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- For the film of this name, see 42nd Street (film). For the Broadway musical of the same name, see 42nd Street (musical).
42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district (and, at times, the red-light district) near that intersection. 42nd Street has held a special place in New York lingo since at least the turn of the twentieth century.
The Lincoln Highway, conceived in 1913 as America's first transcontinental highway, used the portion of 42nd Street west of Times Square to reach the Weehawken Ferry to Weehawken, New Jersey, where it continued for about 3000 miles across the country to San Francisco.
History
The former Longacre Square was renamed to honor The New York Times which established its offices and printing plant nearby. For a long period in the mid 20th century, the area of 42nd Street near Times Square was home to peep shows and other activities often considered unsavory. A comedian once said, "They call it 42nd Street because you're not safe if you spend more than forty seconds on it."
A popular 1933 movie musical named 42nd Street, set in pre-Depression Manhattan, colorfully described the bawdy mixture of Broadway shows and prostitution during the early 20th century. In 1980, it was turned into a successful Broadway musical, which was revived in 2001 in a theater that was itself on 42nd Street. The following is an excerpt from the musical:
- In the heart of little old New York
you'll find a thoroughfare; - It's the part of little old New York
that runs into Times Square...
From the early 1960s until the late 1980s, 42nd Street was the cultural center of American grindhouse theatres, which spawned an entire subculture. The book Sleazoid Express, a travelogue of the 42nd Street grindhouses and the films they showed, describes in detail the unique blend of people who made up the theatregoers, including of black pimps, low-grade mafioso, transvestites, Latino gangsters, "rough trade" homosexuals, aggressive lesbians, trench coat clad perverts, and thrill seeking squares.
In the late 1980s, the grindhouses were all shut down in a series of late-night raids by the New York Police, under the orders of Mayor Ed Koch, as a part of his resolution to clean up the city's seedier elements.
Recent changes
In the late 1990s, city government encouraged a clean-up of the Times Square area. The block of 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues again became home to a "legitimate" theater, along with shops and eateries that transformed the street into a showplace thronged with out-of-towners once again.Public transit
Every subway line that crosses 42nd Street has an express station at it.
- (at Park Avenue)
The IRT 42nd Street Shuttle runs under 42nd Street between Broadway/Seventh Avenue (Times Square) and Park Avenue (Grand Central Terminal); the IRT Flushing Line begins at 41st Street/Seventh Avenue, runs between 41st and 42nd from Sixth Avenue to Park Avenue, curves onto 42nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, and continues under the East River to Queens. Each line stops at Times Square and Grand Central; the Flushing Line also stops at Fifth Avenue-Bryant Park.
Additionally, MTA New York City Transit's M42 bus runs the length of 42nd Street between the Circle Line and the United Nations, and its M104 bus runs from the United Nations via Times Square before turning north along Broadway to 125th Street. There was never a crosstown streetcar line on 42nd Street; however the Forty-Second Street and Grand Street Ferry Railroad used 42nd Street west of Tenth Avenue.
Places along 42nd Street
Places located along 42nd Street include (from west to east):
- Circle Line Cruises ferry terminal, 12th Avenue
- Port Authority Bus Terminal, 8th Avenue
- Times Square, 7th Avenue
- Bryant Park, 6th Avenue
- New York Public Library (main branch), 5th Avenue
- Grand Central Terminal, Park Avenue
- Chrysler Building, Lexington Avenue
- Tudor City apartments, 1st Avenue
- United Nations headquarters, 1st Avenue
Intersections from east to west
- FDR Drive
- First Avenue
- Second Avenue
- Third Avenue
- Lexington Avenue
- Park Avenue
- Madison Avenue
- Fifth Avenue - East 42nd Street becomes West 42nd Street
- Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas)
- Broadway - about 3/4 of the way from Sixth Avenue to Seventh Avenue
- Seventh Avenue
- Eighth Avenue
- Ninth Avenue
- Lincoln Tunnel access
- Tenth Avenue
- Eleventh Avenue
- West Side Highway
See also
"42nd Street (Manhattan)"