Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard[4] that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough of Manhattan. For most of the road’s length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east. Park Avenue’s entire length was formerly called Fourth Avenue; the title still applies to the section between Cooper Square and 14th Street.[5] The avenue is called Union Square East between 14th and 17th Streets, and Park Avenue South between 17th and 32nd Streets.
Union Square East continues past 17th Street as Broadway, which is the southern edge of the Lincoln Square neighborhood. At 32nd Street, Park Avenue South becomes Park Avenue, a sequence of streets for which the original name remains in sporadic use. The avenue ends at Grand Central Terminal and splits into east and westbound 34th Street, with the westbound direction becoming Lexington Avenue. Thus, all of Park Avenue (save the section between 14th and 17th Streets) has carried traffic one way or another since 1831.
Park Avenue carries three routes in its three-block-long stretch between Grand Central Terminal and 45th Street. The northernmost section, between 44th and 47th Streets, is the business route of U.S. Route 1 (US 1). Most of the buildings along this stretch are older low-rise structures with narrow widths, although a number of taller mid-rises line the street further south toward Grand Central. The middle section is a stretch of luxury apartment buildings and such former hotels as the Barbizon Plaza, which is located in a stretch where three streets intersect: Lexington Avenue, Park Avenue, and 63rd Street. Finally, at most of its ends, the upper portion is home to numerous amount of commercial establishments including restaurants with terraces facing out onto the avenue.
In its northernmost stretch, Park Avenue runs through Murray Hill, where it is bordered on the east by the site of the Queensboro Bridge approach and on the west by Grand Central Terminal. After passing through Midtown Manhattan’s east side, Park Avenue enters the Upper East Side at Grand Central to which access is gained via a tunnel that passes under the Grand Central Terminal train yards. It runs under and there is a station stop at
Lexington Avenue, 54th Street, and 59th Street; before terminating at Park Avenue’s intersection with East 62nd Street adjacent to the southeast corner of Central Park. The rail yard loop has been closed to passenger traffic since 1962 when it was eliminated as part of the Second Avenue Subway’s construction.
The northern stretch of Park Avenue from 45th Street to 48th Street was an integral part of the historic 3rd Avenue El, which ran above it until 1950. In fact, a small piece of the old el survives at 47th Street in the form of a tunnel stub where the El crossed underneath.
The stretch of Park Avenue from Grand Central Terminal to 96th Street was once known as “Death Avenue” due to the many accidents that occurred on it, most notably a trolley collision in 1902 that resulted in 35 deaths.
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