Description
Fifth Avenue is the spine of Manhattan: a straight line that starts at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village and runs north through Midtown, along Central Park and up to Harlem. It is a shopping street, a museum row and the route of the city's parades, all in one.
The blocks in the 50s are among the most expensive shopping streets in the world: Tiffany & Co. at 57th Street, Cartier, Gucci, Prada, an Apple Store, and the department stores Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. Even if you are not buying, the windows are a show.
Farther north, facing the park between 59th and 96th Streets, comes Millionaire's Row, once lined with mansions. Between 82nd and 110th Streets is Museum Mile, nine museums in a row, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the Frick Collection, which sits on the corner of 70th Street.
The avenue began in 1785 as a line on a surveyor's map: Middle Road, drawn by Casimir Goerck across common land nobody wanted to buy. Today it splits Manhattan in two, and every "East" and "West" in a street address starts from here.
Money arrived after the Civil War. In the 1870s three Vanderbilt mansions rose between 51st and 59th Streets, and the richest families followed them north.
Then the shops chased the millionaires: in 1896 Benjamin Altman bought a corner at 34th Street for his department store, and the other famous names came after. When the avenue was widened in 1908, the facade of St. Patrick's Cathedral was moved back to make room.
On several Sundays a year the avenue is closed to cars and belongs to the parades, the longest-running of them the St. Patrick's Day Parade. In June, on the second Tuesday evening, Museum Mile closes to traffic for a festival, and the nine museums open free.
The blocks in the 50s are among the most expensive shopping streets in the world: Tiffany & Co. at 57th Street, Cartier, Gucci, Prada, an Apple Store, and the department stores Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman. Even if you are not buying, the windows are a show.
Farther north, facing the park between 59th and 96th Streets, comes Millionaire's Row, once lined with mansions. Between 82nd and 110th Streets is Museum Mile, nine museums in a row, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the Frick Collection, which sits on the corner of 70th Street.
The avenue began in 1785 as a line on a surveyor's map: Middle Road, drawn by Casimir Goerck across common land nobody wanted to buy. Today it splits Manhattan in two, and every "East" and "West" in a street address starts from here.
Money arrived after the Civil War. In the 1870s three Vanderbilt mansions rose between 51st and 59th Streets, and the richest families followed them north.
Then the shops chased the millionaires: in 1896 Benjamin Altman bought a corner at 34th Street for his department store, and the other famous names came after. When the avenue was widened in 1908, the facade of St. Patrick's Cathedral was moved back to make room.
On several Sundays a year the avenue is closed to cars and belongs to the parades, the longest-running of them the St. Patrick's Day Parade. In June, on the second Tuesday evening, Museum Mile closes to traffic for a festival, and the nine museums open free.