If you ask a person who has never been to New York City to name three landmarks he or she associates with it, they will say: the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and Broadway. Broadway is probably even the most famous thoroughfare in the world; no other road receives so much international mentions and no other road has been so important to the evolution of Manhattan. And although it is doubtlessly the most talked about street in Manhattan, it actually starts north of New York City, in Westchester County, where surprisingly its longest tract lies. Broadway begins in the little town of Sleepy Hollow, then runs eighteen miles parallel to the Hudson River through the towns of Tarrytown, Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-On-Hudson before it reaches the Bronx. Then it winds for two miles before it finally flows into the borough of Manhattan, where it continues for another thirteen miles all the way to the tip of the island at Battery Park. Its total length is twenty-three miles.
Broadway, which today is a one-way, southbound thoroughfare, is the only avenue in the city that cuts diagonally from the Upper West Side as it proceeds all the way down south. It is the oldest road in New York City, with its roots embedded in the first New Amsterdam settlement established by Dutch colonists in the beginning of the 17th century. New Amsterdam comprised the southernmost tip of Manhattan, what today is the area approximately south of Wall Street. When the Dutch arrived, there had already been a wide trail near what today is the Hudson River used by the Native Indians. Having acquired that tip of land from the Manahatta tribe for a legendary amount of twenty-four dollars worth of goods, the Dutch converted the trail into one of their main roads, calling it Breede weg, which in English is translated literally as broad road or broad way.
When the British took possession of New Amsterdam after the Anglo-Dutch Wars towards the end of the 17th century, they continued developing what they called Broadway Street. In the 18th century it ended approximately where today we find the court district below Canal Street and forked into Eastern Post Road, which ran north along the east side of Manhattan, and Bloomingdale Road, which ran north on the west side. When Bloomingdale Road reached what today is the Columbus Circle, it changed to Western Boulevard as it proceeded north. In 1899 the entire stretch including Broadway Street, Bloomingdale Road and Western Boulevard were fused into one thoroughfare by the laconic name of Broadway. Eventually Broadway made its way over a series of bridges that stood on the location of today's Broadway Bridge connecting Manhattan to the Bronx over the Bronx River. It then proceeded upstate into Westchester County.
The part of Broadway between Battery Park and the Court District is where the famous ticker-tape parades take place. These spectacles consist of confetti being thrown down from the buildings lining the road onto a procession honoring an important event or personality. In fact the parade originated in New York when the residents celebrated the opening of the Statue of Liberty in 1886. From the 1980s less and less politicians have been honored in the parades; the festivities have been dedicated mostly to local sports teams winning the league championships. This is also the tract on which stands New York City's oldest church, the St. Paul's Chapel.
Some of the most distinguished buildings and landmarks standing on Broadway include the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street, perhaps the most original skyscraper in the city due its triangular shape. It was built in this form because Broadway cuts diagonally through 5th Avenue, leaving a sharp corner at the south point of the intersection. It was there that the Flatiron was later built in accordance with the angle of the crossing avenues.
Another famous structure, especially around Christmas when the streets are decorated and illuminated and its time to buy gifts, is the Macy's Herald Square Department Store on 34th Street. Macy's is one of the largest department stores in the world.
Subsequently, Broadway enters Times Square, Manhattan's most animated commercial district, between 42nd and 47th Streets. At night, with all the flashing, colorful, sky-high neon light, the square may be one of the most spellbinding sights in the world, that is, if you like blinding artificial light.
Times Square blends with the Broadway Theater District. Although not all the forty major theaters are located exactly on Broadway itself, the name applies to those commercial theaters that have five hundred seats or more. Ticket sales for Broadway shows in the 2013-2014 season totaled almost $1.3 billion, with an international attendance of 12.2 million people. Whether it is a musical or a large-scale play, to appear in a Broadway show is the gauge of success for an actor. The New York theaters with a seating capacity of between 100 and 499 are called Off-Broadway Theaters, and those that have below one hundred seats are called Off-Off Broadway. Anyway you look at it, everything evolves from and revolves around Broadway.
At 59th Street Broadway twines around the statue of Christopher Columbus and continues past Lincoln Center and the Julliard School through the heart of the Upper West Side. The gigantic and highly distinguished Ansonia, Belnord and Astor Court Apartment buildings are located on 74th, 86th and 89th Streets, respectively, and from 114th to 120th Streets, in an area known as Morningside Heights, Broadway passes one of the most important scholastic institutions in the USA: Columbia University. The university has stood on that location since 1896 (before, the university was located on 49th Street).
On 120th Street, already in a neighborhood known as Spanish Harlem or East Harlem, the student of Christianity can find the Union Theological Seminary and on 122nd the student of Judaism will encounter the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, one of the most prominent academic centers dedicated to Conservative Judaism in the country.
Between 165th and 168th Street, in the Washington Heights neighborhood, stands the world-renowned New York Presbyterian Hospital. It is a synthesis of two medical centers, the Columbia University Medical Center and the Weill Cornell Medical Center. With 2,500 beds, the Presbyterian is New York's number one hospital and is the 6th best hospital in the US.
In the Bronx Broadway passes the 1,150-acre Van Cortlandt Park. It is the third largest park in the city, named after New York's first native-born mayor, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, who held the position twice at the end of the 17th century.
With all these eminent institutions and popular areas, it can easily be said that Broadway is the most vital street in the city.