Where It All Begins

Many of NYC’s longest or most important roads begin as trickles, and then develop into mighty multi-lane thoroughfares. One of the starkest examples is Conner St. way up in the Eastchester area in the Bronx, which is a one-lane pathway on one side of Boston Rd. and a six-lane boulevard on the other. After nearly 60 years of staring at maps, I’m still fascinated on how lengthy roads change character from area to area. Here are just a few of them today.

Named for a neighborhood and a former bridge over the Bronx River, Williamsbridge Road begins at Adee Ave. just east of White Plains Rd. and meanders around on a curved path before settling on a generally southeast direction at Matthews Ave. It gains some width at Boston Rd. and then roars down to Westchester Square at the #6 train. This is the northern end of the road, as in the Bronx, house numbering generally goes from south to north; east to west house numbering is delineated by Jerome Ave. The road is named for John Williams’ colonial-era farm and the bridge on his property that crossed the Bronx River. The bridge is still spelled “Williams’ Bridge” on some signage.

There’s an East and West Tremont Ave. in the Bronx, divided by Jerome Ave., and I have walked East Tremont from the Grand Concourse to Westchester Square. But when I get the chance, I’ll want to walk West Tremont, the most fascinating section because it has to traverse some high hills and even runs north at one point to do so.

The west end of West Tremont Ave. gets you into Roberto Clemente State Park at the Harlem River. Named for the Pittsburgh Pirates star, Roberto Clemente State Park, at West Tremont Avenue and Matthewson Road, is the only major recreation area in densely-populated northern Morris Heights. It occupies 25 acres along the Harlem River and features an outdoor aquatics center, ballfields and picnic areas. Washington and High Bridges can be seen in spectacular fashion from the riverside park. Enter via West Tremont Ave. past the Morris Heights Metro North station.

Like many of NYC’s long roads, East Tremont Ave. was put together in pieces, taking over the northeast end of West Farms Rd. between the Bronx River and Westchester Square and, south of that, Fort Schuyler Rd. It was known as East Tremont Ave. for the entire distance by 1920.

The beginnings of Bruckner Blvd. in the south Bronx are two narrow lanes, one going east and the other west, at Third Avenue (it’s spelled out in the Bronx) under the Third Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River., on either side of a westbound ramp connecting the boulevard with the bridge. After a modest beginning here, the boulevard is on its own in Mott Haven, but becomes the east and westbound service road of the Bruckner Expressway, built for the most part from 1957 to 1961. The newer road, though, follows the path of Eastern Blvd, which was formulated from the 1900s to the 1920s by linking E. 133rd St., Whitlock Ave., Ludlow Ave. and Willow La. in Middletown; the section in Unionport didn’t appear until the 1920s.

Today, 6th Ave. (aka Ave. of the Americas) is the southernmost numbered avenue on the overall grid, but it’s held the title only since 1928, and it took the construction of the IND subway, supporting the A, C and E lines, to get it there. Prior to that, 6th Ave. ended at Carmine and Minetta La. in the heart of the Village. The coming of subway lines in Manhattan served to extend both 6th and 7th Aves. south: the IRT was built south along the course of 7th Ave. South in the mid 1910s, while Independent Rapid Transit, constructed by NYC, was run south along 6th Ave. into Soho in the mid to late 1920s. Instead of restoring houses and businesses that were demolished to make way for the trains, the city elected to make more direct routes from Midtown to southern Manhattan and build roads over what had been open subway cuts.

To extend 6th Ave. south, the city had to redo the house numbers of all of 6th Ave.’s buildings, as #1 6th Ave. was relocated to the intersection of Church and Franklin Sts. (When 7th Ave. was extended south a decade previously the new section was called 7th Ave. South). Additionally, a number of small streets in Greenwich Village were absorbed by the new 6th Avenue section.

The Roxy Hotel, famed for its jazz club, sits at the fork formed by 6th Ave. (left) and Church St. (right).

At the Fulton Ferry landing in DUMBO, the west end of Fulton St. hasn’t borne that name since the 1950s. Known as Fulton St. since the mid-1800s, it was slapped with the moniker “Cadman Plaza West” in the 1950s as Fulton St. ran along the plaza’s west end. Here, though, that name made no sense, because Cadman Plaza is located entirely to the south of Prospect Street. The Department of Transportation corrected the situation somewhat by renaming the DUMBO section of Cadman Plaza West as “Old Fulton Street” in the 1980s.

From here, Old Fulton/Cadman Plaza west/Fulton St. runs southeast and east, becoming a main commercial strip in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York all the way to Eldert La., where it becomes 91st Ave.

What’s the longest street that runs entirely in Brooklyn? There are two candidates: Flatbush Ave. and Bedford Ave. Some roads running east-west are pretty lengthy, but they extend all the way to Queens and beyond: Linden Blvd., Myrtle, Metropolitan, Atlantic, and Jamaica Aves., the latter which, under a variety of names, goes all the way to Orient Point at the tip of Long Island.

Bedford Ave., however, runs through more architectural styles, demographic groups, and neighborhoods than any other Brooklyn street. Beginning in Greenpoint at Manhattan Ave. (pictured), except for a bend following the East River in Williamsburg, it heads south in a relatively straight line through Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, Midwood, and Sheepshead Bay and other neighborhoods.

The name Bedford’s origins are in Brooklyn’s dim past; it could’ve been named for Britain’s Bedfordshire, or the village of Bedford (as Bedford Park in The Bronx was) or it may be an English version of the Dutch Bestevaar, “place where old men meet.” Bedford Ave. was called 4th St. in Williamsburg and Perry Ave. south of Fulton Street until the mid- to late-1800s, but by the 1890s its full length had been established.

In the above photo, One Bedford, the first address (the last one is in the 4000s) is the triangle building on the left, at Manhattan Ave., home to Frankel, an “appetizing” shop selling Jewish deli treats.

Metropolitan Ave., shown here at River St. and the East River, is one of the lengthiest routes between Brooklyn and Queens. It was first built in 1815, give or take a year, as a toll road and was known along much of its length (at its west end as N. 2nd initially) as the Williamsburg and Jamaica Turnpike until the mid-1800s, when it got its current name. It runs from the East River to Jamaica Ave. and along the way, marks the southern limit of Newtown Creek, and runs through Lutheran/All-Faiths and St. John’s Cemeteries, as well as Forest Park. It’s the spine of several communities—Williamsburg, Middle Village (so named because it was midway between Williamsburg and Jamaica), and Kew Gardens, and forms the boundary line between Ridgewood and Maspeth.

—Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013)