erected colored lights were used and accidents occurred because of confusion with traffic signals in front of them. Today only yellow and white lights are used.
Route
Park Avenue Viaduct, 2008
The road that becomes Park Avenue originates as the
Bowery. From
Cooper Square at
8th Street to
Union Square at
14th Street, it is known as
Fourth Avenue. Above 14th Street, it turns slightly east of north to align with other avenues of the
Commissioners' Plan of 1811. From 14th Street to
17th Street, it forms the eastern boundary of Union Square and is known as
Union Square East; its southbound lanes merge with
Broadway for this distance. From 17th Street to
32nd Street, it is known as
Park Avenue South, and above 32nd Street, for the remainder of its distance, it is known as
Park Avenue.
Between
33rd Street and
40th Street, the left-hand northbound lane descends into the
Murray Hill Tunnel. Immediately across from 40th Street, the center lanes of Park Avenue rise onto an elevated structure that goes around
Grand Central Terminal and the
MetLife Building (formerly the PanAm Building), carrying each direction of traffic on opposite sides of the buildings. The bridge, one of two structures in Manhattan known as the
Park Avenue Viaduct, returns to ground level at 46th Street after going through the
Helmsley Building (also referred to as the New York Central Building or 230 Park Avenue).
As Park Avenue enters
Midtown north of
Grand Central Terminal, it is distinguished by many glass-box skyscrapers that serve as headquarters for corporations such as
JPMorgan Chase at
270 Park Avenue and
277 Park Avenue,
Citigroup,
Colgate-Palmolive, and
MetLife at the
MetLife Building.
From Grand Central to 97th Street,
Metro-North Railroad tracks run in a tunnel underneath Park Avenue (the
Park Avenue Tunnel). There are no cross-walk signals or overhead traffic lights along this stretch of Park Avenue due to the presence of the tunnels underneath, and the inability to anchor the heavy devices into solid ground. At 97th, the tracks come above ground, rising onto the other Manhattan structure known as the Park Avenue Viaduct. The first street to pass under the viaduct is 102nd Street; from there to the
Harlem River the railroad viaduct runs down the middle of Park Avenue.
In the 1920s the portion of Park Avenue from
Grand Central Station to 96th Street saw extensive apartment building construction. This long stretch of the avenue contains some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Real estate at
740 Park Avenue, for example, sells for several thousand dollars per square foot. Current and former residents in this stretch of the thoroughfare include
Blackstone Group co-founder
Stephen Schwarzman, Highbridge Capital Management co-founder Glenn Dubin, former
Morgan Stanley executive
Zoe Cruz,
private equity investor
Ronald O. Perelman,
John D. Rockefeller Jr. and others. Schwarzman and Dubin both retain residences at 740 Park Avenue.
James Cash Penney lived at 888, and
Leonard Bernstein at 898. The 10021
ZIP Code, through which this section of Park Avenue runs, is the wealthiest zip code in the United States.
Park Avenue ends north of 132nd Street, with connections to the
Harlem River Drive. The name is continued on the other side of the river in
the Bronx by the street just east of the railroad.
The following institutions are either headquartered or have significant business presences on Park Avenue:
History
The railroad tunnel in 1941
Park Avenue was originally known as Fourth Avenue and carried the tracks of the
New York and Harlem Railroad starting in the 1830s. The railroad originally built an open cut through
Murray Hill, which was covered with grates and grass between 34th and 40th Street in the early 1850s. A section of this "park" was renamed Park Avenue in 1860. In 1867, the name applied all the way to
42nd Street. When
Grand Central Depot was opened in the 1870s, the railroad tracks between 56th and 96th Streets were sunk out of sight, and, in 1888, Park Avenue was extended to the Harlem River.
In 1936 the elevated
Grand Central Terminal Park Avenue Viaduct was built around the station to allow automobile traffic to pass unimpeded. In October 1937, a part of the
Murray Hill Tunnel was reopened for road traffic. Efforts to promote a Grand Park Avenue Expressway to Grand Concourse in the Bronx were unavailing.
On
May 5,
1959, the
New York City Council voted 20-1 to change the name of Fourth Avenue between 17th and 32nd Streets to Park Avenue South. In 1963, the
Pan Am Building was built straddling Park Avenue atop Grand Central Terminal, with a tunnel through it to accommodate the automobile bridge.
Overturned Midtown Bike Ban
In July 1987, then
New York City Mayor Edward Koch proposed banning bicycling on Fifth, Park and Madison Avenues during weekdays, but many bicyclists protested and had the ban overturned. When the trial was started on Monday, August 24, 1987 for 90 days to ban bicyclists from these three avenues from 31st Street to 59th Street between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays,
mopeds would not be banned. On Monday, August 31, 1987, a state appeals court judge halted the ban for at least a week pending a ruling after opponents against the ban brought a lawsuit.
See also
