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42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district (and, at times, the red-light district) near that intersection. The street has held a special place in New Yorkers' imaginations since at least the turn of the 20th century, and is the site of some of New York's best known buildings, including (east to west) the United Nations, Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
The corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, at the southeast corner of Times Square, was the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States, which was conceived and mapped in 1913.
For much of the mid and late 20th century, the area of 42nd Street near Times Square was home to activities often considered unsavory,[1] including peep shows. A comedian once said, "They call it 42nd Street because you're not safe if you spend more than forty seconds on it."
Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley's 1933 film musical 42nd Street displays the bawdy and colorful mixture of Broadway denizens and lowlifes in Manhattan during the Depression. In 1980, it was turned into a successful Broadway musical, which was revived in 2001. In the words of the Al Dubin and Harry Warren title song, on 42nd Street you can find:
From the late 1950s until the late 1980s, 42nd Street, nicknamed "The Deuce", was the cultural center of American grindhouse theaters, which spawned an entire subculture. The book Sleazoid Express, a travelogue of the 42nd Street grindhouses and the films they showed, describes in detail the unique blend of people who made up the theater-goers,
depressives hiding from jobs, sexual obsessives, inner-city people seeking cheap diversions, teenagers skipping school, adventurous couples on dates, couples-chasers peeking on them, people getting high, homeless people sleeping, pickpockets...[2]
while the street outside the theatres was populated with
phony drug salesman ... low-level drug dealers, chain snatchers ... [j]unkies alone in their heroin/cocaine dreamworld ... predatory chickenhawks spying on underage trade looking for pickups ... male prostitutes of all ages ... [t]ranssexuals, hustlers, and closety gays with a fetishistic homo- or heterosexual itch to scratch ... It was common to see porn stars whose films were playing at the adult houses promenade down the block. ... Were you a freak? Not when you stepped onto the Deuce. Being a freak there would get you money, attention, entertainment, a starring part in a movie. Or maybe a robbery and a beating.[2]
In the early 1990s, city government encouraged a clean-up of the Times Square area. In 1990, the city government took over six of the historic theatres on the block of 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. In 1993, the Walt Disney Corporation bought the New Amsterdam Theatre, which it renovated a few years later. Since the mid-1990s, the block has again become home to legitimate theatres and mainstream movie theatres, along with shops, restaurants and attractions that draw millions to the city every year. This area is now co-signed as "New 42nd St" to signify this change.
(from East to West):
Every subway line that crosses 42nd Street has a stop on 42nd Street:
The IRT 42nd Street Shuttle runs under 42nd Street between Broadway/Seventh Avenue (Times Square) and Park Avenue (Grand Central); the IRT Flushing Line begins at 41st Street/Seventh Avenue, runs between 41st and 42nd from Sixth Avenue to Park Avenue, curves onto 42nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, and continues under the East River to Queens. Each line stops at Times Square and Grand Central; the Flushing Line also stops at Fifth Avenue.
Additionally, MTA New York City Transit's M42 bus runs the length of 42nd Street between the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises ferry terminal on the Hudson River and the headquarters of the United Nations on the East River. The 42nd Street Crosstown Line streetcar used 42nd Street.
Notes
Further reading
New York City, Manhattan, Broadway (Manhattan), Midtown Manhattan, Upper Manhattan
The Bronx, Times Square, Columbus Circle, Broadway theatre, Fifth Avenue
Broadway (Manhattan), Times Square, New York City, Manhattan, The New York Times
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New York City, Empire State Building, Midtown Manhattan, Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn
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National Register of Historic Places, New York City, New York, Art Deco, Marvel Comics