Broadway (Manhattan)

Broadway () is a street and major thoroughfare in the U.S. state of New York. The street runs from Battery Place at Bowling Green in the south of Manhattan for 13 mi (20.9 km) through the borough, over the Broadway Bridge, and 2 mi (3.2 km) through the Bronx, exiting north from New York City to run an additional 18 mi (29.0 km) through the Westchester County municipalities of Yonkers, Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown, and Sleepy Hollow, after which the road continues, but is no longer called "Broadway". The latter portion of Broadway north of the George Washington Bridge/I-95 underpass comprises a portion of U.S. Route 9.

It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in New York City, with much of the current street said to have begun as the Wickquasgeck trail before the arrival of Europeans. This then formed the basis for one of the primary thoroughfares of the Dutch New Amsterdam colony, which continued under British rule, although most of it did not bear its current name until the late 19th century. Some portions of Broadway in Manhattan are interrupted for continuous vehicle traffic, including Times Square, Herald Square, and Union Square, and instead used as pedestrian-only plazas. South of Columbus Circle, the road is one-way going southbound.

Broadway in Midtown Manhattan is known widely as the heart of the American commercial theatrical industry, and is used as a metonym for it, as well as in the names of alternative theatrical ventures such as off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. In Lower Manhattan, a section of Broadway is referred to as the Canyon of Heroes for the ticker-tape parades that have been used to celebrate or welcome various worthies.

History

Lenape history

The Lenape, the Native American inhabitants of Manhattan at the time of Dutch colonization, maintained the Wickquasgeck trail, which connected the various villages of Manhattan.