72nd Street (Manhattan)

72nd Street
The Dakota Apartments, located at 1 West 72nd Street
Maintained by NYCDOT
Length 1.6 mi[1] (2.6 km)
Width 100 feet (30.48 m)
Location Manhattan
Postal code 10023 (west), 10021 (east)
Coordinates 40°46′20″N 73°57′58″W / 40.7721°N 73.9662°W / 40.7721; -73.9662Coordinates: 40°46′20″N 73°57′58″W / 40.7721°N 73.9662°W / 40.7721; -73.9662
West end NY 9A / Henry Hudson Parkway / Riverside Boulevard in Riverside South
East end Dead end in Upper East Side
North 73rd Street
South 71st Street
Construction
Commissioned 1811
The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House, 72nd Street and Madison Avenue.
The Henry T. Sloane House and Oliver Gould Jennings House on 7–9 East 72nd Street
888 Madison Avenue at East 72nd Street, constructed for Ralph Lauren in 2010

72nd Street is one of the major bi-directional crosstown streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Where the west end of 72nd Street curves into the south end of Riverside Drive, the memorial to Eleanor Roosevelt stands in Riverside Park. At this end of the street is the landmarked Beaux-Arts Chatsworth Apartments (344 West 72nd Street, John E. Scharsmith, architect, 1902–04, Annex, 1905–06).[2]

History

The street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan street grid as one of 15 east-west streets that would be 100 feet (30 m) in width (while other streets were designated as 60 feet (18 m) in width).[3]

Landmarks

At 72nd Street, Broadway crosses Amsterdam Avenue, creating a small triangular space, Verdi Square; across the street to the south lies Sherman Square.

72nd Street is one of the few streets to go through Central Park, connecting the Upper West Side via Women's Gate, Terrace Drive and Inventors Gate, with the Upper East Side. However, Terrace Drive is often closed to vehicular traffic and therefore the crosstown M72 bus crosses the park at 65th Street.

The Dakota apartment building is located on the corner of West 72nd Street and Central Park West. Before automotive traffic, broad cross-streets offered desirable sites for prominent residences; the mansion at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue was the first of the Gilded Age mansions to be replaced by an apartment block, 907 Fifth Avenue, and McKim, Mead, and White’s Charles L. Tiffany mansion (1882) at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue was replaced by an apartment block (19 East 72nd Street, Rosario Candela, architect[4]), but the Rhinelander Mansion, occupied now by Ralph Lauren, is still located on the southeast corner.

At Third Avenue, the Tower East apartment block (1960) set a new model for high-rise residences, a slab tower set back from the street front and isolated on a low base.[5]

On October 11, 2006, the Belaire Apartments, a 50-story apartment complex located at 524 E. 72nd Street between York Avenue and the FDR Drive, was the site of a plane crash involving Cory Lidle's aircraft.

Transportation

72nd Street has three New York City Subway stops along its length:

The M72 provides crosstown bus service to Upper East Side – York Avenue (eastbound) or West Side – Freedom Place (westbound) via 72nd Street.

Notable residents

George Gershwin
Margaux Hemingway

Notes

  1. ↑ Google (January 8, 2017). "72nd Street" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2011-10-27. Landmarks Preservation Commission: Chatsworth Apartments
  3. ↑ Morris, Gouverneur, De Witt, Simeon, and Rutherford, John [sic] (March 1811) "Remarks Of The Commissioners For Laying Out Streets And Roads In The City Of New York, Under The Act Of April 3, 1807", Cornell University Library. Accessed June 27, 2016. "These streets are all sixty feet wide except fifteen, which are one hundred feet wide, viz.: Numbers fourteen, twenty-three, thirty-four, forty-two, fifty-seven, seventy-two, seventy-nine, eighty-six, ninety-six, one hundred and six, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and thirty-five, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty-five--the block or space between them being in general about two hundred feet."
  4. ↑ The Upper East Side Book: 19 East 72nd Street.
  5. ↑ The upper East Side Book: Tower East
  6. 1 2 Patrick Bunyan. All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  7. ↑ Don Bachardy. Stars in My Eyes. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  8. ↑ Howard Pollack. George Gershwin: His Life and Work. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  9. ↑ http://dorothyparker.com/dorothy-parker-homes/childhood-home-214-w-72nd-street
  10. ↑ "Harold Stanley, 77, is Dead". The New York Times. May 15, 1963. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
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