Information about 42nd Street

For the film of this name, see 42nd Street (film). For the Broadway musical of the same name, see 42nd Street (musical). For the nightclub in Manchester (UK), see 42nd Street Nightclub.

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 street lines some of New York's most important buildings, including the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, Times Square, and the Port Authority Bus Station (listed from east to west).

The Lincoln Highway, conceived in 1913 as America's first transcontinental highway, officially started at Times Square and ran west on 42nd Street to reach the Weehawken Ferry. After crossing the Hudson River to Weehawken, New Jersey, it continued about 3,000 miles across the country to San Francisco, California.

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 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 theater-goers, including 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 City Police Department, 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 Seventh and Eighth Avenues again became home to a "legitimate" theater, along with shops and eateries that transformed the street into a showplace thronging with out-of-towners once again.

Public transit

Every subway line that crosses 42nd Street has a stop on 42nd Street, whether the line be express or local:

• 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal (A C E)
• Times Square–42nd Street (1 2 3 7 <7> N Q R W S)
• 42nd Street–Bryant Park (7 <7> B D F V)
• 42nd Street–Grand Central (4 5 6 <6> 7 <7> S)

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 ferry terminal (or the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center) on the Hudson River and the headquarters of the United Nations on the East River, and its M104 bus runs from the UN headquarters via Times Square before turning north along Broadway to 125th Street. The 42nd Street Crosstown Line streetcar used 42nd Street.

Places along 42nd Street

Places located along 42nd Street include (from west to east):

• Circle Line Cruises ferry terminal, Twelfth Avenue
• Port Authority Bus Terminal, Eighth Avenue
• Times Square, Seventh Avenue
• Bryant Park, Sixth Avenue
• SUNY College of Optometry, Sixth Avenue
• University Optometric Center, Sixth Avenue
• New York Public Library (main branch), Fifth Avenue
• Grand Central Terminal, Park Avenue
• Chrysler Building, Lexington Avenue
• News Building (formerly the New York Daily News Building), Second Avenue
• Tudor City apartments, First Avenue

Intersections from east to west

• FDR Drive
• First Avenue
• Second Avenue
• Third Avenue
• Lexington Avenue
• Park Avenue
• Vanderbilt Avenue - access to Grand Central Terminal
• Madison Avenue
• Fifth Avenue - East 42nd Street becomes West 42nd Street
• Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas)
• Broadway - about three-quarters of the way from Sixth Avenue to Seventh Avenue
• Seventh Avenue
• Eighth Avenue
• Ninth Avenue
• Dyer Avenue - access to Lincoln Tunnel
• Tenth Avenue
• Eleventh Avenue
• West Side Highway

See also

• Manhattan streets, 23-42
• Manhattan streets, 42-59

•  • [ e] of Manhattan
North-South	Downtown South St Essex St Orchard St Ludlow St Allen St Forsyth St Pearl St/Bowery Mott St Mulberry St Centre St Lafayette St Broad St Nassau St Broadway West Broadway Patchin Pl Varick St Hudson St Greenwich St Washington St Weehawken St Midtown East River Dr/FDR Dr Av D Av C/Loisaida Av Av B/East End Av Av A/Sutton Pl/York Av 1st Av 2nd Av 3rd Av Lexington Av 4th Av/Park Av Vanderbilt Av Madison Av 5th Av/Museum Mile 6th Av/Av of the Americas/Lenox Av/Malcolm X Blvd 7th Av/Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd 8th Av/Central Park West/Frederick Douglas Blvd 9th Av/Columbus Av/Morningside Dr Dyer Av 10th Av/Amsterdam Av 11th Av/West End Av Riverside Dr 12th Av/West Side Hwy 13th Av Henry Hudson Pkwy Uptown Harlem River Dr Audubon Av St. Nicholas Av/Juan Pablo Duarte Blvd Ft Washington Av Cabrini Blvd
East-West	Downtown Bridge St Wall St Liberty St Fulton St Ann St Park Row Chambers St Cherry St Henry St Worth St East Broadway N. Moore St Beach St Canal St Hester St Grand St Delancey St Rivington St Stanton St Houston St 1-14: (1st St, Bleecker St, 2nd St, 3rd St/Great Jones St, West 4th St, 6th St, Waverly Pl/Washington Sq North, Washington Mews, Astor Pl, Gay St, 8th St/St. Mark's Pl, Christopher St, Stuyvesant St, West 10th St, 13th St, 14th St) Midtown 15-59: (17th St, 23-42: (23rd St, 24th St, 25th St, 26th St, 27th St/Club Row, 28th St, 29th St, 30th St, 31st St, 32nd St/Korea Way, 33rd St, 34th St, 35th St, 36th St, 37th St, 38th St, 39th St, 40th St, 41st St, 42nd St), 47th St, 50th St, 52nd St, 53rd St, 57th St, 59th St/Central Park South) Uptown 66th St 72nd St 79th St 85th St 86th St 96th St 110th St/Central Park North 112th St 116th St 118th St 122nd St 125th St Astor Row 132nd St Trans-Manhattan Expwy 181st St 187th St Bogardius Pl Dyckman St Beak St

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