116th Street (Manhattan)

Coordinates: 40°48′05″N 73°56′53″W / 40.8013366°N 73.948073°W / 40.8013366; -73.948073
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

40°48′05″N 73°56′53″W / 40.8013366°N 73.948073°W / 40.8013366; -73.948073

For other uses, see 116th Street.
116th Street
Manhattan
West endRiverside Drive
Major
junctions		Broadway at Columbia University
East endFDR Drive

116th Street runs from

Morningside Park
.

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).[1]

Description

West Side

College Walk, formerly part of 116th Street

The western entrance to 116th Street at Riverside Drive is flanked by a pair of white apartment buildings with curved facades,

The Colosseum and The Paterno
.

The New York Times has said that the "opposing curves, (form) a gateway as impressive as any publicly built arch or plaza in New York.[2] The unusual curves of the road are the result of an 1897 plan to make the land between Claremont Avenue and Riverside Drive into a public park in order to give veterans parades with a large park adjacent to Grant's Tomb as a terminus. The street was redesigned so that a vehicle or a parade coming up Riverside Drive would swing onto 116th Street in a gracious curve, then immediately swing north onto Claremont Avenue following a second curve. The city never appropriated funds to buy the land, but the curves remain.[2] The top of The Paterno is capped with an architectural fancy masking a water tower in a shape that conjures up a section of Mansard roof, complete with dormer window. It is visible from the gates of Columbia University at Broadway and 116th Street.

The intersection of 116th Street and

Morningside Park. In 1953, during Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency at Columbia, however, the block between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue was permanently closed to vehicular traffic and was turned into a pedestrian way called "College Walk." The street had been ceded to Columbia in exchange for a payment of $1,000.[3]
The street is again interrupted where it meets Morningside Drive, this time by the steep downward slope of Morningside Park.

East Side

116th Street in East Harlem, 2007

The main, east-west thoroughfare portion of 116th Street begins at the eastern edge of Morningside Park and runs east through central Harlem. A large

Le Petit Senegal.[4]

At Lenox Ave., the street runs past the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, formerly the

Mosque No. 7. The building was erected as the Lenox Casino.[5]

East of

FDR Drive, the site of the East River Plaza, a retail mall complex with large commercial tenants Costco, Aldi and Target.[6][7]

Transportation

Subway stations on 116th Street are, from west to east:

The future

116th Street will serve the N, ​Q, and ​R trains at Second Avenue
when constructed.

The

New York City Bus
route also stops on the street.

In popular culture

116th Street in Harlem is the background for the book The Street (1946) by Ann Petry. The story is about Lutie Johnson, a single young black mother, who moves to 116th Street to give her son better opportunities.

116th Street and Broadway is the opening scene of The Caine Mutiny (1951) by Herman Wouk as Willie Keith is being dropped off by his mother to join the Navy in World War II.

Gallery

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 116th Street (Manhattan).
  1. ^ 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."
  2. ^ a b Gray, Christopher (August 15, 1999). "Streetscapes/The Colosseum and the Paterno, 116th Street and Riverside Drive; At Curves in the Road, 2 Unusually Shaped Buildings". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "COLUMBIA PUTTING NEW WALK IN SHAPE; Transformation of 116th Street Block Into a Campus Artery Moving Toward Completion". The New York Times. November 17, 1953. Retrieved August 21, 2008.
  4. ^ Attah, Ayesha. "Mourides Celebrate 19 Years in North America". The AfRican. Archived from the original on March 22, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2007. 116th Street in Harlem, New York is aptly named Le Petit Senegal. It abounds in aromas of stewing mafe and yassa wafting out of restaurants, sidewalks turned into mosques and businesses stocked with merchandise right out of Dakar
  5. ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5
    .
  6. ^ "East River Plaza". PlanNYC. Archived from the original on June 25, 2009. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
  7. ^ Pristin, Terry (June 11, 2008). "Squeezing Big-Box Retailing Into Small City Spaces". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
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